Summer Success at the Resource Opportunities Centre

Hello Everyone,

Since it appears that everyone is writing about their summer successes, I thought I should give you the lowdown of what went on here at the Resource Opportunities Centre. It was a busy and interesting summer for all of us here.

On top of our Summer Day Camps and Movie Nights which you have all heard about in previous blog posts (those who attiended those events had a blast of a good time) we also had kids and adults who were eager to use the computers for various reasons such as email, chatting and printing.

We were also involved in setting up a sort of "Satelite C@P Site" in the newly built Prospect Road Community Centre. During this process we got to set up the wireless network from scratch and then go about the process of securing the network and locking down the computers so that patrons with malicious minds would not be able to do anything harmful to the computers in the Centre. I was also able to help the folks at the PRCC out by adding thier list of Fall Programs to their website.

August was also a month of publishing. The Resource Opportunities Centre's quarterly news letter "The Prospective" was set to be published and issued by the end of the month. Part of July and most of August was spent collecting advertising from local businesses, and articles from various people about the various happenings in the communities stretching from Goodwood to West Dover. (those names probably mean nothing to you but that's ok)

After a month of intense editing and formatting, the August 2010 volume of "The Prospective" has been sent to the printers and will then be mailed out to residents of the Prospect Area...and then they can read about everything that has happened and is happening in the community at this time.

For the third consecutive summer it has been a blast for me to be able to work at the Resource Opportunities Centre this summer. An experience that will surely be missed once it comes time for me to hit the books again next week.

Good bye

The talent Show

If I only had a brain, a heart and a home!

A Marching Band probably from Halifax

Hoped you enjoyed those pictures
Have a nice school year!!
~Brittney and Delaney

Closing Remarks

Hi All,

This summer has been a interesting and rewarding experience here at Spring Garden Road Public Library. Throughout the summer I have been helping lots of different people gain the confidence to become savvy computer users. I've seen people start with struggling to double click, and ending up being able to check out videos and music on the net! It has been nice to concretely see the difference that I have been able to make as a C@P intern.
I have also learned plenty of new and useful skills throughout the summer. I have learned many different technology based skills, as I have been working on the development of the a literary tour for the library. In addition to this I have been able to improve my public speaking and relations skills through all the classes I have been teaching here.

I hope everyone else has had an enjoyable summer!

Andrew Jackson

Success Stories from Halifax North

It has been a pretty eventful summer at Halifax North. My main project was to develop a Facebook learning module that could be used to teach patrons of the library how to use the social networking site. As a preliminary stage, I wrote up a tutorial explaining how to use the various parts of Facebook. I realized how much there is to the site, and what a complex idea it could be to explain. After I finished the tutorial, I met with the branch manager to talk about it. Then I created flyers to circulate within the branch so that patrons would become aware of the opportunity to have Facebook classes.

Soon after I started circulating the flyers, people started calling the library to make appointments for classes. I decided it would be best to do one-on-one classes, both because it’s easier to schedule two people than it is to schedule groups, and because many of the patrons expressing interest were not especially “computer literate”. I also received a lot of interest in general computer lessons – including things like email, Google searching, etc.

Most of my lessons were success stories within themselves. I had a few patrons who, after one lesson, were confident with their ability to “figure out the rest of it”. In most cases, especially with the “general computer lessons”, the patron was very interested in having more lessons. Often, the people I worked with had low literacy levels, learning disabilities, or mental disabilities. Our lessons were positive experiences – I think from both sides. The biggest success of working with these patrons was being able to instill confidence in them. Most of the patrons said they were happy about how the lessons went and felt more confident about using computers in the future. One gentleman that I worked with was extremely pleased that he had mastered the steps to open up the internet browser and do a Google search for his favourite newspaper. He was very excited when I told him that he could come into the library and read the newspaper online for free whenever he wished.

During my time at Halifax North, I have met a lot of interesting people, and have really enjoyed working with them. I guess the main service that I provided was “bridging the digital divide”, and helping to provide people (usually individuals with mental disabilities, or low literacy levels) with the opportunity to use a computer – an opportunity they probably would not have had otherwise. By providing guidance, attention, and time, I was able to show these people that they CAN use a computer. I also encouraged them to come back to the library/C@P site and make use of its services in the future. Most of the patrons I worked with were “regulars” at the library, and quite well-known to the staff. Hopefully now they will start to make more use of the computers available to them at the library – it does open up a whole new world of possibilities!

In Sum

Here is a little Power Point I put together for NSCAP.

Thanks for a great Summer, y'all, and all the best this next year!

Final Movie Night of the Summer a Success on All Levels!

