The Toronto Community Foundation is collaborating on a multi-sector initiative to build city-wide partnerships to address the growing crisis of physical inactivity and resulting health issues, including obesity and diabetes. We're calling it Get Active Toronto - because that's what we want Toronto to do.

2010 Get Active Toronto Report on Physical Activity Highlights: Nearly 60% of Torontonians are not physically active and the percentage is steadily increasing. Four in ten youth aged 12-19 in the GTA are inactive. Toronto teens spend nearly 18 hours weekly watching TV or using a computer, about the same as teens in Ontario as a whole. Read the full Report ›› Visit the Get Active Toronto website for more ››

Inactivity: An Unacceptable Risk
In 2003, the late Dr. Sheela Basrur, Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, launched a Call to Action on Physical Activity, declaring it a priority public health issue for Toronto: "Our society's culture of inactivity poses an unacceptable risk to the immediate and long-term health of Toronto's population. I am calling for the formation of a Physical Activity Leadership Group which will have the capacity to influence policy and practices in the wide array of systems that affect physical activity participation, and that can draw public attention and support to the issue."

The inactivity of Toronto's population, along with the rising rate of obesity, has created a crisis that has sharply increased the rate of heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and the onset of some cancers.

Alarming Research
The 2008 Toronto's Vital Signs® Report highlighted that the crisis continues, and points to an innerconnection of sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, obesity, and type-2 diabetes:

• In 2007, 42% of Torontonians reported being moderately physically active, below the provincial and national averages of 49%, and well below Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary.
• Among Canadian adults, the likelihood of being obese increases in direct relation to their television viewing habits: 12.5% for those who watch five or fewer hours per week to 24.5% for those who watch 21 or more hours per week; and 24% of Toronto households watch 15 or more hours of television each week.
• Toronto has the highest urban rate of type-2 diabetes in Ontario (about 225,000 people, including 50,000 new cases in the four years between 2004 and 2007 alone).
• While genetic factors play a role in the likelihood of developing the disease, so does poverty, associated with poor nutrition and limited physical activity; and poor urban design, associated with poor walkability and cycling.
  

A Collaborative Partnership to Respond to the Issue
Get Active Toronto directly responds to Dr. Basrur's call to action. It brings together key community and corporate leaders to make progress against the issue. Get Active Toronto aims to convene a broad multi-sectoral group of organizations across the city, measure and track the trend of inactivity in Toronto and our combined impact on the issue, and lead coordinated action and communications to address the issue.

As the trustee for the initiative, Toronto Community Foundation is working with the member partners on Get Active Toronto:

• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• Environics Analytics
• Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario
• Justin Poy Agency
• Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment
• Toronto Catholic District School Board
• Toronto District School Board
• Toronto Parks, Forestry, and Recreation
• Toronto Public Health
• Toronto Sports Council
• YMCA of Greater Toronto (lead administrative partner)

Get Active Toronto: In Action
This landmark initiative is designed to build partnership opportunities among the partners as well as physical activity organizations in Toronto to help get Torontonians active. Get Active Toronto is addressing the issue through the development of an annual Access to Activity Report Card to measure and reflect contributions to physical activity, the creation of working groups to coordinate activities, the development of an annual summit, and to create an awareness-building communications campaign.

More Information
Learn more about Get Active Toronto (external link) ››