Indigenous youth sporting program to be the subject of doctoral research
A program coordinator who helped launch a sports program serving rural Indigenous communities continues their research in a PhD program.
Taylor McPherson in Beaver First Nation in the summer of 2026. Photo credit: Taylor McPherson
Taylor McPherson is a program coordinator at the Indigenous Sports Council of Alberta, also known as ISCA. She has launched a program that helps bring sports to rural Indigenous communities and will continue to study the benefits of the program.
In January 2027, McPherson will begin pursuing a PhD at the University of Calgary, focusing on the SHED (Spiritual Holistic Exercise Den) program.
“I really wanted to take the time to really focus on it more, develop the manuals more and try to find ways we can get this program into more communities,” said McPherson.
The SHED Program is a student-founded youth sporting program that provides equipment and leadership education to rural Indigenous communities in Alberta.
The program is a physical shed that ISCA fills with various equipment for sports such as hockey, archery, fishing, and lacrosse. The children participating in SHED are from the community, aged from six to 13. SHED is completely free for the community.
McPherson will be researching how participation in the SHED Program impacts Indigenous youth and contributes to the long-term sustainability of rural Indigenous community sport and recreation programs.
“I’m so passionate about SHED and what I can do,” said McPherson.
SHED has run for five summers now, beginning with a pilot project by a group of kinesiology students at the University of Alberta in 2022 with Kapawe’no First Nation.
Since then, SHED has expanded to Sucker Creek First Nation and Beaver First Nation.
Kara Supernault is the youth program coordinator at Kapawe’no First Nation.
“[The kids] can’t wait for summer camp to come back,” Supernault had said of the program in a March 2025 interview with Edmonton Edge.
The SHED Program trains youth ages 15-20 in Indigenous communities leadership skills and how to run the program, so that the program can be completely self-sufficient once ISCA provides the equipment.
“The most important thing for us was to teach them how to be leaders and to teach the younger generation that they could be leaders,” Supernault had said.
Tracy Whatmore, supervisor at MacEwan University’s Work-Integrated Learning department, was the Faculty of Kinesiology practicum advisor who oversaw McPherson and the piloting of SHED in 2022.
The SHED Program is a case example of a successful work-integrated learning program according to Whatmore.
“I thought it was incredible,” said Whatmore of the student-led pilot.
“When you encourage and empower students to really problem solve and test things out, [and] experiment a little,” Whatmore said, “they actually come up with some really cool solutions and have a lot of passion for the community.”
