KAWARTHA LAKES-King Albert Public School in Lindsay won’t be empty this summer.
The United Way for the City of Kawartha Lakes has announced a special new summer Community Hub to take place at King Albert Public School through July 23-August 14, 2018. “For some time, several agencies have discussed the idea of creating a hub model or “one roof” model for program delivery. This type of model has worked in large urban centres and offers several programs and services in one location.” Penny Barton Dyke, Executive Director, CKL United Way, said in a press release. “For families, this means one trip to one location with the ability of each member to attend a class, learn a skill, and take part in fun activities. King Albert Public School became an obvious choice as a venue as it runs programs out of the school for three weeks every summer.”
Thirteen agencies from across the City of Kawartha Lakes will come together for three weeks of programming to provide ease of access to several employment readiness workshops as well as a Cooking with Tweens program. Programming will work in tandem with Trillium Lakelands District School Board’s Summer Learning Program and EarlyON’s Ready for Kindergarten program.
Each agency will bring their own program to the Community Hub. The location of this hub model is easily accessible by walking or through local bussing. Workshops include SAIL (run by City of Kawartha Lakes), Personality Dimensions and FEAR (run by VCCS Employment Services), Job Readiness and Smart Serve Certification (run by JobQuest), Safe Food Handlers Certification (run by HKPR), Cooking with Tweens (run by John Howard Society) and Financial Literacy and Budgeting (run by JobQuest).
“Each partner is bringing programming, some are certified courses at minimal cost or free to help pilot this approach of having all services under one roof. Not only does the hub model provide ease of access for participants, but bringing these workshops to the same location as TLDSB’s Summer Learning Program and EarlyON’s Ready for K program will ensure that programming is accessible for parents and individuals,” says Barton Dyke.
Monday August 13th will wrap up adult programming with a Community Fair celebration. Additional community partners who did not deliver a workshop, but are interested in supporting community members, will attend and provide resources for many of the workshop participants. Working in tandem with the agencies who will run the workshops, other Community Fair partners will include: Canadian Mental Health Association, Women’s Resources, Alternative Education, CHIMO, and Kawartha Lakes Police Services.
Along with programming, United Way CKL is funding a bagged lunch program for children in three areas of Lindsay on Wednesdays and Fridays each week from July 4th to August 31st.
Kawartha Lakes Food Source, Salvation Army, HKPR, and Kawartha Lakes Food Coalition will recruit volunteers to prepare and distribute between 1,800-2,250 lunches over the course of the summer. United Way CKL is still seeking donations of financial support for this program.
Anyone interested in more information should contact United Way for the City of Kawartha Lakes at (705) 878-5081 or via email at [email protected]. Information brochures are also available at all participating agencies and will be distributed by King Albert P.S.
