THUNDER BAY - A group of students at Confederation College are hoping a new marketing campaign will shed light on the positive changes taking place at Thunder Bay Shelter House.
On Saturday, students in the marketing program at Confederation College unveiled #ProjectChange, a new promotional campaign for Shelter House.
“This started as a volunteer experience for one of our professional development classes,” said Ashley Fairley, a second year marketing student and project manager. “We decided to take it to the next level and include a marketing theme to our volunteer work.”
The class developed #ProjectChange, which is designed to highlight the many positive initiatives being undertaken by Shelter House, including the expansion of the community garden.
“We are going to be using #ProjectChange throughout the year for different endeavours we are doing and different workshops to engage and empower our clients and the garden project is the first step for that,” said Alexandra Calderon, development officer at Shelter House.
Fairley said inspiration for the marketing campaign came from visiting the shelter and meeting with the clients.
“We came to visit and we were really inspired by the changes and the new leadership and all the positive energy here,” she said. “We wanted to really bring light to what the Shelter House is doing to help their residents really grow and evolve and change the stigma of what homelessness is in Thunder Bay.”
Work began on the project at the start of the semester and 18 marketing students participated. Alexcia Amorgianos, a second year marketing student and project chair, said the class really wanted to involve the local community when developing the campaign.
“We wanted to have a positive focus,” she said. “There is always a stigma with the shelter house and we wanted to show people to come here and talk to the residents and see what it’s like and connect with them. This is our community. If we don’t support each other, how are we ever going to grow?”
“We really wanted to incorporate a message of growth and change,” Fairley added. “We were really inspired by the positivity that came out of the residents.”
For Calderon, kicking off #ProjectChange by highlighting the expansion of the community garden is a great way to show some of the positive changes taking place at Shelter House.
The community garden was started last year and despite questions surrounding whether or not it would last, it continues to grow and expand.
“We were told that our garden was going to be destroyed because it’s so open and people weren’t going to care for it,” Calderon said. “But actually the opposite happened. They took care of it. If they had a chance to come out and weed, they did. We saw it blossom and grow and be so embraced by the community we saw no other choice but to expand it.”
The expansion is expected to happen next month with the addition of a second garden bed. The garden will include herbs, garlic, zucchini, broccoli, kale, cucumbers, peas, lettuce, as well as a traditional herb garden.
Calderon said the kitchen budget at Shelter House is only $50,000, which primarily goes toward purchasing meat. The community garden helps fill a nutritional need for the clients.
“Being able to buy produce and more vegetables will really help us to ensure the meals will be more nutritious and well balanced,” Calderon said.
But the purpose of the community garden goes well beyond the kitchen, with it not only serving as a project for the residents, but also a source of pride for the entire community.
“One of our main values is dignity and respect of our clients,” Calderon said. “We feel like being able to give them somewhere to contribute and give back is really important. It also engages them, so instead of being out doing other things, they will be here working and doing workshops and learning about planting and watering. We are really looking forward to giving them more opportunities.”