Last night at the ROC we had our final movie night of the summer. The feature film this week was Ratatouille. We had a total of 12 kids come out for this event! (breaking last year's record of 10) The kids got to watch a movie about food while eating popcorn and pizza! Over all everyone had a good time!

Hello and Good-bye!

Hey everybody,
The last two weeks have been pretty crazy around the Sheet Harbour C@P site. With Seaside festival going on we kept busy in and out of the site (many tourists were in and out of our site recently)! We decided to team up with the Moser River C@P site and join in on the fun with the parade. But first we needed a plan, after many days of planning, researching, finding the funds etc, we decided to rent The Flinstone costumes! Of course your wondering what does this have to do with C@P site... well so were we!! We created a large poster with a slogan that read "Its not the stone age anymore, come visit your local cap site!" After the many hours it took to create this sign, cutting and gluing we were very disappointed to see it rip during the parade. That's when we started yelling our slogan to everyone!
The parade was only one of many things that we participated in during the week of Seaside Festival. We wanted to get pictures.. so Wednesday night, we dropped by the talent show, over the weekend we attended ball games, boat shows, church dinner, beer garden (well Brittney did!) , boat races etc.
The last two weeks have been very fun here at our C@P site, as a matter of fact it's been a blast all summer long and sadly its coming to a quick end. I hope everyone had a great summer and is excited to go back to school! Take care and keep in touch! :)

PS Will have more Seaside festival picture later in the week!

- Delaney & Brittney!

Short message

Sorry that this is such a short message but it was decided by Delaney and me that we will be blogging on Monday because of the fact that we want to blog all about the Seaside Festival so on Monday you will find a huge blog that will cover many of the events that are happening this weekend and have happened this week. I would make this long but I have to go volunteer at the St. Peter's church supper.
Have Fun
~Brittney and Delaney

Speaker In Waverley August 25

Hi everyone,

I was asked by the members of the Heritage Society to post the info for a speaker they have coming to Waverley next week. If you or anyone you know is interested in geology Dr. Michael Parsons is coming to talk about gold mining (gold mining is how Waverley got started as a Village). He's speaking about the environmental legacy historical gold mining has and continues to have on Nova Scotia. The event is happening at 7:00 pm Wednesday, August 25 in the Waverley Legion (
2234 Rocky Lake Drive, Waverley, NS) and if you want any more info feel free to email me or post a comment on the post :)

- sarah

Success

Our biggest success this summer was with a girl who joined our camp, without any real knowledge of computers or technology. At the beginning of the summer, she was reluctant to do much of anything, because she didn't feel comfortable. Throughout the week, we were able to get her to start trying new things with the computers. By the end of the week, she was the most interested and excited one in the group. When she left, she was completely comfortable using the computer, and exploring new possibilities. We are excited to see her next year, and see how she has progressed throughout the year.

By Miles and Matt

Closing words from dartmouth north

My summer here at darmouth noth community center has been great ! The lab over here is very busy and lots to do ! My summer computer camps (http://campdncc.tripod.com) went very well. Attendance was a bit slow at first but picked up as the summer went on ! Those who took part in the camps really enjoyed them ! The best part was that they went and told their friends who came in and asked me to re-do camps because they heard how fun it was !

It was great to teach these people some things that they can use and even show other people ! Without this c@p site it's likely they would not have had an opportunity like this!

Rainy days were especially busy in here ! All of the school aged kids come in and play a game called "combat arms" which is a first person shooter similar to counter strike ! It's great to see them all playing together! The computer knowledge of some of these kids (who are about 8-10 years old) is amazing !

I hope everyone else has had a great summer !

THE 2010 BLOG AWARDS!

I am pleased to announce that we have had a very successful Summer with our blog! We've gotten a lot of attention for it, and there's always something interesting each week!

That being said, there are some of you who have gone above and beyond the Blog expectations, and we would like to thank you!

Drumroll.....

The first place winner of the 2010 Blog Challenge Awards is.....

Keegan Moser!
Thank you for participating with creativity and quality in every challenge! We will be bringing you your prizes this week!

The runner-up for the 2010 Blog Challenge Awards is....

Sarah Haworth!
You have done a wonderful job bringing life to the Waverley CAP program through participating in the challenges! We will be bringing/sending you your prizes this week!


Two Honorary Mentions for Blog Contributors:
These two people always managed to share humorous stories from their CAP sites, useful hints, and they have also both been working with the program for a long time!

Thank you to ....

Brittney Hartling and Brian Berry!
You will both be receiving your prizes this week as well, by visit/mail.

Please continue posting, everyone, until the end of the Summer! This is the time in the program when the best stories tend to happen!

