Community Learning Campus Update
We are living through an era of radical change, so how do we ensure our children receive a world-class education that prepares them to thrive in the 21st century? Just over five years ago a group of volunteer parents, educators, and concerned community members came together to talk about the future of their schools and the impact on their children. A rapidly evolving society requires 21st-century teaching and learning practices and with this in mind, Sackville 2020 sought out to create a model for an innovative and inspiring community-supported learning campus.
Over the years, S20/20 has worked tirelessly to engage its community, leaning into those tough conversations, and talking honestly and openly with students, parents, and teachers to help identify and support educational needs both pedagogical and structural. Extensive research into educational models and best practices from around the globe have been the driving force of this vision.
Our children deserve a 21st-century school system. One where project-based learning, individualized programming, and experiential education take our learners into inspiring state-of-the-art learning spaces, one where educators are given the tools, resources, and training they need to ensure our children thrive. While we continue to work towards these goals, we recognize that we are living in unprecedented times. While we focus on the immediate needs of our community, we must also turn an eye to the future. There will be crucial long-term impacts of this pandemic and now more than ever, communities must work together. The Department of Education has stated that they will be "pausing the coordinated rollout of some of the green paper initiatives for one year so they can focus on adapting to COVID-19". With this in mind, our efforts to lobby for a new school have temporarily been put on hold. However, given the recent collaborative work of the Tantramar COVID Task Force and the rapidly evolving landscape of education, community programming, and front-line services, we are keen to continue working alongside our community partners to support community-led solutions.
So long as the children and youth remain at the heart of our work, we know we will continue to make a lasting, positive impact.
A year in review
It started as an exciting year for Sackville 20/20 with the announcement of funding for a two-year staff position from ACOA. This announcement signaled promise and hope that the past five years of work spent researching and designing a model for a community support learning campus would soon become a reality. A position was crafted and in October Sackville 20/20 hired their first Executive Director, Jessica Hughes. Being a Sackville transplant, Jessica spent her first few months meeting with dozens of organizations, businesses, and community members, learning as much as possible about this vibrant community. While we have been a part of many success over the past year, having been through one of the most trying times of this generation, like many other organizations, Sackville 20/20 has broadened the scope of its work to be able to support the community and its varying needs during these unprecedented times. Just one of the many perks of being a small not for profit-- we are nimble, we are adaptable, and we are no stranger to innovation.
Below we have outlined a few of the initiatives we have led or supported over the past several months.
Green Paper Consultation- This was the first of six consultation sessions held across the province and the largest with nearly 100 attendees at each of the two sessions (one for community and one for teachers). At these sessions, participants were guided through several questions designed by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to help us unpack and ask questions about the new Green Paper on Education.
Tantramar Fun Day- On the January school PD day, we ran a free Tantramar wide fun day that had 120 registrants. A full-day event of this scale was made possible by the amazing partners that worked together to offer a day filled with gym games, art and crafts, skating, a free lunch, and a touch a truck experience. It was a true community effort with the Town of Sackville, Mount Allison University, The Owens, Rotary, Sackville 20/20, and of course our 40 volunteers from Mount A and TRHS. This event was a great example of what a community can accomplish when we work together!
Outdoor Learning space- In March we saw the Completion of the Outdoor Learning Spaces at Marshview Middle School and Dorchester Consolidated Schools where S20/20 played a key role in fundraising and supporting the creation of outdoor environmental education classroom projects. These projects have allowed these schools to be closely involved in the development of experiential learning opportunities and several new initiatives as part of the Sackville 20/20 model.
Task Force- In April Sackville team members joined the Tantramar Covid Task Force as co-chairs of various action groups. This group has been able to quickly mobilize and respond to needs in the community during an intense time of need. This group has also allowed many organizations to break free of their silos and rally together around a common cause. From working on issues related to food insecurity, mental and physical health, employment, business development, and childcare, this group has done it all and S20/20 is honoured to be part of the great work being done.
