Staff at the Ponoka Jubilee Library are excited to be broadening their educational offerings via a new program — Free School.
Free School will be presented as one-time classes held on the third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m.
“Our library is a community-led library, and what that means is that we try to see what is going on around town and in the community,” explained Tiffany Toma, program coordinator.
“We will be having sourdough bread making (in September). In October, we will be doing a water-proofing course and in November we are having a lady come in to tell her stroke survival story,” she said.
“We will then take a break in December and start up again in January. We have a line-up pretty much set up, but we are also looking for community participation.
“So if someone in the community has a skill or a knowledge set that they believe people would be interested in, we are encouraging them to contact us so that we can set up a month for them to share that knowledge and those skills.
“Not only are we trying to help people save money and to learn new skills, but it’s also about building community, too.”
She noted that the Library is currently taking registrations for Free School.
“Those interested can call the library and we can put them down on the registration list, or they can also sign up through our website. We have a ‘Programs and Events’ page, and they can find all of our programs listed there in a calendar format,” she said.
“If you click on a program, there is a ‘Register Now’ button for those programs that take registrations.”
Another new program, called Career Launch Pad, will help folks prepare for interviews, write resumes, and be better prepared for the whole job-hunting scenario.
“We will be tailoring it specifically to what you are going after as well, to give you your best shot at preparing your resume and having it speak to the employer of the job that you are going after,” she said.
“These are full, one-day courses. The first (session) is on Sept. 25, the second one is on Oct. 23, and the third session runs Nov. 6. The workshops run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and lunch is provided,” she said.
“Again, these cover everything from resume and cover letter writing and interview preparedness to mock interview sessions,” she said.
“Each day is a full session that covers all of those parts, so people only have to sign up for one of those dates.
“On our webpage, at the top, we have ‘Career Launch Pad’ on there so people can just click on that and it will take them to the page that will provide all the information, as well as the registration link,” she said.
She noted that Free School and Career Launch Pad essentially go hand-in-hand.
It’s also timely as free programs are helpful with the ongoing jump in the overall cost of living, she noted.
“We’ve seen a need in our community, and we are trying our best to respond to it and to combat directly the things people are facing right now as much as we are able to,” she said.
“We’ve always done our best to create barrier-free access which is why our programs are offered for free. We want as many people to utilize them as possible. We are always trying to evolve and to connect with our community.”
For more information, call 403-783-3843 or email ponokalibrary@prl.ab.ca.
