Planning a workshop in the community took a bit longer than I had anticipated. When I received confirmation of the grant, I approached my local library, Renfrew Park. I was told after waiting over a week for a reply that the branch was no longer renting out meeting space because quiet study space was needed. I then approached the nearby neighbourhood house, but the rate for space was nearly $100 per hour. One day, while driving by Champlain Heights, I remembered there was a library in the area and looked it up. I inquired about space and was met with excitement, as the librarians saw the need for more life skills workshops. After meeting with the head librarian, VPL offered to sponsor the workshop by promoting it internally throughout its branches, handling registration, and allowing me to use the VPL logo on promotion.
After the date (Oct 5) and location was set, I designed posters, which were distributed at community centres and neighbourhood houses in East Vancouver and businesses close to Champlain Heights. I also created a Facebook event and promoted it on the neighbourhood Buy Nothing Group, of which I’m a member.
We had 15 registrants, which was exciting. I didn’t expect everyone to attend, as free events usually see a drop in attendance on the day of the event. Five participants attended. They were an engaged group with lots of great questions. I ran out of time for the planned 90 minute session because there were so many questions. The group consisted of a newcomers, two people in established careers, and 1 person with a young family. I have since connected with VPL again and they are interested in hosting more workshops, especially geared for teens.
