Helping girls and women get physical

Congratulations to Jennifer Fenton (BA’ 87 in Leisure Studies Administration, EPHE) on winning the ProMOTION Plus In Her Footsteps 2018 award in recognition for her extraordinary contribution to providing opportunities for girls and women in physical activity and sport in BC.

Jennifer grew up in a family who valued being active at the grass-roots level and was inspired by a female recreation director after creating recreation programs to increase girls’ participation in a small town of Northern BC.

Since graduating from UVic, Fenton has been a consultant with JW Sporta in the physical activity and health education field for thirty years, specializing in the development and delivery of highly successful BC-based healthy school initiatives. Her role was instrumental in developing and delivering the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS)’s On the Move program. A national program designed to help inactive girls and young women to participate and lead in sport and physical activity. Proudly, the model has expanded to include newcomers and racialized girls and young women.

For years, she chaired both ProMOTION PLUS and CAAWS. Fenton also completed her MA which led to publishing research on girls’ experiences in physical education from a low income urban multicultural school as well as innumerable other manuals, articles and resources.

Her school health promotion work supports teachers to build their abilities to teach and support children in learning to be active and healthy. She is an example of how we can each help to build healthy people and communities.