Moncton’s Boys And Girls Club Teams Up With University On Robotics Mentorship For Youth
MONCTON – As many as 15 young people from the Boys and Girls Club of Moncton will learn how to build a robot, code, and use electronic circuits thanks to a new mentorship program in partnership with Université de Moncton’s Engineering Faculty.
The project is designed in partnership with the university’s Robotics Group and with the help of Youth Lab, a local organization that aims to help contemporary knowledge accessible to community organizations serving youth and young adults.
It’s meant to introduce the principles of robotics to youth aged 12-to-18 who are participants in the club’s Raise the Grade program.
“Some of the jobs that we have today will disappear in 10-to-15 years. We have to make sure that we’re getting the kids ready for the new jobs, the new economy, and that we spark that interest and curiosity in something that will be extremely popular in the next five-to-10 years,” said Moncef Lakouas, the club’s executive director.
Each year, the Raising the Grade program gives 300 kids access tutoring services and resources to help them overcome academic challenges, mental health challenges, socio-economic challenges, as well as prepare for and adjust to the transition between middle school and high school. The program also provides mentorship and help with career exploration.
It has run for seven years with 100 percent of high school participants graduating, and the percentage of those who consider post-secondary education as their next step increases from 33 percent to 91 percent after going through the program, Lakouas said.
While the program has worked well, Lakouas said the first-of-its-kind partnership for the club’s Raise the Grade will add value.
“Our job is definitely to work with the school’s curriculum and make sure [youth are] successful there, but we’re also looking into the future and thinking of what will be hot in the next 10 years,” he said. “We’re making sure we’re bridging the gap between the school and university, but we’re also looking at the labour force and saying these are the skillsets of the future, let’s make sure that we give them to the kids now.”
Universite de Moncton’s robotics students will supervise the youth and mentor them, with the help of their professors.
The robotics program, which will take place at the club and the university, will run from November 21 until the end of the academic year in Spring 2020.
“They have labs and they have more materials [youth] can have access to [at the university]. That way we can show them really what happens in a robotics lab,” Lakouas said.
The program is fueled by Raise the Grade funding that comes from the Boys and Girls Club of Canada in partnership with RBC, and the Province of New Brunswick.