We have had another successful round of Job Path Workshops for youth! This 11 week series ended with the Great Marshmallow Challenge, which included Walkerton and Flesherton students and young Life Directions jobseekers. This was the final activity they participated in, and it was an overall success. Everyone should be very proud of themselves and their accomplishments and learning throughout the program and this challenge.
The rules of the Great Marshmallow Challenge are as follows: Each pair of participants gets 20 marshmallows, 20 pieces of raw spaghetti, and 18 minutes to build the tallest freestanding structure they can. This seems easy, but can be quite difficult due to the brittleness of the spaghetti. Each group persevered to adapt to the difficulties of the challenge to build their structures. The tallest structure came in at an impressive 33 inches! Thank you to everyone who participated, you guys did an amazing job!
This is an example of the type of activities that are conducted in our Job Path Workshops. This was an exercise in taking risks, experiential learning, and teamwork. Because of the different needs of each participant, we ensure that these sessions are interactive through games/activities. This not only helps keep the participants involved, but also helps to build a sense of community and teach about networking, as the group with all of their different strengths and weaknesses learns to uplift each other and play to each other's strengths to accomplish a common goal. Other focal points of these activities are teaching job skills from interpersonal skills and appropriate communication to resume building and interview techniques. The aim of these Job Path Workshops is to ensure that youth have the tools they need to find suitable employment and remain employed.
This latest series of Workshops was held at the Hanover Launchpad. We will continue providing workshops for transitional youth in the fall - if you or your child is interested in participating, please contact Cristin O’Sullivan at lifedirections@segss.com .
We would also like to give a huge thanks to Erica Wilkon from Sacred Heart Secondary School in Walkerton and Shannon Loder from Grey Highlands Secondary School in Flesherton, as this would have been next to impossible without them. We would also like to thank Christine Samson and the Hanover Launchpad for continuing to allow us access to the space. If you are in the area, we highly recommend dropping in and learning about the programming and resources they offer separate from Life Directions.
Featured Image taken by by Юлия Зяблова from Pixabay, photos of participants taken by Paul Wagenaar (Career Councillor at Life Directions).
Blog written by Rose Bishop (Data Entry and Events & Marketing at Life Directions).
