GoodLife Kids Foundation enables and supports kids and youth with autism and intellectual disabilities through physical activity and fitness.
Our Vision
All kids and youth with autism and intellectual disabilities experience the joys and benefits of being active.
Our Why
By providing access to physical activity and fitness, the lives of kids and youth with autism and intellectual disabilities are positively impacted.
Opportunity
By reducing costs and providing programs that support individual needs.
Overall Health
Developing strength, coordination, flexibility and more!
Skill Building
Learning to work together, listening to others, and leadership opportunities.
Personal Growth
For more youth with autism and intellectual disabilities to build belonging and confidence.
Fun!
Being active + making new friends = FUN!
Opportunity
By reducing costs and providing programs that support individual needs.
Overall Health
Developing strength, coordination, flexibility and more!
Skill Building
Learning to work together, listening to others, and leadership opportunities.
Personal Growth
For more youth with autism and intellectual disabilities to build belonging and confidence.
Fun!
Being active + making new friends = FUN!
Our History
“I believe everyone should have the right to access fitness for their health. It’s just part of living a good life.” - David ‘Patch’ Patchell-Evans, Founder, GoodLife Kids Foundation
GoodLife Fitness founder and CEO David ‘Patch’ Patchell-Evans started GoodLife Kids Foundation because he recognized that kids and youth were less physically active and needed more opportunities for movement and exercise.
GoodLife Kids Foundation initially ran a variety of health promotion initiatives for kids and youth.
1998
GoodLife Kids Foundation set up a grant program to support physical activity opportunities for kids and youth.
From 2008 to 2020, more than 500 grants worth almost $4 million were given to community organizations across Canada that deliver programs for kids and youth to bike, skate, climb, run, hit baseballs, dance, shoot baskets and more. Over the years, nearly 260,000 kids and youth connected with physical activity programming because of the grants.
2008
Spin4Kids started as a spin-a-thon fundraising event in St. John’s, NL. The event soon grew into a national fundraiser held annually at GoodLife Fitness clubs across Canada.
Spin4Kids events evolved to include group fitness classes, silent auctions, lifting events, and other activities organized by GoodLife Fitness Associates to fundraise for GoodLife Kids Foundation. In total, $6.3 million was raised through Spin4Kids events between 2012 and 2019.
2012
The GoodLife4Kids School Program was introduced and brought fitness to grade 5 and 6 students across Canada at no cost to schools.
Program coaches led exercises and games designed to get students moving. More than 3,000 students took part in the program from 2015 to 2018. GoodLife Kids Foundation also refined the grant program to support organizations that provided physical activity programs for children and youth with disabilities.
2015
GoodLife Kids Foundation continued to focus its resources to address the wide-reaching barriers to physical activity affecting kids and youth with disabilities.
A new focus emerged, along with a strategic plan to enable and support kids and youth with autism and intellectual disabilities through physical activity and fitness.
2018
The MOVE by GoodLife Kids Program was introduced in November 2020 to deliver virtual fitness programming to youth with autism and intellectual disabilities, who were more isolated and sedentary during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The classes are led by specially trained coaches who understand how to adapt fitness routines and activities to participants’ abilities and interests. To date hundreds of youth and their families have participated in the MOVE by GoodLife Kids Program.
2020
The MOVE 4 Kids national fundraising event started in the fall of 2022, two years after Spin4Kids ended.
MOVE 4 Kids is a physical activity challenge hosted by GoodLife Fitness Associates at clubs across Canada.
2022
MOVE by GoodLife Kids launched its first in-person programs at two Ontario high schools and a GoodLife Fitness club in Barrie, ON.
GoodLife Kids Foundation plans to expand in-person and virtual classes to more youth across Canada.