What You Can Do: Communities

• Become a True Sport Community by having your municipal Council consider a resolution to join the True Sport Movement.
• Add your community to the growing list of communities, groups and individuals across Canada who believe in the power of good sport by completing the online form at www.truesport.ca/join.
• Share your commitment to True Sport and the True Sport Principles with local sport and community groups, as well as residents.
  • Add a True Sport logo and link on your community's website.
  • Promote True Sport and encourage others to join True Sport by including information in your newsletters, leisure guides and other community publications.
  • Put up a True Sport Community road sign at community entrance and exit points.
  • Hang True Sport Principles for Communities banners in municipal buildings.
  • Use social networking to spread the word about how you are living True Sport and about True Sport events and activities.
• Invite sport groups, community groups and residents to take part in a True Sport information session. Have them invite community members, teams and associations to join True Sport.
• Establish policies and procedures that promote positive values, enforce ethical conduct and empower people to deal with inappropriate behaviour such as.
  • Abuse & Harassment Policy
  • Behaviour Management Policy
  • Universal Code of Conduct
  • Volunteer Screening Policy
  • Access to Sport Policy
• Adopt the True Sport Principles as the standard for conduct in all municipal facilities.
  • Hang True Sport Principles banners in visible, public places.
  • Place a True Sport decal on facility entrances/exit points.
  • Add a rink board and or stencil the True Sport logo on the ice.
  • Paint the True Sport Principles and logo on dressing room or gymnasium walls, in play areas, or hang True Sport banners.
• Ensure your volunteers understand their role in helping True Sport live in your community. Adapt the True Sport Volunteer Engagement Kit to your community’s needs.
• Incorporate True Sport into your facility rental process – give priority to groups and programs that are deliberate in their efforts to practice True Sport.
• Discuss the True Sport Principles for Communities and evaluate how you are already practicing True Sport. Celebrate and highlight what you are already doing well and discuss how you can contribute to other principles in a more meaningful way.
• Develop a Community Action Plan to outline the steps you will take to embed True Sport in your community.
• Recognize and profile members of the sport and recreation community whose actions embody the True Sport Principles. Support acts that champion positive behaviour.
• Encourage local sport groups to host a joint sport equipment swap night or encourage members of the community to donate gently used sporting equipment for distribution to kids who otherwise might not be able to pay for it. Provide a facility to host the event and offer support by advertising where gently used sport equipment is available in your community through your web site, newsletters or other outlets.
• Celebrate sport in your community by designating one week per year as your community’s official “sports week”. Encourage community and sport groups to collaborate in hosting sport themed events and activities.
• Hold Spring and Fall community sport and recreation information registration nights. Share the True Sport Principles with participating sport groups and registrants.
• Invite various local sport associations to participate and donate their coaches’ time to a free try-it day creating opportunities for children and youth to try many different sport activities for free and parents to learn how to get their kids involved in community sport.
• Host a True Sport Camp (summer, Spring break, Christmas, etc.) that introduces participants to different sports, activities, leadership opportunities and the True Sport Principles.
• Partner with community groups to create opportunities for participation in sport and recreation for groups that may not otherwise have the opportunity or who may be able to benefit from sport programs that promote values and principles. (e.g., multi-cultural, youth groups, etc. that strive to keep kids in school, reduce at-risk youth behaviours, promote positive self-esteem, etc).
• Promote funding initiatives that will help offset registration fees or the purchase of sport equipment for those who otherwise may not be able to pay for it (e.g. JumpStart, KidSport, P.R.O. Kids, etc).
• Encourage local service clubs (e.g. Lions Club, Rotary Club, Kiwanis, etc.) to support sport and recreation programs and initiatives that champion good sport. For example, affix the True Sport logo to uniforms supplied to local teams.
• Support the creation of a sport council to mobilize sport in your community and explore opportunities to share resources and tackle issues that affect all sport groups. Ensure that the True Sport Principles are incorporated into the sport council’s governance.
• Support the hosting of local, regional, provincial/territorial, national and international sport events in your community.Provide a comprehensive grant program for hosting sport events and appropriate support for bids to host major sport events. Use the True Sport Principles as a filter when considering grant applications and bids. Recommend that events hosted in the community become True Sport Events that abide by the True Sport Principles.
• Approve funding to host a True Sport Club Excellence workshop with members of the community’s sport sector and stakeholders. The workshops will help identify both issues and assets common to participants while providing an open forum to discuss how to address issues and leverage assets.
• Establish shared metrics for good sport and use these to monitor progress and assess the impact of good sport in your community.
• Adopt cross-sectoral approaches by integrating sport into other policies and programs where it can help advance other objectives (e.g. health, newcomer settlement, youth development, crime prevention, etc.). For example:
  • Be deliberate in sharing your community sport and recreation activity guides with non-traditional groups and sectors. Doctors, for example, recommend sport and recreation as a means to address many issues for their patients so share them with local doctor’s offices.
  • Your commitment to good sport is a marketable community asset. Use this commitment as a “selling feature” when developing corporate partnerships, and sponsorships. Introduce relevant community stakeholders to True Sport and show them how it can help them achieve their goals.
• Dedicate infrastructure funding to sport and recreation that ensures the community is able to meet the needs of its residents.
• Pursue sport funding policies and programs that support excellence but also increase participation and inclusion. The result should be a diverse range of enjoyable and challenging sport opportunities that enable everyone to participate regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, income or ability.