{"id":100,"date":"2017-10-25T01:25:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T01:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/?p=100"},"modified":"2017-10-28T02:25:59","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T02:25:59","slug":"100","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/?p=100","title":{"rendered":"Jade Pichette, Volunteer & Community Outreach Coordinator"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jade Pichette, Volunteer and Community Outreach Coordinator, CLGA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by S.S.<\/em><\/p>\n

Meet Jade Pichette, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA<\/a>). Although Pichette’s background in social work might make them an outlier in the archival field, they see this atypical professional experience as an asset. Pichette’s work in nonprofits, and especially their work in anti-oppression advocacy and education, strongly informs their approach to archival work. In pursuit of an organizational mission to serve as a resource and catalyst for progress for LGBTQ+ people, the CLGA works to collect, preserve, and make available materials created by or about the LGBT community. Through their outreach work, Pitchette works to ensure that CLGA\u2019s mandate: to preserve the history of marginalized people – is fulfilled in a way that is equitable and inclusive.<\/p>\n

When asked what their \u2018average\u2019 day at CLGA looks like, Pitchette\u2019s response resonates with those familiar with community organizing: \u201cI don\u2019t have one.\u201d CLGA\u2019s outreach efforts and volunteer activities bring the community into the archives through diverse and dynamic programming, from leading neighborhood walking tours to curating themed exhibitions.<\/p>\n

Pitchette\u2019s work has allowed the CLGA to develop strong partnerships with community organizations, including with the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario<\/a>, which has recently worked with the archives to create timeline of LGBTQ history in education<\/a>. This material reached the Federation\u2019s 7,000 members across Canada. Going forward, the archives and the Federation plan to collaboratively design workshops to help teachers integrate more LGBTQ history into the elementary level curriculum are underway. This partnership harnesses the strengths of both sides \u2013 the Federation has curriculum design expertise; CLGA brings their LGBTQ history expertise \u2013 and is focused through Pitchette\u2019s anti-oppression framework, emphasizing an equitable lens that traces history beyond dominant, mainstream narratives.<\/p>\n

Without outreach that is \u201cexplicitly centered in anti-oppression and anti-racism,\u201d says Pitchette, community archives can be vulnerable to \u201creproducing only the perspectives of those who work or volunteer,\u201d and in turn representing only those perspectives in collections. By reaching out to non-white and non-cis-gendered communities in acquisition, and by helping update collections policies to demonstrate an explicit interest in records from intersectionally marginalized communities, Pitchette has worked to ensure collections represent a diversity of viewpoints. Aside from collection development work, Pitchette also focuses on the reference interactions patrons\u2019 have with CLGA\u2019s board members, staff, and volunteers on a daily basis. By instituting mandatory diversity and inclusion sessions and a strong volunteer policy, Pitchette aims to foster a welcoming environment at CLGA, and create an organizational culture that values inclusion.<\/p>\n

CLGA currently seeks proposals for a consultant to aid in their selection of a new name<\/a>. Their current name – the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives – can be seen as at best unwelcoming, and at worst exclusionary, of people who don\u2019t identify as specifically \u201clesbian\u201d or \u201cgay.\u201d CLGA\u2019s stated goal of the upcoming name selection indicates a desire to \u201cbetter reflect [their] mandate to support the archives of LGBTQ2+ people.\u201d This name change can itself be seen as a form of outreach, aiming to identify the organization to those whose history it seeks to preserve.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Pitchette sees inclusive outreach as imperative to the survival of community archives, as well as one of the major challenges in the archival field. They feel that the profession as a whole needs to come to think of outreach as integral to the work of archives \u2013 and as something that is directly connected to funding. New professionals coming through MLIS programs can help push the conversation to the fore of the profession, pushing for recognition of outreach as a necessary component of a functioning archives. Outreach is essential to help people \u2013 especially marginalized people \u2013 see that their histories are valuable, an essential step towards preserving those stories for the future.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by S.S. Meet Jade Pichette, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA). Although Pichette’s background in social work might make them an outlier in the archival field, they see this atypical professional experience as an asset. Pichette’s work in nonprofits, and especially their work in anti-oppression advocacy and education, strongly … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Jade Pichette, Volunteer & Community Outreach Coordinator”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[30338,30332,4738,30331],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-archives","category-community-development","category-diversity","category-donor-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/433"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slis.simmons.edu\/blogs\/lis476\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}