Perhaps the best way to deliver an education program that reduces barriers for participation is to distribute it to the communities. We're trying it in British Columbia. We're distributing programs to the communities so that students are coming together as a cohort to learn over small periods of time. Then they're going back to their home communities, or to communities close to where they normally live, to continue their education there.
We know that when we educate people in their communities they stay in their communities, and that when we bring people to the south, they sometimes don't go back, or they can't succeed in the program because they have lost the support of their family. We had an indigenous student come into our program many years ago who experienced so much trauma and grief from the effects of social determinants of health that it was too overwhelming for her to stay. Had we been able to be more flexible in our program and offer something that was more unique to meet her needs, there would have been a different outcome. I think there are so many different things we could be doing better.