Valerie G. Barnes Connell Jordan
Northern Advocate
Luke Hepworth makes his home in the Northern Village of Air Ronge when he’s there, which isn’t often these days.
Hepworth is a Community Program Leader in Saskatchewan for Spirit North, a non-profit organization based in Canmore, Alta.
“I’m in love with this job. I absolutely love it. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” Hepworth said in an interview with the Northern Advocate.
His job involves making contact with schools, recreational centres to bring outdoor life experiences to children and youth, particularly Indigenous communities, across the north.
Hepworth is the first CPL in Saskatchewan. He began working for Spirit North in January 2023 and has worked across the north bringing outdoor programming into the communities.
“Co-creation is a huge part of our vision and it’s building a foundation of programming with communities,” he said.
Hepworth, who now has a co-worker, Kylie Ward, approach a community usually through the school or recreation director, and begin the process of looking into what would be helpful in their community.
They have worked in several northern Saskatchewan communities offering activities such as, skiing, canoeing, biking and shelter building.
But the main thing is to build relationships with the kids in the communities they meet. To do this, they work with families, elders, teachers, principals and recreation directors, to work out programming, which will suit the needs and wants of the kids and community.
There is no uniform plan used between communities, Hepworth said.
Primarily they work with school aged people, anywhere between Pre-Kindergarten and Grade 12.
While they have a ratio of 10 kids to 1 staff member, they are also flexible. After having worked for several months on his own, Hepworth said, “it’s helpful to have a partner now so we can bounce back and forth like keeping tabs on the students.”
Hepworth came with experience working with adults. He worked for “a couple of years as a Recreation Support Worker with NorthSask Special Needs in La Ronge.
“They’re adults so it’s a mental health program.”
In that job he took got experience planning for a group and then taking them out on hikes, which included building a campfire and roasting wieners, for example, he said.
With this program, he and Ward, work to develop the program, carry it would in the community, and then leave it for the community. They will return in to build on the programs and are exploring newer ideas.
For example, Hepworth is interested in Orienteering, but hasn’t any experience. He’s interested in learning new things as well.
Hepworth remains enthusiastic about his job and said he hopes to do something along the line so of working with children and youth for the rest of his life.
Spirit North was started by Olympic Medalist Beckie Scott
Beckie Scott was a competitive skier for many years and an Olympic Champion for Canada.
“When I retired, I was invited to become an ambassador for a learn-to-ski program that was starting in northern Alberta. It was actually modelled after the Ski Fit north Saskatchewan program … they wanted to do something similar here in Alberta,” Scott said in an interview with the Northern advocate.
As an Ambassador, Scott visited communities, skiing with kids and showing her medals, and giving a talk about her skiing career. That was in 2009, “a long time ago now.” Scott said.
“”It was really eye-opening for me. I had never been to an Indigenous community, First Nation reserve,” and she saw some disparity in the lives of children and wanted to to share some of her experiences.
“I was just, most I think, moved by the Truth and Reconciliation report, you know, and the Calls to Action … and I think, you know, the lived experience of myself having been an athlete and having got all these opportunities and experiences afforded to me through sport, I could really tell there was a gat there that could be addressed and decided to take that little organization that was.”
And she started to build Spirit North, which is independent, “so we named it, got a board of directors and started Spirit North,” in 2016/17.
They stared in a handful of communities in northern Alberta and have spread across the country.
