Lunch & Learn Summer Sessions, CBYF Update and Trivia Nights!

Our Summer Series Lunch & Learn program offered students the opportunity to learn about valuable life skills from local guest speakers. The Summer Series was a continuation of the Lunch & Learn program last Spring.

The program averaged 20 youth participants from the Digby area! Youth reacted positively to the experience saying, “Thanks for all these videos, the information was very helpful. Make more videos like these!"

Topics for the series ranged from basic to complex, such as; which knives they should use when cooking; how to properly clean a house; how to know when sadness turns to depression; how to find a family doctor or get medical care; and what rights and responsibilities they have as tenants when moving out. Many participants commented that they were relieved to finally understand what taxes were or how to establish credit and manage it appropriately.

For some, the sessions may have covered things they already knew, but the attempt to take a multifaceted approach ensured the students were exposed to a variety of information relevant to the topics. This provided an opportunity for everyone to learn something new.

As a part of the Communities Building Youth Futures work, it is super important to have youth involved at all levels of the work. We created a group of youth and young adults in the community to share first voice experiences and to lead and guide the work. We decided to call this the Youth Connections Team to encourage members to connect with other youth and young adults as both advocates for the work and to start conversations with others to hear their experiences and ideas.

This team has grown to 20 members coming from diverse backgrounds and different communities throughout the Digby area.
Our first meeting went very well. We focused on asset mapping and
the needs around employment, education, recreation and services.
There were so many great insights from participants on supports they have used and what supports were still in need to support youth.

We have already been getting messages about when our next meeting will be. There has been a feeling of excitement among participants to share their ideas and experiences. We have had lots of comments around “It’s about time” or “I have been wanting to do something for my community, but I didn’t know how.”

This shows us that this is the right timing for this work and that there are youth and young adults that are passionate and willing to contribute their time to supporting it. - Morgan, Youth Engagement Coordinator

During the month of May, Saskia Geerts of Sydney Street Pub & Cafe, with the help of host and Digby Mayor Ben Cleveland, resumed their Thursday evening Trivia Nights through Facebook Live. They wanted to do something for the community during Covid-19.

“It’s a bit of fun… people could ‘get together’,” stated Saskia, “it was less about prizes and more about activities and being social… it created a distraction to Covid-19 and allowed people to connect with each other for an hour.”

The importance of connections is coming up in the work of Turning the Tide. To support the event and community connections, Turning the Tide provided technical support and prizes each week.

Mayor Ben Cleveland received positive feedback from the community, many saying that it was “cool” and “entertaining”. Some participants even replaying with other friends and family! The online comments where encouraging and indicated the importance of activities like this in the community:

Miss seeing you all!
Thanks!! We’ll be back next week
The kids were excited - they loved the movie round!
Another fun night! Thanks guys!

Well played everyone and thanks for hosting to Ben & Saskia
Congratulations all - this was awesome thanks for doing this!
Thanks everyone, Digby’s the best💓

The Sydney Street Pub plans to resume Trivia Nights in October!

For local support and resources across the Digby area, click below:

Community Resource Document

FOR UPDATED & ACCURATE INFORMATION RE: COVID 19 these are the "go to" sites:

Province of Nova Scotia: https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus

Government of Canada: https://canada.ca/coronavirus toll-free information line 1-833-784-4397

Department of Health and Wellness and Nova Scotia Government social media channels. Follow them @nshealth and @nsgov on Twitter and https://www.facebook.com/NovaScotiaHealthAndWellness/ and https://www.facebook.com/nsgov/ on Facebook.