Basketball World Toronto

Return To Play Guidelines Released

Updated as of June 24, 2020

As information has been released, we have now received the Return To Play Guidelines from both Canada Basketball and more importantly Basketball Ontario. If you would like to review this information, we have attached the documents to the right.

While this information is a positive sign, this is only the first step. The documents provide a guide as to what guidelines all basketball organizations will be required to follow for resuming basketball programs. Please understand that Basketball World Toronto does run our programs through the Toronto Catholic School Boards, Toronto District School Boards as well as many Universities and Colleges. Unfortunately, at the moment the schools have not been reopened and thus we are not able to resume programming until our permits are re-confirmed. Please note - many of these permits HAVE NOT BEEN CANCELLED YET for the months of July and August and thus until we have a decision made with regards to our dates in July and August we cannot provide any more guidance on when we could resume a form of basketball programming.

As a guide, please review the Return to Play documents to the right to understand what basketball might look like when we return. We are working actively to develop plans so that when we resume we have followed the required provincial guidelines. What we are confident in saying is that playing basketball in the form we previously did will not be the case.

Basketball will most likely start off with a form of individual and small group training all while practicing physical and social distancing. Once we have a timeline to resume play, we will ensure that we provide our own Return To Play Guidelines to ensure the safety of all participants, parents, staff and related members.

Once we have more information, we will release this information and email all participants.

BWT Team

Canada Basketball - Return To Play Guidelines

Basketball Ontario - Return To Play Guidelines

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Basketball World Toronto stands and supports our Black Community and for all those who support anti-racism. My goal is to ensure that every area of our organization and everyone who participates, works, volunteers or supports our programs adheres to these values and works to ensures everyone is safe from this systemic injustice.

But saying this is not enough. Action has to be taken to ensure that equality for all is an integral part of BWT’s impact in the local community.

To the Black Community - we see you, we will support you and we will fight for equality for all. You matter and your lives matter.

We must do more and it is my goal to help fight this systemic inequality.

Michael Reio, Director, Basketball World Toronto

Program Update

Effective March 13th, 2020, Updated May 21st, 2020.

Due to an overwhelming amount of inquiries, any communications, including voicemails to Basketball World Toronto will be delayed. We appreciate your patience during this unprecedented time.

UPDATE

On behalf of the BWT team we hope you and your family are healthy and navigating through these times as best as you can. We appreciate your patience in our updates. We are trying to do our best to update you and respond to all communications as soon as we have information and decisions have been made which currently is very little. Unfortunately, information and decisions by the Government have been very slow and vague as to how it applies to our industry.

Basketball World Toronto programs continue to remain PAUSED as we wait for social distancing restrictions to be relaxed. We continue to take our guidance from the Ontario Ministry of Health and more specifically, Toronto Health. We are all facing a lot of uncertainty still and we hope to see some information about stages and how this integrates with our programs soon.

Our staff remains temporarily laid off and thus they hope to have programs to come back to as many of our staff need these positions to meet their financial requirements.

We have been in contact with ...

Basketball Ontario on their guidelines (which have yet to be released) but we hope to see some updates soon.
Canada Basketball is working on a Report for Return to Sport Guidelines but this just started.
As well, we have been apart of the City of Toronto’s, Task Force for Recreation, Before/After School Programs and Leagues which just met last week to develop a rough framework for guidelines to move forward.
Although these are positive signs for the future, none of these conversations have led to any concrete information to update you with.

GENERAL INFORMATION

In compliance with the City of Toronto and Province of Ontario regulations due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, Basketball World Toronto (BWT) continues to be temporarily closed. For the safety of our participants, family members, and staff, all BWT programs have been postponed until further notice.

PLEASE NOTE - The Province of Ontario has announced an extension on school closures until May 31st. Due to this closure, we need to postpone all programs until further notice and until we can ensure the safety of our participants, family members, and staff. Please keep in mind, these deadlines may be extended and we cannot guarantee this date will not be re-extended.

We will be sending out an email communication to all registered participants once we are able to resume our programs. Updates will also be listed on our website at www.bwt.ca.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

CURRENT PROGRAMS

Once we are able to resume our programs, we will provide an update on available options to complete the current season, if possible. All updates will on our website and sent by email.

MARCH BREAK CAMP

Credit - As per our company policy, any funds paid will be credited towards a future program. This credit can be redeemed anytime before March 13, 2021. Please email youth@bwt.ca to use your credit towards a new program once the information is released.
Refund - As per our company policy, there are no refunds on or after the Program Registration Deadline has passed, which was March 6, 2020.
- Any registered participant that requested a refund prior to March 6, please email youth@bwt.ca to confirm your refund.
- For all other participants, please see the credit policy above.
We understand that these are unprecedented times, and we are actively looking for ways to offer a partial refund option to those who need it. Our employees have been directly impacted by this pandemic and we have incurred costs related to the preparation of this program. Please contact us if this is a requirement for you and your family.

SPRING PROGRAMS

We hope to be able to run our Spring programs once this closure has been lifted. Once we have an update on the possibility of this, we will be back in touch.

FUTURE PROGRAMS (SUMMER or FALL 2020)

We hope to offer our range of programs once the City of Toronto and Province of Ontario have lifted all restrictions and we are able to operate our business.

WHY PROVIDE CREDITS TOWARDS FUTURE PROGRAMS?

Just like many of you, Basketball World Toronto has been working through the health and economic impacts of this pandemic. Unfortunately, since none of our programs are running, our organization still had to cover the costs of our investment in the development and infrastructure of sports programming. In addition, we had to cover the upfront costs in preparation for our current and upcoming programs.
We will not be reimbursed for these costs and although the government is offering assistance programs to small business we do not qualify for this support.
By providing credits to all members who have paid their registrations, helps to ensure we can provide the experience and value you paid for when we return from this pandemic.

We will be back in touch and communicate with all of you via email and through our website, once your program details have been updated. Please check out our website for the most up to date information.

Thank you for your cooperation, support, and understanding at this time. We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy.

Basketball World Toronto Team