Prairie Run Crew answering TRC call to reduce barriers to sports participation

Tarrant Cross Child has no problem talking about his outreach program and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action in the same breath.

For Cross Child, hope and restoration are at the centre of Prairie Run Crew, a Saskatoon-based non-profit that aims to make running more accessible to Indigenous youth with the help of corporate partners.

Cross Child, who is an ambassador for athletic footwear and apparel brand New Balance Canada and the Brainsport running specialty store in Saskatoon, uses those partnerships to equip youth with new running shoes in clinics held across the Prairies.

TRC Call No. 89 specifically addresses reducing barriers to sports participation for Indigenous peoples.

For Prairie Run Crew, the idea is that once youth have running shoes, they will be more likely to pick up and continue running as part of a healthy and active lifestyle.

"They restore their health — their mental health, as well," Cross Child told CBC News at a clinic at the Ochapowace Nation Sports Academy last October. "They start feeling good about themselves and feeling, 'You know what? I can do this.'"

Cross Child remembers being too intimidated to run in a track meet as a nine-year-old — and staying in his seat in the bleachers when it was time for his age group to run.

He said what ended up giving him the inspiration and courage to get up and run in that meet is remembering that he was wearing his "fast" blue running shoes that his grandfather had just bought him.

Running eventually became a passion for Cross Child, but the 1998 Saskatchewan Marathon winner stopped running for years as he battled an alcohol and gambling addiction.

It resulted in a suicide attempt that saw him end up in a hospital in 2014.

Two things happened after that: he completed a year-long in-residence rehabilitation program — and he started running again.

Cross Child said when he first got back into running, he couldn't make it around the equivalent of a city block. But he kept running a little more each day — and after a year, he entered and completed a marathon.

He said he found running really helped his mental health.