Support Underserved Communities through IYA and BIYA!

By Julie Bolduc-Duval

Last summer, I was hired as the part-time education and outreach coordinator for IYA and BIYA in Canada (BIYA: Beyond IYA). This position, funded through a generous grant from the NSERC PromoScience program, is coordinated by CASCA, in partnership with the two amateur associations: RASC and FAAQ (Quebec).  The goal of my position is to bring astronomy to youth, especially from underserved communities who don't usually get much access to science and technology programs and careers. While many groups could be considered "underserved", we have decided to focus our energies on youth in: remote or rural communities , inner cities, and Aboriginal communities.

Some astronomical activities are already being organised within those communities, but from our extensive IYA experiences we know much more could and should be done and would be welcome. In the past year, I’ve been busy learning about all the wonderful activities and resources the Canadian astronomical community has developed over the years. I’ve also made useful contacts with people involved in outreach all across the country and in organisations working in science outreach.

Our plan is to concentrate our efforts in the next few years on:

Parks: The many IYA activities in local, provincial and national parks have been great successes and provide a strong foundation upon which to offer more activities in remote and rural areas where darker skies prevail. Some progress is being made: we are getting requests for help organising astronomy activities in many parks across of the country.  Did you know that parks can apply to use CASCA’s WESTAR Lecture program? Let us know if you are collaborating with parks and how we might help you.

• Schools: Even though astronomy is part of the pan-Canadian school curriculum, not all teachers feel very comfortable with the subject. Helping teachers and schools with our new resources and approaches will introduce more kids, especially from underserved communities, to science and technology through astronomy.  Professional development workshops have been organised in some provinces and we are trying to reach more teachers from different parts of the country. Canada is part of the international program called Galileo Teacher Training Program and we can use these resources and certification system to help us. We would also like to work with any educators interested in using UNAWE, an approach to reaching very young children in multiethnic city cores that proved to be very successful during IYA in other countries.
• Libraries: Libraries are everywhere, including in underserved communities (inner cities, remote areas...). It would be powerful to create many more partnerships with them and offer our community’s knowledge and expertise in order to organise more astronomical activities through libraries. We are aware from IYA that Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria had very productive partnerships with libraries, as no doubt many other centres did.
• Science outreach organizations: Some science outreach organizations are already reaching kids all across the country, some of them focussing on kids in underserved communities. We have made interesting contacts and are trying to strengthen our collaboration with them. Some examples: Let’s talk science, Actua, Elephant Thoughts…If you have experience we would appreciate benefitting from your lessons learned.

There are many challenges and opportunities in this project and thus many different ways that you could help us, some requiring little of your time: · You have contacts with organizations working with underserved communities or with the people in these groups directly you can share with us. · You have participated in outreach activities with underserved audiences and can share experiences and/or contacts with us. · You have ideas for activities or projects involving underserved youth to share. · You are interested in helping us reach those groups. · You are interested in outreach in general!

Do not hesitate to contact me at jbolducduval@cegepth.qc.ca. I’d be happy to hear from you or answer any question you might have!