Our Mandate

The mandate of Indigenous Sport & Wellness Ontario (ISWO) is to enhance the overall health and quality of life for Indigenous Peoples in Ontario through promoting increased participation in sport and recreation activities.

ISWO was tasked by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport in 2014 to lead the development and implementation of a new initiative, the Sport Pathway for Ontario Native Wellness (‘Sport Pathway’), intended to accomplish the following:

  • Create opportunities for Indigenous athletes to train and compete within the Indigenous community to build skill and competition preparedness;
  • Build upon the existing mainstream sport and recreation system by increasing its capacity to involve and develop Indigenous participants, athletes and coaches to achieve their full potential, and;
  • Reduce barriers for Indigenous Peoples to participate in organized sport.

With seed money from the ministry over the last 4 years, ISWO designed and developed a Sport Pathway for Indigenous Peoples, which includes a full continuum of sport and recreation programming for all age groups, providing playground to podium opportunities.

The consolidated effort of ASWCO in partnership with Indigenous communities over the last three years has led to the Sport Pathway reaching a level of development surpassing all expectations.

2017-2020 Goals

  1. Provide sport, recreation and physical activities that enhance the physical, mental, spiritual, cultural and social well-being of Indigenous Peoples in Ontario.
  2. Build programs and services based on the CS4L principles to support lifelong participation.
  3. Develop partnerships with key sport and Aboriginal organizations to implement the Sport Pathway initiative.
  4. Develop and implement a Youth Leadership program to increase capacity of the Sport Pathway delivery agents.
  5. Support a regional structure that facilitates the delivery of province-wide programming thereby increasing participation rates within Aboriginal communities.
  6. Develop provincial initiatives to address athlete development, talent identification, coaching and integrated competitive opportunities across multiple sports.
  7. Build ISWO’s capacity through policy, procedures and governance development.
  8. Incorporate cultural protocols and practices into the development and delivery of the Sport Pathway initiative.
  9. Design and develop a Health and Wellness Strategy to support community wellness programming.
  10. Engage partners to implement the Far North Strategy.
  11. Design and develop an urban strategy to address the unique needs and interests of Indigenous Peoples living in urban centres.
  12. Implement the 2017 North American Indigenous Games legacy initiatives.