During these unprecedented times the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District (NLESD) has continued to provide services and resources that assist students in managing their mental health and wellness while classes are suspended.

On April 7th, NLESD launched the telephone counselling component of its Volunteer Guidance Services Initiative. This service has seen both parents and students reach out to our team for support in navigating through these challenging times.

To expand upon this initiative, our team of volunteer school guidance counselors will be providing further support through online Social Emotional Learning Sessions. These will be facilitated using Google Meet. The sessions will be live events open to all students. To access these SEL sessions, students must log in to their NLESD Google account.

These Social and Emotional Learning events are not counselling sessions rather they are live group gatherings for the purpose of promoting positive mental health and wellbeing. A schedule of upcoming fun/helpful sessions will be posted on the Well-Being section of the Learning at Home website at https://learningathome.nlesd.ca/well-being/guidance-services so that users can easily view presentation times, obtain session information, and join as they wish.

First live session is Tuesday May 12th, 11:00 am (NST)

Calling all students! We want your family stories about what is happening in Newfoundland and Labrador during the Covid-19 pandemic! Here are some sample questions to get you started on your home oral history interview. You can answer these yourself, or sit down with a family member and interview them. Don’t forget to start your interview by spelling out your full name, and including the date of the interview. You can record your interview in any format (audio or video) on your smartphone or digital device, and email it to covid19@heritagenl.ca. If it is a large file, you can use the free www.wetransfer.com website to send it to the same email address, or post it on YouTube and send us the link.

All submissions welcome, including songs, recitations, poetry, or music!

Sample Questions:

• Can you describe the community where you live?
• When did you first learn about the coronavirus? What were your initial reactions?
• How did your community respond to the virus? What closures, restrictions, or safeguards were put in place?
• Describe any events you witnessed that express your or your community’s response to the virus.
• How are you personally responding to the virus? What has changed in your daily routine?
• How has your family been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic?
• How are you staying in touch with family and friends?
• What will you remember most about this time in our lives?

Feel free to make up your own questions!

What will happen to my audio/video file?

Once you contact us, we will ask you to fill out a brief, confidential consent form so that we can add your story to a permanent collection on Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, where it can be seen and accessed for educational and non-commercial use only, and where it may be used as part of a future physical or online exhibit at The Rooms about the Covid-19 pandemic. Your story will become part of the historical record! If at some point you want your story taken down from the website, we can always remove your records from the archive.

For more information, contact:

Dale Jarvis, Heritage NL dale@heritagenl.ca

@dalejarvis on Twitter www.hfnl.ca