Streams Community Hub summer camps underway

July 22, 2021 · 0 Comments

Written By Paula Brown

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Streams Community Hub’s creative arts summer camps are back up and running after the programs were cancelled in 2020.

“Coming back, it’s amazing,” said Juli-Anne James, co-founder and president of the local charity. “A lot of the kids they’ve been with us in the past and when we saw them for the first day we were like ‘you’ve grown so much’. It’s really great to have them back, to see them back with each other and being able to create and have fun.”

The six-week long programming kicked off on July 5, with 165 participants between the ages of 3 and 16 from the Shelburne and Dufferin County area.

In the past the summer camps have averaged around 100 kids during a four week span, but Juli-Anne said they were able to expand the seasonal programming this year through provincial funding.

Streams Community Hub were recipients of the Safe Return to Class Fund provided by the Ontario government and received $32,000 in funding, which has allowed them to run the summer camps entirely free.

“That was really a blessing for us. Parents not just in our community but across the board have struggled and have had a real difficult time. We’ve heard from a lot of them that if this wasn’t free their kid would not have been able to attend, and so having that money was really important so that we could offer it for free,” said Juli-Anne.

Currently the number of campers on the waitlist is 120.

From circus juggling and video editing, to sewing and baking, the creative arts camp rotates through a variety of programs throughout the summer. This past week Streams Community Hub held Ukulele Jamboree a class where participants learn to play the ukulele, Join the Circus which teaches skills for the circus, and Content Creators a video editing program.

Each program is run by a contracted artist from the Dufferin County area.

“We really believe that it’s best to get someone who’s passionate about the craft, to instruct the kids,” explained Juli-Anne. “Not just an educator, but someone who is interested in educating, interested in working with kids, and passionate about their areas of the arts.”

Dale Lundy, co-founder of L.P Stage Productions, leads the Join the Circus and Broadway Bound programs and has worked with Streams Community Hub since it launched.

“It’s so rewarding and the kids so much need this,” said Lundy. “[For parents] there’s this mindset that their kids are learning some good skills in life, outside of academics. They still need to learn life skills, which they are from this.”

Juli-Anne added that this year specifically, the day camp is providing a social setting for children to re-engage with each other after months apart due to the pandemic.

“A lot of kids are dealing with anxiety about returning to school. If you’ve spent 18 months just in front of a computer not having the social interaction, especially for those who are going from Grade 8 into high school, there’s anxiety that comes along with that. It’s important for them to be able to over the summer period, reengage face to face, talk to people, be around other adults other than their family,” said Juli-Anne.

While Streams Community Hub has been based around seasonal programming since their launch in 2016, the local arts-centered charity recently announced they’ll be establishing a year round presence after leasing two new units currently under construction at the Summerhill Plaza.

“Our ultimate goal is to have our own facility that we’re going to create, and make it our own space that that suits us. We always asked the question ‘how do we get from seasonal programming to this building’ and the next logical step for us was to have a temporary location,” said Andrew James, co-founder of Streams Hub. “We’re hopefully going to make it a place where we can grow out of. Providing year round programming, after school programming, weekend programming, and maybe even some adult workshops surrounding the arts.”

With the expansion, the duo said they hope to introduce programs such as music education, graphic design, music production, culinary arts and knitting or crocheting.

“We’re going to find out what the need is. We’ll pilot programs and workshops and if we get the response, we’ll make it into an official program and just continue to grow,” said Andrew.