Ideas For Tomorrow- June was a big month for S20/20. We launched the Ideas for Tomorrow initiative where youth ages 15-25 participated in ideation workshops to help youth who are inspired with ideas and ready to take action through youth-led community service grants. The idea was brought to us from a father and daughter team, Ken, and Kaylee. Kaylee had been home from school for several weeks due to the pandemic and was feeling restless and bored. She like many other youths, were sitting at home wishing they could be a part of the change they wanted to see in the world. Through this workshop offered by Rising Youth, these youth were given mentorship, training, and grants to help launch their community support projects. As many have likely heard, high school students will only be attending school in person every other day and may be expected to find other, more self-directed learning opportunities to fill their days working from home. Personal interest classes and project-based learning opportunities are fantastic ways to engage youth, however, we know that many would benefit from a head start over the summer months to help identify community-based projects. On July 23rd, we piloted the ideation workshop with 15 youth and from there we will continue to offer these workshops as requested by youth.
Math Helps Services- A few weeks after the school closures we began hearing from parents and families. One of the common requests we received was around tutoring support. Many parents had to continue working full time from home and felt that they were unable to properly “teach” their children as they did not have the time or the necessary skills. Many said that even a few hours a week with a tutor would help them and their child immensely. The founders of Math Help Services Peter Hess, a Sackville Local, and Ross Willams, offered their online tutoring platform for free as a special summer initiative. We brought on Julie Jones a TRHS teacher and Math Lead to help administer this service to over 40 students grades 6-12. We are thrilled that we will be offering this program to all Tantramar High School students this Fall at no cost to families!
COVID Student Support Network, NB Chapter- Through our work with the task force Youth and Student Action group we have been working with two incredibly hard-working Mount Allison students (Nadine and Hannah) to bring a new online tutoring/peer mentoring program to NB. The initiative aims to connect university students with k-12 students to support them with academics, music and the arts, university prep, general organizational skills, and peer mentorship. We are currently recruiting Mount Allison volunteers and once we have a good base of volunteers, we will put the call out to parents and families to have them register their children in the program. Peer support volunteers and mentees can meet as many times a week as they would like, all via zoom.
Southeast Labour Market Partnership (SLMP) (greater Moncton workforce strategy)
In February I joined the SLMP talent development working group to help flag needs and opportunities as they pertain to our youth, their transition to employment, and experiential learning. This group meets monthly and discusses regional strategies for developing and retaining talent in our region.
Learning from home survey
In early July we put out a brief survey asking students and parents what learning from home has been like for them. We did this because we knew we were only hearing from a small fraction of families who were reaching out to discuss their needs with us. Before we went and developed any new programs, we wanted to make sure we had a better understanding of the needs, the benefits, and the challenges of form learning from home. We wanted to know their joys and frustrations, challenges, and triumphs so that we can be better prepared in the future to compassionately respond to the dynamics of home learning and physical distancing. Now that we know we could experience another wave of COVID 19, we want to be proactive about the kinds of supports we offer families and students.
Special Thanks…because I am a staff of one but a community team of many.
These are just a handful of some of the recent projects we’ve been a part of over the past few months but I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to some of the incredible partners we work alongside to make all this possible.
S20/20 Summer Intern- Rosalie Halls
Rotary- Shayne Mann
Tantramar Covid Task Force- Co-chairs Carolle de Ste-Croix & David McKeller and youth and student action group co-chairs Hannah Ehler & Nadine Robinson,
Mental Health Co-chair- Margaret Tusz-King
Rising Youth- Cory Herc
Co-operative Enterprise Council- Wendy Keats and Greg Burton
Mount Allison Experiential Learning Office- Krista Steeves and team
Mount Alison Facilities- Andy Hebert
Tantramar family of schools- principals and staff
Horizon Health- Kate Doyle
ASD-E community Schools- Becky Doyle and Heather Stordy
The Town of Sackville- John Higham, Jamie Burke, Matt Pryde
Last, but certainly not least, our phenomenal Board of Directors-
Mike Fox, Agnes Ko11er, Andrew Wilson, Jo-Anne Simmonds, Brian Neilson, Karen Sears, Craig Evans.