Families who use the Family Resource Centre in Yorkton will have a new opportunity to learn. A dozen bookbags have been donated to the centre by the Parkland College as part of a Workplace Essential Skills program for Aboriginal women over the age of 40, with students putting together the bags as part of their class.
Each bag includes a book, craft and toy for students to bring home and enjoy with their families. There is also a cultural component, with six of the book bags having First Nations story included. Each bag is targeted towards a different age range, and the craft, toy and book have been chosen to be appropriate for different kids.
Kim Kyle-Zwirsky with the Parkland College explains that the project was designed to get students to work on the nine essential skills. She says that this project was a way to practically implement those skills, with numeracy, for example, coming through as the women had to work within a budget in order to put the bags together. She says that it wasn’t an easy project, but one that will benefit both the students who put it together and the many families who will take advantage of it at the Family Resource Centre.
“It was a lot of work, this wasn’t an easy project... The ladies spent countless hours.”
Kim Gelowitz, director and early years facilitator for the Family Resource Centre, says that the bags will be well used for the families that use the centre. She says literacy is something that families need to focus on from when a child is young, and gives families different ways to engage their children.
“Having a lending library is important because not every family can afford to buy a game or buy books.”
The Family Resource Centre is all about partnering with different agencies in the community, and Gelowitz says they hope to see more things like this project in the future.
Student Delphine Shingoose says that for her and the other students part of the learning process was discovering things about other families and cultures as they put the bags together. Each bag uses a book as a starting point for what was included, and Shingoose says it was a challenge for the students to have everything fit together and make sense. She says it was hard work to get the project together, but that it was an experience that shows what the class at Parkland can do.
“It’s very rewarding to see that the project we put together, other families are going to love it.”
