November 19th-23rd Le Centre Sheraton Hotel, Montreal
I am so lucky to have had the chance to be attend the Pathways to Prosperity 2023 National Conference in Montreal! It’s been 23 years since I was last in this wonderful city. I lived here for 3 years while attending Concordia University from 1997-2000. I couldn’t resist returning to see my old apartment and walking along Rue Ste-Catherine – wow things have changed through the years! But I still managed to find a nice café with lemon tarts and lattes. No snow yet, but the leaves are vibrant in the sunshine.
My coworker and I attended to present our LINC Field Trips poster at the conference poster session. We originally created our poster for the Coquitlam ACE Conference last May. At that time, the poster was a collection of pictures gathered from different field trips that LINC teachers in SD43 Continuing Education have done over the years. But when we applied and were accepted to the P2P Conference, we thought we had better upgrade with a bit of background and research. We chose two articles that highlight the importance of leisure for newcomers to Canada and show a connection between this and the mandated fieldtrips LINC programs are to provide.
Check out see our LINC Field Trips Poster 2.0
Having to do a field trip per month with a budget of only 50$ per month per class has always been a challenge. LINC teachers often find themselves doing many free or very low-cost trips and saving the money up for something toward the end of the year. But after reading these two articles I realized that this is a good thing. Newcomers need to be exposed to cheap and easily accessible recreation spots where they can take their families again if they have enjoyed. Connecting to community and introducing culture in a safe environment is what is important.
One of my favorite free community building trips is to paint poppies at Blue Mountain Park in Coquitlam. This can be seen on my poster, from a previous year’s trip, but I took my class again this year – in the rain, and it was a success. We walked over from the school, about a 20 min walk there, the City of Coquitlam workers explained the task. Students laughed and enjoyed as they painted in the rain – getting to know their classmates in a community setting!
And all of the students were taking pictures….which made me think again about photovoice. Could I do something with this? I definitely have a diverse group with new viewpoints, and it could be an inclusive project… I’ll have to keep thinking about this.
Resources:
Lauckner, H., Gallant, K., Akbari, M., Tomas, G., nee White, T. P., & Hutchinson, S. (2022). Picturing Recreation: Newcomers’ Perspectives on Experiences of Recreation. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 23(4), 2101–2123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-021-00921-2
Quirke, L. (2015). Searching for Joy: The Importance of Leisure in Newcomer Settlement. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 16(2), 237–248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-014-0388-7
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