It is official!
The ParticipAction Community Challenge has come to an end, and Hay River has been named as Canada’s Most Active Community, and has been awarded $100,000.
The Community Challenge was a nationwide initiative encouraging Canadian towns and citizens to become more active over the summer. Hay River had been going back and forth with their standings in the Challenge, closely racing other Canadian communities for the top few spots.
ParticipAction has listed a few strategies that Hay River employed that helped them claim the top spot.
The first is wide participation, as the town worked well on engaging as many of their residents as possible. The events that they put together were developed among 41 different organizations, intended for all age groups and abilities. Hay River ended up putting together 197 different activities.
Their second major strategy was accessible and inclusive programming. Many of their activities were specifically tailored for young children, seniors and female-only groups. Community centres made physical activity accessible (and inclusive) for low-income populations, and recreation for 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, and provided culturally relevant activities for Indigenous populations.
Finally, Hay River made sure to make as many of their activities completely free as they could. 81 of all of their events were offered completely free of charge, making them much more accessible to the general public.
As many as 1,200 communities across the country took part in the Community Challenge throughout June. Courtney Fraser, the Recreation Programming Supervisor for Hay River, had previously said that the Mayor and Town Council will be holding discussions on how to use the $100,000, and may include the general public in the decision.
