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THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Cynthia White recently changed the focus of her work.

White came to Fort Smith just over a year ago as an occupational therapist with the community's health authority.

Cynthia White, the Town of Fort Smith's community services program co-ordinator, was once a competitive boxer, and still keeps up her pugilistic skills at the Rec Centre. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

As an occupational therapist, she helped people with physical disabilities, those recovering from strokes, elderly people and others.

"I really enjoyed it, but I was starting to look for ways to shift my focus," she said.

At the end of April, she moved to a new position as community services program co-ordinator with the Town of Fort Smith.

"I want to work at a bigger community level," she said, adding her new job involves looking for ideas on how to get people to participate in various activities and is a shift to population health versus working with individuals.

With the Town of Fort Smith, White promotes sports and various recreational and cultural activities to encourage health, wellness and engagement in the community.

"Part of it is trying to increase all the types of community participation," she said. "I'm definitely more interested in the recreation and sport part, but I'm looking forward to doing some more cultural programming as well."

White said she has had a career in health and has also been involved in sports, but she now has to think in broader terms.

"It's difficult. I mean I come from a health background, so for me sport recreation participation is where my mind automatically goes," she said. "So I have to work hard to think about other things I could help support in the community."

For example, she said she is available to work collaboratively with Northern Life Museum and Mary Kaeser Library.

"They do a lot of our cultural stuff. So it leaves me more time to do the recreation and physical activities part of the job," she said. "But I definitely have to look beyond that because it really is meant to do as much of the town programming as we possibly can to get as many people involved in a variety of activities to increase health and well-being in the whole community, and not everybody is interested in sport and recreation."

Fort Smith already has many people who are involved and active, she said.

"People come out of the woodwork for all kinds of activities, and I think growing that is really important because that's what creates a healthy community."

White has a master's degree in occupational therapy, a master's degree in rehab science, and a bachelor's degree in kinesiology, which is the study of the movement of the human body.

In the fall, she will be starting an online course with the University of Alberta to earn a post-graduate diploma in public health.

White, who is originally from Ontario, has been involved in sports all her life, including hockey, track and field, boxing, soccer and roller derby. She even boxed competitively for a couple of years in her home province.

"I can't even imagine what my life would have been like without sports and physical activities," said the 39-year-old. "And no matter what, I always go back to how can I be physically active, even in the time of the most stress and things interfering with your daily life."

In Fort Smith, she has coached initiation hockey, track and field, and soccer. Next year, she will also be the assistant coach of the NWT's female hockey team at the Arctic Winter Games in Fairbanks, Alaska.

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