PEMBROKE: The County of Renfrew’s Healthy Kids Community Challenge, funded through a grant by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and co-ordinated by the County of Renfrew Child Care Services Division, recently hosted over 100 participants at a Natural Play Spaces Conference in Pembroke. Speaking at the conference were Dr. Mark Tremblay and Dr. Michael Cheng from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and Shawna Babcock from KidActive.
Warden Peter Emon, the Healthy Kids Community Champion, opened the conference by congratulating the County of Renfrew on their collaboration and dedication to the challenge to date. The purpose of the conference was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between active outdoor play and its benefit to children’s physical and mental health. In the afternoon a planning session took place to begin identifying the many strengths that already exist in Renfrew County with regards to outdoor active areas, and where growth opportunities may exist in the future.
Dr. Tremblay, the Director of Healthy Living and Obesity Research at CHEO, recommended that a back-to-basics lifestyle, with a focus on unstructured and risky outdoor play, is critical to increasing children’s physical activity levels. For more information on this concept visit www.participaction.com and read the 2015 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth titled The Biggest Risk is Keeping Kids Indoors.
Dr. Cheng, a psychiatrist at CHEO, said his research suggests that our society is out of balance due to changes in our interactions with technology and nature, which is negatively influencing our mental health.
To view the presentations from the conference and to stay up-to-date on Renfrew County’s Healthy Kids Community Challenge activities follow them on Facebook at Healthy Kids Renfrew County.
