Young Voices from a Nova Scotia Community
When I returned to Nova Scotia I was intent on becoming more involved in my community. I was a student when I lived here last with too much spare time and too few commitments. Now that school was behind me I had no excuse beyond laziness for my lack of connection to the community. I sought out a community program that I could relate to and came upon one called Hear We Are. It's organized through the Halifax Public Library to provide teens living in and around the Spryfield community with an opportunity to learn about radio and encourage them to share their stories. The hope was that the program might give the teens something to do, show them the ropes of recording, teach them how to pull off a good interview, excite them to piece stories together and generally interact with likeminded teens. Having a journalism degree, and some reporting and recording experience behind me, I felt I’d found a good fit.
The Teen Services Library Assistant at the local branch (Ryan Veltmeyer, pictured below with a few participating teens) and a radio-savvy volunteer first organized the program and set out on a trial run in 2006. The trial went well with 10 or so teens producing over a dozen quality radio pieces that captured glimpses into their lives and their neighborhood. Selections from the group’s work were even played on CKDU community radio to the excitement of the teens. It so happened that just before I returned the original volunteer moved on and the loss left a need for someone to step in and help out. I jumped at the chance to participate in Phase 2 of Hear We Are.
The group gets together once a week at the Captain William Spry Library and are a fun bunch, eager to learn and they repeatedly impress me with their insight. Only a few months have passed since I met them and working with them has renewew my own interest in producing audio. The sessions continue to grow each week and the library’s hoping to add to the store of computer and recording equipment and other resources they’ve built up, possibly branching out to other communities with similar programs if the interest is there. We’re planning to run this session into the spring, set up field trips to local radio stations, drop by the local schools and colleges that offer training in journalism and broadcast production, and hopefully introduce the teens to a breadth of opportunities.
The teens are learning communication skills, getting to know new computer applications, exploring the community around them and asking questions. Who knows, I could be working alongside some future journalists or sound engineers, actors or on-air talent. There's a pool of pretty creative teens on the road to some exciting careers here. If programs like this continue to pop up maybe they’ll find an opportunity to share their experiences with future young Nova Scotians.
Check out other Teen Services offered by the Halifax Public Libraries system here http://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca
