Sep. 07, 2011 - Issue #829: Capital City Burlesque and Sex Issue 2011

Forgotten skills

Reskilling Edmonton looks to share skills between generations

We often forget how much we don't know. Many of us don't cook our own food. We've stopped repairing broken electronics, crafting furniture, mending clothes—skills that are important not only for self-sufficiency, but that could help to improve our impact on the environment. While many of us don't use these skills on a daily basis today, there is a generation that could teach the rest of us a thing or two. Reskilling Edmonton is a new group that attempts to connect seniors with a younger generation to share their skills in reducing our impact on the environment.
Chelsea Taylor, an associate director with the Sierra Club Prairie Chapter, saw a chance to help Edmontonians develop some important skills and connect across a generational divide. Taylor wants to connect the project with the ideas of sustainability.
"We can speak to alternatives that will address our own personal impacts on the climate, lowering our carbon footprint and food security issues," says Taylor. "Our food is being transported by unsustainable resources. If there is a change to that in the next 20 – 30 years, we're looking at the generation that still has those skills so that we can be better prepared than we are now."

The first step in the project was to connect with the better-prepared generation. Taylor got in touch with Public Interest Alberta's seniors task force for advice as well as further outreach. The first obstacle proved to be a generation gap in communications.
"We forget people don't text and email everyday," says Taylor. "People still use the phone." So organizational efforts had to be adjusted to accommodate multiple generations. Taylor notes that a lot of the control over the workshops is in the hands of the seniors who have the skills as well.
"There are several skills-based groups for seniors based around woodworkers, [and] quilting. We're trying to get in touch and outreach with those groups, to see if they would be interested in putting on a workshop for younger people."
So far, Taylor says, there has been some reluctance on the part of seniors, who are skeptical as to the desire by the younger generation to know these skills. An event was organized in July to generate some interest in the project.
"I thought it would be a good way to show the seniors and people who have had cynicism around interest that we are going to push forward as well," says Taylor. The day had workshops on composting, sewing and some crafting with locally-sourced resources.
The goal for the network is to hold regular workshops that are fairly barrier free.
"I'm quite keen on learning these things, but I've seen workshops in the city where things have a fee and it's an additional boundary to participating," says Taylor. "So we wanted to keep it barrier-free, entry level learning and accessible for seniors in the community." So far the group has applied for several grants and collected some resources to ensure materials are accessible and workshops can exist without financial barriers.
As school starts up again Taylor is hopeful more students will be interested in picking up the skills of sustainability. "Our target right now is university and college students who are out on their own for the first time. People feeling the heat of their bills and how to do their own repairs."
The intergenerational differences  didn't end at learning to reuse the phone. Taylor says there was some conversations around the differences in gender roles between generations. "But the network is also about communication," says Taylor.

 

For more information on Reskilling Edmonton check out reskillingedmonton.wordpress.com

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