OVERVIEW
Storytent
This outdoor, rain or shine program may be our best known project. We have run storytent programs in Crescent Valley (2003-2012), the Old North End (2009-2011, 2014-2015), Anglin Drive (2009-2011), Courtney Bay, Grand Bay, Rainbow Park and Nason Park.
We've run event storytents: at CVCTA Fun Days, Old North End Days, Saint John's Passport2Parks, RiverCross Outreach Mission, St. Martins' Days, Loyalist Days, New River Beach Sand Castle Days, Festival By the Sea and a host of other festivals and events.
We've provided multi-year administration support for neighbourhood groups running their own storytents in Crescent Valley, Anglin Drive, Courtney Bay and elsewhere. We have provided storytent orientations in Campbellton, Moncton, St. Stephen and at the 2010 APLA Conference.
Since 2004, we have shared several storytent documents (see the Our Stories tab above); and are currently collaborating with our partners to create a renewed orientation document for 2016.
Liberaries
The Bookwagon program (2003-2012) may be our best known library-focused work. (See our Bookwagon story here.) However, we have also helped develop participant-run neighbourhood libraries hosted in Crescent Valley (one with the CVCTA and another, larger with the CVRC), with the Anglin Drive Resource Centre, the ONE Change Centre, and in 5 different seniors’ complexes. Most recently we established a community library in Brown’s Flat (2018), a "Little Free Library" at Brundage Point (2019), and four "Laundry Libraries" on Roxbury Drive (2019).
We have been pleased to make donations of lower-level adult books (fiction and non-fiction) for most of these libraries.
We have also donated books to, and served as library volunteers with several area schools and daycares.
Adult Learning
New Brunswick offers a variety of adult learning services, and QLNB works with interested adults to find a path they feel comfortable with. Our first choice is to refer to existing programs. When or where conventional services are less appropriate or less available, we provide tutoring and small group learning. To date, we have hosted neighbourhood learning groups through the Crescent Valley Tenants' Association, the Crescent Valley Resource Centre, the Nick Nicolle Centre and the Saint John Free Public Library.
QLNB offers mentoring and hands-on learning for neighbourhood committees who want to organize and deliver their own events and projects.
Family Learning
QLNB promotes and supports family literacy through special events and multi-week family programming. We have run Mother-Daughter Scrapbooking and Parent-Child Mother Goose programs. We partnered with Project READ Literacy Network (Waterloo‐Wellington) to pilot the Family Ties after-school program, and delivered a local follow-up project, “Marvelous Mondays,” both hosted at Centennial School. We regularly participate in neighbourhood Family Literacy Day events and bring book donations, story corner and literacy activities to neighbourhood Christmas parties.
In partnership with various schools and libraries, we have hosted mascots like Clifford the Big Red Dog, Elliot the Moose, Franklin the Turtle and Geronimo Stilton.
We have also hosted children’s authors and illustrators, including Andrea Beck, Brenda Clark, Sheree Fitch and Robert Munsch (who also joined us on a chilly bookwagon morning).
In between, we've participated as readers in Teddy Bear Picnics, presented mid-summer reading with Santa, run a Harry Potter Reading Club and delivered puppet shows. We have organized International Literacy Day events and family literacy festivals. We have delivered professional development sessions such as in-house Choice Theory Groups and workshops on topics ranging from assisting clients or customers who struggle with reading to effective in-home family literacy strategies. We have also offered a knitting therapy program and engaged in advocacy work with new Canadians and families in crisis.
