Last Day in the Boardroom :(

Wow, I cannot believe that 10 weeks is gone. Well, really for me it's been 10 weeks plus 2 days. I took 2 days off during my time here and agreed to work 2 extra days at the end so it has been me in here with no Robyn and no Kasia for 2 days this week. I miss them...Anyway, things are going pretty good despite not having them, and Anne's daughter has started working here a bit this week so I haven't been totally lonely. And of course Anne and the rest of the HDC gang are always kicking around here somewhere. I can honestly say that although I am looking forward to having 2 weeks off before school starts up, I will miss everyone I have had the opportunity to meet and work with here, they are a great bunch of people. So great that I may just have to return to work here next summer! If they want me back...haha what am I saying of course they do eh Robyn? She is also thinking of making a return to the boardroom next summer. Although I'll be off, these next 2 weeks will probably be pretty crazy. I'm getting ready to go away to school for the first time. I did 2 years at UNBSJ but now I'm headed off to Mount St Vincent in Halifax! I'm very excited but maybe slightly nervous as well...Anyway, I guess I should head off and do a little more work and not be a compete slacker on my last day; and you never know you may hear from us again next summer!
Byebye
Adrienne

Last day for me at the HDC :(

Hey everyone,

Well the summer has come and gone...and so has my time at the Human Development Council. :( I'm honestly a little upset about this because I have met such great people here in the office. Even though we joked about the "boardroom" alot it really was a great place to work. I was just handed a really cute card from Anne......so sad. Anyways.. I'm sure I will find things to fill up the rest of my summer and I will enjoy my time off before heading back to Fredericton for school. The HDC was a great summer job especially for me with an interest in psychology. As I had mentioned before I plan on working with youth and addiction later on and this job helped me understand the places around our city that offer addiction services and other services related to addiction. I really hope to be back here next summer as long as they still want me back!! I also have lots of information from different organizations throughout the city which I can take home with me to further educate myself about what this city has to offer. Hopefully you have enjoyed reading our blog entries as this will be my last one. Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone at HDC!! It's been great!

Ciao
~Robyn~

Hey Everybody!
I'm just taking a few minutes out of my day here to give you all an update of what we've been up to these past few weeks here at the HDC. Sadly, Kasia's time here in our little boardroom is done :(
She started a few weeks ahead of Robyn and I, so lucky her got the whole month of August off! I can't really complain though because yesterday most of the staff went sailing for the afternoon on Robyn's boat (and still got payed hahaha...) We had an awesome time and stuffed our faces with food and drinks. Even Kasia returned for that one. As for work, today and next week, along with the database, Robyn and I will be making a list of places around the area that could benefit from receiving information and posters about our services. We'll be sending them to shelters, food banks, family resource centres etc. in hopes that our information will reach anyone who may be in need of various services. Well that's about it for now it's almost go time and its a Friday! :)
Bye for now!
Adrienne

Update from the HDC!

Hello everyone,
Robyn here from the HDC boardroom. This week is a very sad week in the boardroom as we will be saying farewell to our dear Kasia. This is her last week here at the HDC and we are sad to see her go. Oh well, life must go on. I'm quite sure Adrienne and I can keep ourselves busy for the next month. We have been busy entering data in the database and updating records. Also this week we will be visiting New Directions, AIDS Saint John and the Refugee Support Centre. We will be getting tours of their organizations and will show them how to work our online community service database. We have a new volunteer at the HDC and her name is Truly. She is the sweetest girl and is such a hard worker! She even brought us a box of cookies yesterday :) We are still enjoying our new paint job in the office and are currently looking for some artwork to display if anyone has anything they care to offer! As you have seen in Adrienne's last entry the colors are a deep orange/red and yellow. So keep that in mind! Well I suppose I should get back to work now. Keep checking with us for more updates!

Ciao
~Robyn~

Hip new office

Hiiiiiii,
It's Adrienne again, on my fifth week here at the HDC. We started off this week a bit differently as our main office has been transformed from dull gray and weird pink colours to vibrant yellows and a deep red. What a huge difference a little paint can make! However, the post-paint day has been filled with moving book shelves, scrubbing desks, organizing papers, etc. It's only 3:15pm and I feel about ready for bed. Anyway, everyone has been doing their share of clean-up work and within the next few days, the place is really going to be looking good. All we need now is more plants, maybe a few vibrant flowers and some nice artwork...haha i might not be around to see all that since I only have 5 more weeks here, but in time I'm sure the rest of the group will continue to get this place looking even better.
In other news, Robyn, Kasia and I have been making a list of various different groups and organizations around the city that we would like to visit and learn more about. Last week we visited the Community Health Centre where we learned all about the services they provide and the excellent Teen Resource Centre that I knew nothing about. Before our time here in the boardroom is through, we hope to get in as many more visits as we can to learn all about the services we strive to get the community connected with.
Well, that's probably all the time I have for now since everyone else seems to be hard at work around here, bye for now!

Peace
Adrienne

Kasia's note

Hi
This is Kasia, I am the third student in this HDC boardroom. I have been here for 6 weeks working on a research project. My project is on child poverty in New Brunswick and Canada. The project is very challenging and frustrating at times since I have to deal with trying to understand some data on poverty rates. Finally, I have gotten past the point of collecting data, making graphs and now I'm on the fun part: the write up and the analysis. My time here ends in 3 weeks so its crunch time getting this report done.
The candy is still flowing in the board room and the girls and I get in some good laughs in between our work.
All in all I have been enjoying my time at the HDC. This summer job has been a great oppertunity as I get to do alot of interesting research in the field that I am interested in. I will also end my time here with a written report -hopefully it will shed some light on the challenges the province is facing and what has to be done to improve the situation.
thanks for checking into the boardroom.
see ya
-Kasia

Hey Everyone,

This is Robyn, one of the summer students at the Human Development Council. Adrienne and I are into our third week with HDC now and still having a great time! Due to the ongoing inclimate weather we have been having, we spend most our days couped up in the ole boardroom drinking tea and eating candy. The few sunny days that we have seen we have been able to travel around to meetings for different organizations such as The Canadian Mental Health Association, Coverdale Centre and The United Way. Also, on Thursday of last week Adrienne and I travelled the uptown area passing out pamphlets and posters titled "Surviving the Streets". These provide contact information for many services for example shelters, mental health services, legal services, clothing and food services, addiction services and many more. These pamphlets and posters were distributed all over the uptown area and hopefully will be of use to many people! I really enjoy working with this organization because they do such great work and provide a great service with their online community service database. I think Adrienne and I should spend some time this summer on really getting the public aware of this online database and that it is available to them for FREE!! I really enjoy working with a non-profit organization and it is giving me great experience for a future career. I hope to someday work in the area of addiction services so this job is helping me become familiar with the different organizations that focus on addiction and the people within those organizations. Well it's almost time to go home for the day and I guess I have said enough for now. Thanks for reading our blog and we will keep you updated as our time here at HDC flies by!


Ciao!
~Robyn~