There will be one more Welcome To Timmins LIVE session, this time featuring francophone organizations.
A special edition will be held on Nov. 4 during National Francophone Immigration Week.
The event will include presentations from seven francophone organizations such as Centre Culturel La Ronde, Ellevive, Conseil scolaire public du Nord-Est de l'Ontario (CSPNE), Université de Hearst, Réseau de soutien à l'immigration francophone du Nord de l'Ontario, Collège Boréal and Société Économique de l'Ontario.
“We encourage all members of the francophone community to come out and learn a little bit more about the organizations that serve that community,” said Mike Scott, local immigration partnership co-ordinator for the Timmins and District Multicultural Centre,
Welcome To Timmins Night, held at McIntyre Curling Club for the past 26 years, went virtual this year. The standard programming wrapped up on Sept. 30 and the feedback has been “fantastic", Scott said.
During the month of September, close to 50 organizations took part in the event, presenting their programs and services via Zoom.
“We grouped people by groups of 10 in the order that they registered. And what interesting about that is there were a few themes that arose from that," Scott said. "Week one, we saw like a childcare theme. Week two, we saw a senior theme and then week three, it was more like clubs but also some post-secondaries. And the last one, Volume 4, was a lot of municipal and provincial government services and advocacy groups. It was interesting to see those themes kind of arise.”
Recorded videos, posted on Facebook and Youtube, gained a total of 1,141 and 136 views, respectively. Live Zoom sessions were the least attended, with 10 to 15 people logging on, Scott said.
“Our goal for this was not so much focused on the live aspect but having this information available year-round,” Scott said, noting YouTube videos also allow viewers to use timestamps to jump to a specific presentation.
Welcome To Timmins LIVE raised $500 for the Anti-Hunger Coalition Timmins this year.
“I want to thank all the organizations that participated. They not only made this a terrific learning experience for us, but they gave us that opportunity to give back to the Anti-Hunger Coalition and to help share some information about their organization,” Scott said. “I just want to thank everybody who was involved: organizers and participants and viewers that tuned it.”
