July 22, 2022
Ontario Cycling is excited to announce the launch of its grassroots program in partnership with the GLE Movement.
The GLE Movement, which stands for Grow, Lead, Excel; is a community-driven organization that strives to support & engage underserved youth, teens & young adults in the Malton Region. This advocacy outreach group provides opportunities to its collective through inner-city programming, leadership-building experiences & distributing resources, such as second-hand used bicycles.
Founder of the GLE Movement & 2020 Phil Green Award Recipient Janice Lowe, has been an educator in the Malton community for 14 years. With provincial mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic Janice and GLE Movement have provided 491 bikes to youth, teens, and young adults & plan to hit 500 by September 2022.
We are happy that GLE was able to provide bikes to our community during the pandemic to support mental health, fitness and transportation and still respect social distancing. As we continue to develop our bike program, we have helped introduce a bike culture to Malton and get more youth and teens on bikes who are excited about cycling. Our future plans are to work collaboratively with organizations who care about the sustainability of cycling in our community. There are no bike shops, repair centres or courses being taught to establish basic cycling knowledge and skills. We would like to be a part of the movement to introduce these resources to Malton,” said Janice Lowe.
With the return to sports for youth and teens in the province, Ontario Cycling is excited to announce the launch of its inaugural grassroots cycling program, HopOn in partnership with the GLE Movement. HopOn is designed to introduce youth cyclists to new on-bike skills through a series of safe, well-designed game-based activities over the span of 4–6 1-hour sessions. This program adapts to the rider skill level throughout the duration of the program to maximize participant engagement, learning and fun.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with the GLE Movement through our HopOn Program”, said Pam Julian, President & CEO of Ontario Cycling, “We have an incredible amount of respect and admiration for the work that GLE has accomplished, and we look forward to partnering with them to build and grow the movement”. On July 15th, the HopOn program has launched to members of the GLE Movement community.
If you have any questions on the GLE Movement or introducing the HopOn program to your community club, youth outreach group or grassroots cycling program, please contact: Ontario Cycling’s Community & Grassroots Developer, Alex Roger.
Author: Alex Roger