Building Memories and Skills

Safe Spaces and Relationships is a program where students learn valuable life and employability skills in a boat shop.  This program continues to be incredibly impactful to the young people who take part in it and we continue to be impressed with what they build each year. 

When it started in 2018, this boat building program was a three-day venture where the students built a 12-foot Bevin Skiff using only hand tools.  From there, the program has evolved and expanded to students spending one day a week at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic from January to June.  Over the years they have built an assortment of boats and even stand up paddle boards and a toboggan, and some participants have earned a Construction Technology credit or their Pleasure Craft Operators License while they were at it. The positive outcomes from this program are impressive.

Last year a total of five students participated for varying lengths of time and in different capacities.  This fluctuating attendance was a result of institutional factors including movement within Nova Scotia’s continuum of care, or changes to their community school.  No young people dropped out of the program as a choice not to participate.

Each participant attended an individual boat shop orientation with our Recreation Therapist and at least one of the boatbuilding instructors.  This included safety practices and demos on how to safely use the required tools. Throughout the program they learned to work with epoxy and fibreglass, as well as wood. They mastered steam bending planks and tying knots.  They worked on teamwork, respect, commitment and professionalism. And they even created basic DC electrical currents.  Their work resulted in the construction of two cedar toboggans and a 14-foot Bird-Class Dinghy.  Two of the participants launched the dinghy in Halifax Harbour at the end of the school year in front of a crowd of enthusiastic supporters.

The participants all received certificates acknowledging their accomplishments in this program and a list of impressive skills and experience to list on their resumes. One student was so proud of what he accomplished that he joined the Recreation Therapist on stage at HomeBridge’s AGM in June to tell everyone about his experience in the program.  This was a huge move for a young person who was very shy and withdrawn when he started the program, but he had the audience laughing and completely captivated within seconds of taking the podium.

Thank you to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the Youth Development Initiative for partnering with us on this meaningful program.  We can’t wait to see what next year brings!