Equitable Outreach: Now Comes the Hard Part

Outreach doesn’t always happen where it is needed most. Nuclear organizations that seek to engage with historically underrepresented and under-resourced communities or schools face challenges unique to the individual community or school, which can limit or outright eliminate opportunities for connection. This discussion will feature panelists who have formed connections between a nuclear organization and a local underrepresented community. It is a call to action to be more intentional about conducting nuclear outreach equitably.

ANS Local and Student Sections and other nuclear organizations often conduct recruitment and science literacy outreach in communities and K-12 schools with existing interpersonal connections or where it is geographically convenient, unintentionally propagating the exclusion of underrepresented communities in the nuclear industries.

Further, ANS Sections that seek to engage with historically underrepresented and under-resourced communities or schools face challenges unique to the individual community or school, which can limit or outright eliminate opportunities for connection. These challenges include but are not limited to a lack of trust across class or racial differences, a lack of trust in the nuclear industry, language barriers, perceptions of dissimilarity, misaligned schedules, misunderstanding of cultural norms, and misalignment between the type of engagement offered and the needs of the community or school.

The Diversity and Inclusion in ANS (DIA) Committee will be hosting an upcoming three-part training series to guide ANS sections and other members of the nuclear community in overcoming these challenges and forming sustainable long-lasting relationships with historically underrepresented and under-resourced groups.