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Caroline (on the left) with teammates Anne Morgan (Team Leader), Fred Muise (President of the Recreation and Parks Association of Nunavut standing in for Dawn Currie), Geoff Ray, and Brenda Herchmer.

Master of Arts in Community Development student, Caroline Sparks, is a member of the Tri-Territorial Recreation Training (TRT) project team that was recently awarded a share of the Arctic Inspiration Prize. Although not always recognized as an essential service, recreation has the power to foster happiness and quality of life and contribute to greater balance in northern communities. The TRT project received $600,000 for their plan to empower people and communities to enhance individual, community and environmental wellbeing by strengthening the capacity of recreation leaders in northern communities through the delivery of a sustainable, relevant training program. With a skilled and diverse group of nonprofit, government and private sector organizations from the field of recreation, the TRT project will focus on the development and delivery of a specialized community recreation leadership training program in rural and remote communities across Canada's three territories. The goals of the project are to help people grow and be healthy, build strong families and communities, work with those who are disadvantaged, protect the environment, enhance economic growth, and add to the quality of life in northern communities.

Over the past two years, Caroline has been tasked with developing the project, fostering collaboration across the three territories, and co-writing the proposal. For the next few years, she will coordinate the tri-territorial recreation training initiative’s design and implementation engaging recreation leaders in rural and remote communities across the North (Yukon, NWT, Nunavut).

Caroline writes "Thank you to the MACD program, the professors and the School of Public Administration. Coursework on theories of change, complex systems, planning, evaluation and public-voluntary sector relations strengthened my confidence and ability to consider perspectives from across the Arctic and shape those into a viable and responsive project. The learning experiences I gained through the MACD, along with the requirement for strict word counts, contributed to our team’s success and the recognition this award brings the North and the field of recreation."

Media Release
Social media links that may provide additional information:
https://www.facebook.com/arcticinspirationprize/
http://lin.ca/news/15m-arctic-inspiration-prize-split-among-3-finalists-including-tri-territorial-recreation
https://www.facebook.com/goRPAY/photos/a.326486064030022.87736.324031514275477/1206505326028087/?type=3&theater
https://twitter.com/RPAY1/status/692541320590659585