Culturally based healthy living program

IYMP is a culturally based healthy living program for Indigenous youth and young people in diverse communities. In the program, university and community mentors work with high school mentors to plan and deliver a weekly afterschool physical activity, nutrition, and education program for early years students during the school year (October to April) and in the summer, high school mentors are hired to deliver cultural programming to youth-in-care. This collaborative and multi-age approach to program planning and delivery ensures that IYMP taps into and nurtures youth leadership and physical literacy skills from diverse populations. In addition, IYMP helps develop culturally responsive recreation leaders that can plan and facilitate relevant and meaningful programs for all youth.

Since 2006, over 3,476 high school and elementary students and 307 university students, and community mentors have participated in the program. Informed by Indigenous worldviews and practices, the purpose of IYMP is to create safe, relevant, and meaningful physical activity spaces for Indigenous youth and young people living in diverse communities to rediscover the joy of play and share this experience by becoming recreation leaders in their community.

In collaboration with the Office of the Vice-President Indigenous, IYMP received increased funding from the Mastercard Foundation, EleV partnership, for 2023-2024. IYMP merged the urban and northern programs in 2023 and applied for enhanced funding with Manitoba Health to sustain and expand programming across Manitoba.

https://indigenoussporthistory.ca/rec-and-read

https://news.umanitoba.ca/a-place-of-belonging-friendship-and-learning/

https://everactive.org/projects/resilient-schools/iymp/

For more information, contact Ashley Edson at Ashley.Edson@umanitoba.ca.