Our Challenge
to You
Makadiff Sports is challenging creative
minds all across Alberta: Put your best
ideas forward for making community
sport so enjoyable and rewarding that
everyone does it—all life long. In the face
of escalating drop-out rates, especially
among youth, that’s an audacious
challenge.
It’s a challenge we put to you. What is
your dream for growing grassroots sport
in the community you serve? What is the
most upside-down, out-of-the-box idea
you can create for achieving that dream?
Put it in words and tell us. Enter our
Grassroutes Community Sport Innovation
Challenge, and you could be awarded as
much as $50,000 to kickstart your
journey toward that dream.
Makadiff Sports truly wants to make a
difference—to break the cycle of traditional
thinking and dream big about how
organizations rooted in community might lead
the way in reversing troubling sport
participation trends. Given widespread concern
about shrinking sport participation and
ballooning obesity, we believe this is a fertile
time to infuse innovation into community sport.
We’re seeking creative solutions to the gap
between what is and what could be. We want
to support new ideas, new sports, new ways
of doing things that inspire involvement and
enhance all the positives children, youth and
others can experience as they participate in
community sport: physical literacy, sense of
belonging, multi-faceted health, character
growth, teamwork, leadership opportunities, life-
long wellness, improved quality of life and more.
We are not alone. Creativity is one of five key
needs identified in Going the Distance: The
Alberta Sport Plan 2014-2024. The plan calls
for “Big Picture Thinking,” calling everyone
involved to “introduce bold ideas and create a
culture where organizations can think and do
things differently.”
Our focus is on grassroots/routes development
of sport at the local community level, with
special attention to those who fall behind and/
or are left out. We are much less interested in
funding elite athlete training and development,
as most available funding and resources are
dedicated to those ends.
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We want to ensure that every child’s early
exposure to sport is fun, fair and positive—a
springboard to lifelong, joy-filled participation.
We want to see youth engaged in co-planning,
so that community sport is not only for youth,
but by youth. We envision community sport
that strives for excellence—and this is not
about winning. We envision courageous leaders
and enthusiastic, well-equipped volunteers. We
envision coaches and parents who make fair
play the norm—and model it!
Also, with an ever aging population come
corresponding and rising healthcare costs.
Community sport can be an effective means
whereby seniors can improve their physical
health and fitness, sense of social conectedness
and functional independence. We seriously
need to explore how we can be more
effective in promoting and facilitating active
aging through community sport.
Is there a better way? A more inclusive way? A
more joined-up way? Have you seen an
innovation in another community that deserves
application where you live? Seize this
opportunity to break through old mindsets, offer
sport for all in ways your community has never
seen before—and reap amazing results.
“The Alberta sport system needs to ensure it
responds to societal changes and trends. It is
therefore necessary that all stakeholders begin
to introduce creative solutions.” Going the
Distance: The Alberta Sport Plan 2014-2024