Community collaboration key to student’s success

January 8, 2020
Beth Simmons (second from left) sits with community partners, Wendy Somerville, Online Learning Recruitment Officer, Contact North | Contact Nord (extreme left), Stephanie Tripp, Employment and Training Officer, Nda’nokiitaage’ogamig (Curve Lake First Nation’s Employment Resource Centre), and Barb Mills, County Tutor, Peterborough Native Learning Program. – Photo supplied

CURVE LAKE FIRST NATION–Beth Simmons is a testament to how easy access to education can get you closer to realizing your dreams.  Her dream is to open her own hair salon.

Each week she walks a short distance from her home at Curve Lake First Nation to the community’s Employment Resource Centre where she uses a computer and receives help from a tutor for her online senior high school math course.

Without the barriers of transportation and cost, Simmons notes: “I can walk right here. Come when I want and get my work done on my own. It is a lot easier than trying to get a ride to Peterborough.”

Through a multi-agency partnership, residents of Curve Lake First Nation have supports to upgrade their skills with access to online education, helping them gain meaningful employment. Contact North | Contact Nord, the Peterborough Native Learning Program (PNLP), and Nda’nokiitaage’ogamig (Curve Lake First Nation’s Employment Resource Centre), work together, providing support to those seeking sustainable employment.

Much of the success in Simmons education is due to the wraparound service she received in the fall of 2019.

Back in October, members of these three training support services came together to assist Simmons in completing her Ontario high school diploma. Wendy Somerville, Online Learning Recruitment Officer with Contact North | Contact Nord, a community-based organization providing information for online learning opportunities, Stephanie Tripp, Employment and Training officer with Nda’nokiitaage’ogamig and Barb Mills, PNLP county instructor, met with Simmons to discuss her study and employment needs.

After presenting online high school upgrading options, Somerville helped Simmons register with Quinte Adult Education to start an online Grade 11 math course. Mills ensured Beth had supplemental one-on-one math tutoring while Tripp worked with Beth to explore employment in the salon industry.

Working with adults located in Northumberland, Peterborough and Durham Region, who need online training to help secure employment, is not new to Somerville. At Curve Lake First Nation, students like Simmons can meet Somerville regularly at the resource centre for help choosing virtual learning options.

“Ideally meeting people in their own community, one-one-one is a recipe for success,” Somerville says. “We can sit down and review online options from all accredited Ontario schools. I can proceed with helping them explore financial aid options and then perhaps register them. This helps shorten the time it takes to get started on the road to learning.”

Mills meets with Simmons and other community members looking for one-on-one tutoring four days a week at the employment resource centre. She also works closely with Somerville and Tripp offering complimentary educational support to mutual clients.

The main employment support for all of Curve Lake First Nation, Tripp works closely with people like Simmons who need to fill training gaps, making them more employable.

“We can help toward their employment needs,” says Tripp. “Some employment needs may require upgrading education. We assist members with this by utilizing other agencies such as Contact North.”

Thanks to online learning, she notes there are many more training opportunities for the Curve Lake First Nation community.

How is Simmons progressing with her high school diploma? She just completed her online math course and plans to enroll in the next level in the New Year.

You can count on Somerville, Mills and Tripp to guide her every step of the way.

 

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For more information:

Heather Campbell

Communications Coordinator

Coordonnateur de communications

Cell: 705-929-5346

 

 

About Contact North | Contact Nord

As a community-based organization, established and funded by the Government of Ontario since 1986 with its headquarters in Thunder Bay, Contact North | Contact Nord  helps underserved Ontarians in 600 small, rural, remote, Indigenous and Francophone communities get jobs by making it possible for them to access education and training without leaving their communities.

We respond to 800,000+ requests per year from Ontarians and provide five local services:

  • Information about available online programs and courses
  • Assistance with the registration process for their program or course of choice
  • Free use of computer workstations and high-speed Internet access to complete their online courses
  • Free use of web conferencing and videoconferencing distance learning platforms to connect to, and participate in, their live online programs and courses
  • Supervision of written exams and tests

 

Learn more about us at contactnorth.ca.