Neighbors Helping Neighbors is a community of volunteers who helped our off-campus students through supportive phone calls and texts, delivery of groceries and meals and whatever was needed by StFX students who were required to self-isolate in order to attend StFX. "Neighbors Helping Neighbors" is a part of the Good Neighbors Strategy.
StFX had 370 students who would be staying with us on campus and who would be supported by our campus staff, but we needed a plan to support our off-campus students. The Public Health requirements were so strict that students from out of province, arriving in Antigonish were required to go directly to the place they would self-isolate and stay there for two weeks. They were not allowed to stop at a store for groceries or supplies or leave their property.
We recognized very early on that our students would need support just for their basic needs – groceries and other items – but also to stay in your home and not come out for two weeks is not something we’re required to do every day and it’s quite a behavioral change. We also recognized there would be a benefit to having some moral support, emotional support, and encouragement.
I knew the community of StFX was the kind of place where we could rely on our staff to step up and help our students. But we would need a small army to support the potential 700+ off campus students! How would we do it? And then a community member, Amy MacDonald emailed to ask if there was anything that she could do to help safely and successfully welcome back out of province students to StFX. We talked and Amy said that she would be able to help engage other volunteers from the Antigonish community.
Amy recognized that there was a lot of mixed emotion in the community regarding the decision to have in-person classes. She felt that as a community, there was a lot that could be done to reduce risk and support students in a positive and productive way.
Given this evident interest from community volunteers, I next spoke with Murry Kyte, VP Advancement, to see if he thought that supporting the self- isolating students was a project that our Alumni Association would also be interested in. Murray and his Alumni Association team of Shanna Hopkins and Janine Linthorne were immediately supportive.
The StFX student union also stepped up and provided food from the Students Food Resource Centre for those who may be feeling the financial pinch during an early return to university life.
Community, Faculty, Staff, Student Union and Alumni Association and volunteers: Neighbors Helping Neighbors was born.
Our Student Life Team, under Director Jacqueline De Leebeeck, worked with Shanna Hopkins, Director of Alumni Affairs and Janine Linthorne of Alumni Affairs. Jacqueline coordinated all of the isolating student's applications, gathering their off-campus contacts and need for supports. Shanna and Janine promoted the project, recruited, oriented and mobilized over 230 volunteers from community, StFX faculty and staff, and alumni and the Student Union Student Food Resource Center deliveries requests. They also coordinated the volunteer-student connections.
The program launched in mid-August, about the time students began to return to Antigonish to self-isolate before heading back to university for in-person classes on September 14.
Volunteers made phone calls of support, delivered the groceries, dropped off treats, and offered to help however they could. The program followed Public Health social distancing regulations. Volunteers, wearing masks, arrived at the students’ residence, rang the doorbell and left items on the doorstep or walkway while maintaining a physical distance of two meters.
The response from our StFX and Antigonish community is a story of hope. Knowing that we have a network of caring and compassionate people who are anxious to help others through difficult times leaves me confident that we will get through this pandemic together and be stronger for it. The program was so impactful that it prompted a grateful parent to create a bursary now for the community.
[Elizabeth Yeo is the head of student services for the University and provides leadership and oversight to University Departments responsible for Student Life (includes Residence Life); Health, Counselling and Accessible Learning and; Athletics & Recreation]