PISE – The collective aims to enrich lives and energize communities via sport

 

Victoria, BC –  Eleven multisport partners have joined forces to create the viaSport Alliance, committed to working together and highlighting the importance of sport as a tool for energizing communities and enhancing quality of life for British Columbians.

 

Individually, each partner is recognized as a leader for athlete, coach, and community sport services in their region, but collectively, the group forms a powerful network of resources and expertise that will shape a streamlined sport delivery system across the province. 

“One of our primary goals is to make sport accessible to every person in our province through community involvement,” says Peter Fassbender, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. “This new alliance of regional partners will encourage even more collaboration between many of the dedicated sport organizations across B.C., as we strive to be Canada’s leader in sport excellence.”

The viaSport Alliance will maintain and share a network of sport-related services, programming, and resources that is provincial in scope, but locally relevant. Working with local community leaders and stakeholders, the collective’s goals include: improved access to sport facilities and training centres, enhanced support for high performance athletes and coaches, more focussed attention on physical literacy, and streamlined education toward fundamental movement skills in children. Their purpose statement: Enriching lives and energizing communities via sport.

“Sport is a powerful, unifying force”, says viaSport CEO Sheila Bouman. “We believe that sport and physical activity are not only critical building blocks for communities, but are fundamentally essential to the overall health & wellness of the Province. This Alliance allows us to impact the entire province while directly benefitting local communities through targeted, localized programming.”

In Greater Victoria, PISE continues to be a leader in delivering physical literacy enriched programming for over 5000 children each year, and is also providing education and mentorship opportunities to help grow physical literacy programming in the community.  Additionally, PISE delivers community programs and services, introduces high performance training to developing athletes, and is proud to be a fully accessible facility. PISE also provides adapted programming for community members and para athletes of all ages and abilities, from healthy living to high performance sport.

“PISE’s role in community health, performance and education fits perfectly with the Alliance goals of reaching every British Columbian,” says Robert Bettauer, CEO of PISE. “We believe this growing collaboration between health, education, recreation and sport, and the levering of our collective resources will provide a fundamental difference to the quality of life in our communities.”

The viaSport Alliance consists of:

• PacificSport Northern BC: www.pacificsportnorthernbc.com
• PacificSport Interior BC: www.pacificsportinteriorbc.com
• PacificSport Okanagan:  www.pacificsportokanagan.com
• PacificSport Columbia Basin: COMING SOON
• PacificSport Vancouver Island: www.pacificsportvi.com
• PacificSport Fraser Valley: www.pacificsportfraservalley.com
• Fortius Sport and Health, Burnaby: www.fortiussport.com
• Whistler Sport Legacies: www.whistlersportlegacies.com
• Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence (PISE): www.piseworld.com
• Canadian Sport Institute Pacific: www.csipacific.ca/
• viaSport: www.viasport.ca

 

For more information about the Alliance, please visit: www.viasport.ca/regionalalliance

 

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About viaSport British Columbia:

viaSport British Columbia is a not-for-profit organization established in 2011, responsible for providing strategic leadership to sport in BC. Formed in partnership with the provincial sport sector and the Province of BC, our mandate is to increase awareness, opportunity and participation in sport at every stage of life and in every community in British Columbia. Learn more at www.viasport.ca

 

About PISE

PISE is a world class sport institute and an independent not-for-profit organization located on the Camosun College campus on Interurban Road. As a legacy of the 1994 Commonwealth Games, PISE provides excellence in community sport and active healthy living development, sport and exercise education, sport technology research, and world-class athlete performance services. PISE, in collaboration with its partners the Canadian Sport Institute and Camosun College, serves the community, students, Canadian international high performance athletes and coaches from across the region, province and country within a state-of-the-art facility and throughout the CRD region.  www.piseworld.com     

MEDIA CONTACTS:      

PISE Robert Bettauer CEO rbettauer@piseworld.com 250.220.2512

viaSport Kelly Aldinger Manager, Community Engagement, viaSport kellya@viasport.ca 778.655.1759