Community
12 Simple and Low-Cost Ways to Give Back (and Make a Big Impact) This Holiday

Organize a Food Drive
Enlist your neighbors in your effort to give back and offer to handle logistics. Pass out fliers with suggested donation items, your drop-off time and the organization where you will deliver the donations on your block’s behalf. This can easily be done while practicing social distancing with staggered drop-off times, and simply setting up a table on your driveway where people can drop off their items while practicing social distancing.
Check in with an Old Friend
Take the time to reconnect with an old friend by writing a letter to someone you’ve lost touch with. You’ll both feel good!
Think About the Animals!
Donate used blankets, towels food, litter, or toys to a local animal shelter.
Give Back to Our Planet
Challenge yourself to adopt an earth-friendly habit for a week, month or the entire holiday season. Using your own reusables, such as travel mugs and cloth shopping bags, can go a long way. Use newspaper to wrap presents and get creative with reducing your waste over the holiday!
Treat Local Firefighters and Front-Line Workers
Treat the hard-working individuals of our local fire stations or hospital with some unexpected treats to say thanks.
Feed Hunger
Make a brown bag meal or two for the homeless. Check with organizations for guidance on what their clients need most. Warm socks and travel-size toiletries such as toothpaste and hand soap are often greatly appreciated. A little goes a long way.
The Gift of Life
Donate blood!
Random Giveaways
Break $5, $10 or $20 into dollar bills and give them away throughout the day to those who could use a buck. Maybe it’s just buying a coffee to the person behind you in line, or someone standing on the street. Perhaps even lend an ear and listen to their story. You just might change the course of someone’s day with your generosity.
Pay it Forward with Bus Passes
Purchase bus transit passes that can be used any time, and head on down to the bus station and hand the passes out to individuals who could use a break.
Spread the Words
Donate your gently loved books to those in need of a good read, like nursing homes and shelters.
Give Your Undivided Attention
Unplug from technology for a couple hours per day and give full focus to your children, significant other, friends, pets and even yourself.
Throw Down a Charity Challenge
Share this post on social media along with ways you are giving back. Then challenge your friends and followers to do the same.
Community
Looking for a Resilient Career for the Future? Keep an Eye Out for the Lighthouse

If we consider that the future of work will include a multitude of digital practices, it is up to us as employees and employers to embrace this shift with readiness and education. More familiar than not, the skills we learn through our years in education are a base, from which we hope to secure a position that falls in the same realm as our studies. The challenge is that even with curriculum updates and youth programs, the study of ever-changing digital education continues to be a challenge for both teachers and students.
We as a society are moving into a gig-heavy economy, with individuals packing more onto their certification rosters in the hopes of diversifying their resume’s. For those who may want to keep the pace over the next decade, two key categories within education shine through – data science and web development.
The importance of these skills may seem only attributable to certain industries, however, if we consider the more intensive labour positions, how data is perceived and understood is immensely important. If you are a mid-career worker, someone looking to renew their digital education or one to pursue alternative career paths that carry real promise, these skills may prove to be some of the most sought after in the near future.
To no surprise that the end of year report by Payscale shows the two “hottest jobs” fall in the data category, reflected by the “The Future of Jobs Report 2020” by the World Economic Forum. This report shows a progressive estimate for skills that will be in demand up to 2025 and beyond.

Source: Future of Jobs Survey 2020, World Economic Forum, Fig. 18, p27
This is all great knowledge to have on hand, but where can similar skills be learnt without investing in a multi-year university degree?
One Canadian company has tangible options.
Lighthouse Labs
Lighthouse Labs is a Canadian company founded in 2013 by its CEO Jeremy Shaki. They specialize in educational programs and boot camps in the fields of web development and data science. Their team has created intuitive learning programs attainable for all walks of life who carry a ‘growth mindset’ into their personal development.
They offer full-time and part-time courses for their multiple bootcamps, with available mentorship from experienced professionals in both fields. The results from their 2019 Student Outcomes Report available on their website. A year from January 2019, 504 students enrolled in their bootcamps, 458 graduated and 324 gained employment post bootcamp. Out of the 329 graduates who completed a job-seeking cycle within 180 days post-bootcamp, 95% of that group accepted employment. These numbers are incredible in comparison to the investment required for a new career avenue in 2021.
In March of 2020, we experienced a mass transition to digital communications in our daily and work lives due to the pandemic. For some, the integration of conference calls, internal team applications and a pressing focus on data was simple to grasp, but not for all.
In light of some of these challenges, Lighthouse Labs has implemented and collaborated with multiple organizations to offer “Impact Initiatives”. Created to offer hyper-focused ways of educating groups of Canadians to enhance their digital literacy.
In collaboration with Kids Code Jeunesse, a non-profit organization focused on digitally-focused educational programs for youth, with funding from the Government of Canada created the Code Create Teach initiative. This partnership had 2,703 teachers experience a one-day introductory workshop on coding and computational thinking. The objective was to offer teachers additional tools they can bring into their classrooms to enhance their student’s grasp of digital technologies.
There are multiple ongoing initiatives with Lighthouse Labs and other organizations that are available to view on their website. Another that stood out is the “Accelerating Possibilities Project” in partnership with Woodgreen Community Services. Created to offer mid-career workers an opportunity to learn new skills in web development, data science and customer service. Now more than ever, these types of initiatives have the opportunity to benefit the lives of countless Canadians.
As noted in various media outlets over recent years, there is an outcry for traditional industry workers to keep pace with the digital revolution with training and support. This is one opportunity where Lighthouse Labs and other educational programs can offer a real avenue to a new career.
It should be noted that parallel to the closing of office spaces, restrictions on multi-person worksites and the mass layoffs in some of the more traditional industries, these skills offer the opportunity to both begin a new career path with an educated support system, and to re-evaluate what new skills could bring more value to your current position and your company’s future.
Scholarship Funding
Lighthouse Labs has a strong sense of supporting their community and has recently announced a new scholarship fund in response to the difficult economic and societal conditions our country has faced due to the pandemic. After a high interest in their March 2020 scholarship round, they announced another $500,000 scholarship fund for those in need. You may be eligible for up to $5,000 in support for a full-time bootcamp and $750 for part-time programs if you’ve been laid off, had your hours reduced, or are out of school because of the pandemic. For interested individuals, download their financial guide for more information.
If you would like to learn more about Lighthouse Labs, their support for our communities and the various boot camps they offer, check out their website. All of their material has been digitized and has opened up their reach to anywhere in Canada, check out their blog to learn more about their platform for online tech education. Their team has created a wide variety of reading material to help interested parties learn more prior to an application. These skills are here to stay, the more we integrate with data and web development, the more employers will be headhunting for the right candidate – which truly could be you.
For more stories, visit Todayville Calgary
Central Alberta
Someone is going to win more than a quarter million dollars – One day challenge to support Child Advocacy Centre!

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