Consider This Northumberland

Parents looking for childcare received big news recently. The county announced the creation of an additional 181 daycare spaces, which is significant given that more than 3,000 families are on waitlists.

The new spaces will be in Port Hope, Warkworth, and the Northumberland Centre for Individual Studies in Cobourg.

Yet Lesley Patterson, manager of the Early Year services program, said this is a step in the right direction. The county is working towards adding more than 404 spaces by 2026.

While $10-a-day childcare is not a reality in the county, Patterson said some spaces are $12. She also said there continue to be challenges with staffing. A new classification system is being used where registered early childhood educators are hired, but some operators hire people with related experience. These are called “director-approved”. It is a way to bridge the gap and address staffing shortages while meeting the demand for spaces.

This interview is about a group of 19 business students from Cobourg Collegiate Institute. They were in Molly Klintworth’s Grade 12 class. Together, with some help, they planned, developed, produced, and marketed their very own retail-ready salsa.

Over three months, they worked with the Business and Entrepreneurship Centre Northumberland and the Ontario Agri-Food Venture Centre in Colborne.

These salsa kids received business training and development classes, along with expert advice on the mass production of food products. They did everything from cooking, designing logos, marketing slogans, and packing boxes. Then, they had to sell the 600 jars of the salsa they produced.

You will hear their story from Molly Klintworth, a teacher at Cobourg Collegiate Institute, and Callie Lanzo, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student who participated in the Salsa Project. Trissia Mellor, the Manager at the Ontario Agri-food Venture Centre (OAFVC), will join them.

It is an example of hands-on, practical learning from inside and outside the classroom.

For more than two decades, Northumberland Hills Hospital has handed out scholarships to budding health professionals from the county.

The prize is a $1,500 cheque. It may not seem like a lot. But when you are a student, every penny counts.

Earlier this month, Hospital Board Chair Beth Selby presented the scholarships to two students: Anne Mead and Ella Watson. Anne Mead just completed Trent University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, and Ella Watson just finished her first year in nursing at Trent. Both have strong ties to Northumberland Hills Hospital: Anne Mead through her clinical placement and Ella Watson through her volunteerism in the Hospital Elder Life Program.

To qualify, applicants must demonstrate academic achievement, participate in extra-curricular activities, provide a testimonial explaining their career goals, and a written reference. That’s no easy task.

In this interview, you will meet Anne Mead, a young woman from Port Hope. Her story will share her challenges and successes. But you will learn more than just her qualifications for the scholarship. She will share a bit about herself, her goals, and her dreams.

Cobourg police Chief Paul VandeGraaf discusses the increased focus on the Dynamic Patrol and the Downtown Community Action Plan. He will look at the impact of these initiatives, what they mean to public safety and law enforcement, and the cost to taxpayers. He will address the concerns related to the increasing size of homeless encampment and the recent spike in drug-related arrests and weapons charges. Lastly, the Chief will speak to the potential risks and strategies, along with the future of the encampment site.

So many people are struggling. Food bank use is up. We are reminded daily about the lack of affordable housing and homelessness. Drugs and the opioid crisis are serious concerns.

While many organizations and institutions struggle with these problems, one agency tries to help them all. The Northumberland United Way raises money yearly to support many community groups and run its own programs.

In this interview, you will hear from Alicia Vandine, the new executive director of the United Way. You will learn about her efforts on the job over the last six months, and she will share a bit about herself. Have a listen.

Port Hope Council is spearheading an effort to create a walk-in clinic. It announced the plans last fall. The clinic was supposed to open before the end of 2023, but several challenges arose. It is still not open, but officials say the goal is sometime in July.

Mayor Olena Hankivsky is a key figure in the walk-in clinic's development. She will provide an update on the project. She will shine a light on some of the unexpected hurdles. These will include things like technical issues with software and securing Northumberland County Council's support. All have been instrumental in the clinic's progress.

The clinic is meant to serve those who do not have a family doctor. But it is more complicated. You will want to listen carefully to the interview to fully understand who can use the services and some potential problems that occur if you use it but already have a family physician.

For most of us, the pandemic is a memory. People have moved on. For the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit, the pandemic continued to influence services and programs in 2023 up until today.

In this interview with Dr. Natalie Bocking, the chief medical officer of health, she will explain what has happened in the past year. It is all included in the health unit's annual report. She will shine a light on the health unit's activities to address various activities. Most importantly, she will highlight the relaunching of services and programs put on hold during COVID-19. The school vaccination program is one of the most high-profile of these. You judge if the health unit was successful in 2023.

In 2018, a group of young people played Dungeons & Dragons in a space behind a downtown ice cream shop. It was an informal, safe place for some LGBTQ2 youth to hang out. The pandemic hit, and the group was unable to gather. But the idea of a gathering place for young people in Brighton has fermented for the past year. A group of dedicated volunteers and the support of Brighton council, an organization from Peterborough, and a local church have taken the concept to a new level. The space is being formally launched this month as the Home Rainbow Youth Centre.

In this interview, you will hear the story behind the project, plus a host of events taking place in Brighton during Pride Month.

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Pride Month is in full swing. Following a major event in downtown Cobourg with a parade, music, booths, and a sidewalk sale, Northumberland County is bursting at the seams with local Pride events.

On today’s show, two organizations are featured. First, you will hear from the Port Hope Rainbow Network. You will learn about the work this group does in the community during Pride Month. But it aspires to do more. It hopes to become a hub for information for the LGBTQ2 community in the county. It also runs several programs connecting people, including allies, in promoting acceptance and understanding for all ages.