3rd Round of Movie Nights at the ROC Update

Last Thursday (August 12) was the third round of Summer Movie Nights at the ROC. The feature film last week was "Up" and it was a very appropriate because the number of people who attended was up significantly from two weeks ago when we had our last movie night. In turn the amount of pizza eaten was up from last time. As with the previous movie nights everyone appeared to have a good time. "Up" was by far the most successful movie night of the summer so far. If the trend continues, our last movie night of the summer (which will take place on August 29th) should have just as much success.

Connecting the CAP Site to the Community

In Waverley the CAP Site that I work in shares a building with the Waverley Heritage Museum. As a result I have gotten to know many of the Heritage Society members and have learned more about the history of the community while being able to share my computer skills with them.

Over the course of the summer the society hosts two Teas. This is an opportunity to raise money and socialize for its members and a chance for me to publicize the CAP Site.

In July I enjoyed helping with the Tea and getting to know some of the people in the community. Next Friday they will have their second Tea and I will once again volunteer my services. This week I helped them with their advertising in the community by making this flyer and posting it in the community.

Challenge #5 Entry - Keegan Moser

I've always been fairly interested in history, genealogy and related subjects, so this weeks challenge was quickly used to once again partnered with and draw attention to our community historical society. Basically, we began by posting signs around Moser River announcing that one afternoon we would be having a barbecue and prize draws at the local museum and genealogy center. Then, once people were aware, we moved over to the museum for one afternoon and fired up the barbecue. We saw many people over the course of the afternoon, some of whom even brought old photographs and documents to contribute to the museum. I've scanned some of them, they'll be attached below.

Some of the older community members were particularly excited , and were happy to have a chance to discuss people, places and artifacts.

Some of the community youth were more drawn by the promise of a barbecued lunch, but once they actually came in to the museum, some of them were just as enthused as any of the adults.

And some of the donated pictures (these are only a few, there are many more):

In the end, I feel that we were quite successful in drawing more attention and interest to the Moser River and Area Historical Society.

The beginning of an adventure packed week

This week started the Sheet Harbour Seaside Festival. the most celebrated events of the year in this small town are happening starting last Wednesday and ending not this Sunday but next Sunday with a beautiful fireworks display. there are several events everyday for the whole family.
If you find yourself bored come on down to Sheet Harbour. On saturday we have the Seaside Festival Parade which both us and the Moser River C@P Site interns will be participating in. it will be so much fun and hopefully we will generate more peoples interest in the C@P Site. Next week you will get to see lots of pictures of the Festival on our Blog. this picture below is one I took last year:
this is the Seaside festival link for more details: http://seasidefestival.sheetharbour.ca/
Just about everyone that grew up in Sheet Harbour and the surrounding area come home for this festival.
Nothing much happened this week except people preparing for the celebration of the year.
Hope your week is as good as ours
Have Fun
~Brittney and Delaney

Geeky Prizes

So, this week has been the final challenge for the Blog!

Dan and I ordered some prizes from ThinkGeek, and they are well-deserved with the Summer we've had.
There are plenty to go around, so there will be several smaller prizes beyond the Big Blog Winner, for Summer Projects and contributions, which will be divided up and given next week on our site visits!


For now, take a peek at the nifty things you may be winning!

USB Chargeable Batteries

USB Plasma Ball

Linux Penguin

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsEbWzwCvPY76JabDBv4jUpY3OyiuRg6tgizYMLHQULtVXQyyLD4_oY012rptzbdiT5TcT3O52wPZ10rnROXUjs5qyl6rNbJzBDfpkO6Q6MQsHqUSI-x1UyqXI3PAJBuSc00SHqU7bVQC/s1600/shower-shock.jpg">Caffeinated Soap

Periodic Refrigerator Table

Paper E-Mail Notepad

Bumper Sticker

G-Mail Shortcut Keyboard

USB Pet Rock

USB Christmas Lights!

"Opportunity"

Super-Powered Batteries

Rubik's Cube Alarm Clock

USB Lavender Incense Burner

A Taste of Summer Camps at the ROC

Challenge # 5: CAP for a Cause

This Challenge makes use of the resources your CAP site offers. You've got a computer, likely a printer and some other gadgets, and most importantly: YOU.
We're nearing the end of Summer, and challenges, so I'm giving you some leeway here.
What matters most to you? Use your CAP site to reach out -whether for a cause in your community, or a global organization- it doesn't matter.


Create something by using your site, Implement something in your site, Inspire others at your site... just do something to help the greater good on behalf of yourself and your CAP site. It doesn't need to involve money, think outside the box!


I'm excited to see what matters to you, and how you go about with this challenge!

A glance at Sheet Harbour!

Hey guys,
I don't really have anything to exciting to share about our week here. So instead I decided that I would share some pictures of our community with you. Enjoy!
Have a great weekend!






























Sheet Harbour gets sidewalks!