REGINA - Growing Young Movers (GYM) is empowering the next generation to become successful in life.
Brian Lewis, executive director of GYM, said the idea for the non-profit group started back in 2012.
"It started with myself and two of my buddies back in the day, Sean Lessard, who's a professor at the University of Alberta now, and Lee Schaefer, who's a professor at the University of Saskatchewan. I was doing some graduate work through education, wanting to do my PhD at the time, and I wanted to connect with young people, primarily from this North-Central community."
Lewis himself had a background in physical education, so he thought starting a small after-school program would be a good way to meet young people and be around them.
So, Lewis, Schaefer, and Lessard started the after-school program at the Kitchener Community School in Regina.
Lewis gave credit to Lessard, who decided to hire kids from the school on day one. By hiring young mentors, Lewis said the goal is "to help them be more employable when they leave high school by getting them certifications, getting them years of work experience, getting them SIN numbers, getting them bank accounts, helping them with all these things that will help them when they transition beyond high school."
As for the children participating in the programs, the aim was to help those in the city with far fewer opportunities for sports recreation to join a program without any barriers to it, said Lewis.
GYM operated out of the Kitchener Community School for years, continuing to grow and employ more youth.
Their efforts were noticed by Beverly Cardinal, who works for the City of Regina. Lewis and Cardinal sat down to chat. She asked Lewis if they could bring GYM to the mâmawêyatitân centre.
The mâmawêyatitân centre opened in 2017 with the purpose of providing different types of resources for young people in the North Central neighbourhood.
So, GYM moved into the centre for one day a week while continuing to offer the after-school program at Kitchener.
Eventually, the non-profit group transitioned into being the after-school provider for the centre on weekdays from Monday to Friday.
Since the program continues to grow, GYM now employs over 70 kids in various different roles. Additionally, several teachers from Scott Collegiate also help run the after-school program.
By working with teachers, Lewis said the young mentors are being empowered from the relationship based on their feedback. He added, "they feel like they're [on] more of a level playing field. You're spending a lot more time together. You're sometimes working together to deal with a difficult situation, or someone's not having a great day, and you're working alongside. It's not [as if] we're teaching them everything about being a leader. We're alongside them, and we're teaching each other."
Both the students and teachers help run several after-school programs for kids at select institutions ranging from the ages of 6-14, which include "having [a] recreation-based, wellness-based [program] in a gymnasium," said Lewis. Children and mentors will participate in cooperative games together and enjoy snacks with each other
GYM also offers a construction club and a cooking club. Along with those clubs, GYM is working on starting their new ribbon shirt and skirt-making club. The idea for the club is creating garments for folks in the community, said Lewis.
"We want to have somewhat of a lending kit here so if someone wanted to go to a cultural event and say they didn't have a ribbon skirt, they could come and almost take it out like a library book," said Lewis.
Lewis was asked about the impact GYM has had on the community, especially for young youth who deal with their own hardships.
He referenced a time when the organization went to the U of R so they could have a retreat day and connect with students who have worked with GYM or are currently employed by the non-profit group.
Lewis remembers hearing young people sharing their stories, where they said, "I don't know where I'd be if I didn't have GYM." Hearing those words, Lewis felt that was "pretty powerful stuff."
Even though GYM has accomplished so much, Lewis admitted, "There's always more work to do. We're not perfect by any stretch, but we're trying our darndest to just continue [our work and] to give more opportunities to young people so they can see maybe a different path or they have a team surrounding them to fall back on when they are in those low parts of their life."
Part of being able to give more opportunities is having the money to expand programming. Lewis admitted the biggest difference between when GYM first started and now is "it's just so much more [work] to continue to find the dollars to keep the success going. You could write books about how hard it is to run nonprofits."
While GYM could reduce their programs to cut their budget or staff, Lewis said they are committed to never going backwards. Instead, he would rather see GYM continue to grow.
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