On Sept. 16, 17, and 18th Ehrlo Sport Venture manager Amanda McConnell and employees Ojay Stein and Filipe Dos-Santos made the over 800 km trek to the remote Northern community of La Loche. They were there to facilitate leadership and sport training to the community’s youth.
A community outreach worker identified youth aged 16 – 20 whom she believed would benefit from the training, and the Sport Venture crew worked with her to create the program.Youth who completed the training now have the opportunity to complete 60 hours of sports-related volunteer work within the community to receive a high school credit.
“We didn’t want to go to La Loche for three days and then leave and have nothing change,” Amanda explained. “What was really great about it, is that we were able to help get the ball 
rolling by facilitating that training and now the community is able to take over and do what works for them.”
Twelve youth completed the three day training, which started on Friday and ran throughout the weekend. The mornings were dedicated to receiving High 5 training and certification for young leaders. The afternoon was sport-specific training.
Youth had the opportunity to learn some of the “behind the scenes” of coaching – while most of them had played sports before, many were unsure of the why behind some of a coach’s decisions. They created practice plans and before the end of the weekend had the opportunity to become the coach and run their peers through a practice entirely designed by them.
“None of those youth had ever been in that role, where they were in charge and they were given the confidence to lead their peers,” Amanda said. “It was amazing – they just excelled.”
“Our community outreach worker said they haven’t had anyone come to the community to provide training for their youth before, so she was beyond appreciative that we had made the trip,” Amanda added. “Oftentimes they have to travel to other communities for opportunities like this, which isn’t always an option for youth or their families.”
“The community was very welcoming.”
Amanda hopes Sport Venture will be able to offer sport and leadership training to other communities – particularly those that have a heavy concentration of youth that end up at Ranch Ehrlo receiving services.
“Young people are the heart and the future of these communities, so if we can help that way – we will.”
