Nearly 40 children participated in the B United Sports Clinic at Waterworks Park on Friday, June 6, 2025.
At the event, children ages six to 14 had the chance to learn the basics of soccer, cricket and lacrosse under the guidance of various athletes and coaches, including players from the Six Nations Arrows Jr. A lacrosse team, Cricket Canada and the Brantford Galaxy Youth Soccer Club.
“The turnout today has been great, and it’s so wonderful to have a diverse group of kids from all different equity groups within the city out here having fun, running around and just playing together,” said Nicole McKinney, event organizer and Founder of WAKING THE unCONSCIOUS (WtC). “All of the coaches here have been amazing, and to have professionals come out and lend their time to all these children is just so awesome. I think it’s also really important that these children get to see people that look different than them in positions of leadership; that’s something that most kids don’t get to see very often and so that’s really nice.”
The sports clinic was part of a larger initiative called, “B United: Advancing Inclusion and Empowerment in Brantford.” Last year, the City of Brantford teamed up with WtC to connect with community organizations that engage with youth anywhere from the ages of zero to 14.
WtC, a Toronto-based equity and social impact consulting firm, collaborates with its clients to help customize solutions that respond to each organization’s unique needs.
By using data-driven insights and extensive community engagement, the firm works to create effective and inclusive solutions to address various challenges and to drive meaningful social impact.
The B United initiative in particular, was ultimately designed to train and support Brantford’s child and youth serving organizations in addressing systemic racism more effectively, and was done so by teaming up with equity-deserving communities within the city to create an advisory committee and gain input on what they wanted to see.
With the support of the Healthy Kids All Kids initiative, WtC worked with the Corporation of the City of Brantford to do two things; one being to offer free, introductory Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training to those child serving organizations, and two, to create seven non-traditional activity-based events for children.
Activities started back in October of 2024, kicking off with a free robotics event at the Brantford Public Library, followed by a Brantford Newcomers event; a Healthy Kids, Happy Families event; a B United Learn About Yourselves Kahoot event; a B United Ball Hockey event and the B United Sports Clinic. The seventh and final event will be held later this year in September.
Following the early morning sports clinic, Brantford resident Ginella Francis, said she was happy that she was able to bring her two young boys out to the event.
“I’m really, really happy that we ended up coming out,” she said. “I thought it was just amazing for them to be able to explore the different games, especially because, although I come from India and Cricket is our main game there, they’ve never really gotten to watch it or play it, so I think it was great for them to experience it and have a chance to understand the game. I also really liked that it helped with their socialization and with making new friends too.”
Francis said that while her one son already has an affinity for soccer, she was happy to hear that he enjoyed learning more about all three sports.
“I asked him, ‘which was your favorite thing? Did you like the soccer?’ and he said, ‘yes Mama, but I liked cricket and lacrosse as well. I think I can play all three sports,’” she said.
Francis also added that she was thankful for everyone who put on the event, and that she was hoping to see more events just like it in the future.
“I just want to thank the organizers for putting this on, the volunteers and the coaches were so sweet and patient; the soccer coach in particular was really incredible too,” she said. “I also really appreciated that this was free to attend… I have five kids and so it can be quite expensive to take them out and give them these kinds of opportunities. I would love to see this kind of event happen again, it might be fun to expose the kids to different sports too, things like badminton or even baseball.”
McKinney also expressed similar sentiments.
“We’re just so grateful to Chris Kartick and Kara Hughes, they helped us put this all together and met with us every week and so they were just amazing to work with. The same goes for all our athletes here today, they were so wonderful with all the kids and even the parents too,” she said. “I think the City needs to be doing this regularly and I hope they can continue putting on events like these even when we’re no longer involved.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
