ATHABASCA — Residents in the Calling Lake area will soon have access to a new resource and support centre in the community, thanks to two teachers with Northland School Division (NSD) and the backing of the others in the community.
Calling Lake School teachers Sandra Houle and Skye Ell have joined forces to fill a service gap in their community with an adult support centre hosted at the school starting Feb. 8.
Ell, originally from Leduc, is in her third year of living and working in the community. She said Houle, a Cree resident of the area and Grade 6 teacher, has been an advocate for a new resource hub in Calling Lake.
“She had talked quite a bit about the need for an adult support centre, especially since former centres that focused on adult education have closed down in the community,” said Ell in a Feb. 1 interview.
The support centre will provide assistance with resume and cover letter writing, filing paperwork for social supports, and even for applications for college or university and funding for furthering education. Users will have access to internet connections and services like printing and online banking, snacks, and a child-minding area — an idea Ell credits school principal Stephan Marsh with.
“We thought that’s brilliant, because it ensures that the parents can focus on what they’re needing to do and they won’t need to worry,” said Ell.
Community support
NSD expressed its support for the initiative via an emailed statement to The Advocate. “This centre is all about helping adults in the community learn important skills like writing resumes and using computers. It’s not just a school; it’s a place where everyone can come to learn and grow.”
And according to Ell, the project has received external support as well. “I actually talked to a couple of the Bigstone Health managers and staff there,” she said. “They had all mentioned that this would be a really great thing for the community, and it would enable people to better access a lot of the resources that are out there, but they’re not always the easiest to obtain.”
“It’s essentially like a pilot project,” said Ell. The first session will take place Feb. 8, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and the second session is scheduled for Feb. 22. “We haven’t hosted anything like this before out of the school, so there are some of those unknowns.”
“We’ll definitely be on the lookout for any feedback so that we can improve the centre, and maybe there are things that we haven’t even though of — I’m sure there are. But it’s a little bit of a learning process for us as well,” she added.
She said the pair would like to see the centre run weekly after its initial launch in February. “Myself and Sandra both reside here in Calling Lake, Sandra’s been here for many years and she is very close with the community here. I don’t see why, especially if we get a lot of people coming to use the centre, why we wouldn’t continue it on a regular basis.”
Both Houle and Ell have voiced concerns about stigma around the centre and its services, and how pre-conceived notions may limit engagement with the resource, but Ell said they hope their community connections will ease any hesitation.
And the school seemed like the best location to help do exactly that and more, said Ell. “The first year I was here, we were still in the middle of COVID and that really has impacted the ability for the school to be a part of the community,” she said. “We’re all really hopeful that people feel comfortable and can start seeing the school as a centre for the community again through this project.”
For Ell, the centre is more than a pet project: she began studying for her Masters at the University of Calgary in July 2023, and when she received her instructions for the year, she knew it was time to put rubber to road.
“This year’s topic was decolonization and reconciliation, and using critical service learning to help make that a reality in the communities where we live,” she said. “I immediately thought of the conversation Sandra and I had had. I reached out to her and was lucky enough that she wanted to partner with me on this.”
The initiative also hits on national calls for meaningful change made in 2015. “This centre is very important because it supports specific calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” read NSD’s statement.
“It means we are helping to make things better by teaching skills that help everyone. We want everyone to have the same chances to learn and be successful.”
