Guelph Soccer is Now Providing Additional Education for Coaches
The Guelph Soccer Club is pleased to announce the release of a new coaching module “Promoting Resilience through Sports and Recreation: A Guide for Coaches”. In partnership with the Community Resilience Coalition of Guelph & Wellington, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and the Province of Ontario, this free training module is available for anyone involved with youth sport.
This module is designed to equip coaches and other adults involved in sports and recreation with practical information and ideas on fostering resilience in children and youth. It covers brain function, its influence on behaviour, and the important role caring adults play in promoting positive childhood experiences. The content is tailored for adults and adolescents who support children and youth in sports and recreation activities.
Included in the module is a self-reflection guide to aid coaches in evaluating their approaches, with opportunities for reflection embedded throughout. Coaches are encouraged to collaborate with colleagues to review and share insights throughout the module.
The module consolidates information from multiple sources to provide evidence-based and practical information for coaches and other caring adults. Upon completion of the module, participants will receive a certificate of recognition.
Knowledge about brain development, positive childhood experiences, and resilience continues to grow. “Our goal is to continue to provide educational resources to our coaches. This module goes beyond the x’s and o’s of any sport as it covers the positive influence that sport can provide a child,” says David Frizzell, Executive Director of Guelph Soccer. He also states that “we urge our coaches and members to complete this training module so that we continue to create positive environments for our children and youth in soccer.”
Caroline Folkman, Manager of Toward Common Ground, oversaw the development of this module and highlights that "Connections with adults can help children develop resilience to face life's challenges. While all adults play a role, coaches can have a huge impact. Our hope is to inspire and empower coaches to promote healthy development and resilience with their teams - on and off the sports field."
Once again, we thank the Community Resilience Coalition of Guelph & Wellington for their effort in creating this valuable resource, to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for funding the development, as well as the Guelph Soccer volunteers that shared their input during the process. Finally, we appreciate the dedication of everyone committed to enhancing resilience and well-being through sports and recreation while focusing on promoting children and youth in our community.
The module is available here: https://communityresilience.ca/get-trained/.