IQALUIT, NU and TORONTO – Cisco Canada officially launched the Connected North initiative Wednesday, a $1.6 million project that brings education and healthcare services to remote communities across Canada's North.
Established in 2011, Connected North is a unique partnership between the territorial government in Nunavut, private sector partners, community leaders, nongovernmental organizations, and Cisco. The program strives to connect North and South in a way that preserves the unique and treasured aspects of Northern culture.
The virtual education program utilizes Cisco TelePresence, Partners In Research's VROC (Virtual Researcher on Call) platform and satellite bandwidth donated by SSi Micro. Its pilot phase connected grade 6, 7 and 8 classrooms in Iqaluit's Aqsarniit Ilinniarvik in real-time with teachers, experts and other students throughout Canada, for a more engaging, diverse and dynamic classroom experience. Following today's announcement, two additional schools – the Deh Gah School in Fort Providence, Northwest Territories, and John Arnalukjuak High School in Arviat, Nunavut – will join the program later this year.
Connected North is also focused on bringing psychiatric and youth mental health services to Northern Aboriginal and Inuit communities via Cisco TelePresence high-definition video links. To that end, RBC Foundation and Cisco have joined with the Tele-Link Mental Health Program developed by Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children to launch Tele-Link in select Nunavut health centres starting in September.
"Cisco Canada strongly believes there is significant potential for transformational change and positive impact in the areas of health care and education in Canada's remote Aboriginal communities”, said president Nitin Kawale, in the announcement. “By leveraging our technology expertise and uniting key private and public sector partners, we are aiming to make Connected North a vital and productive component of northern communities that will bring new levels of opportunities to inhabitants. And what you see here today is only the beginning. The program's results in Iqaluit will be studied and used to develop longer term strategies for sustainability throughout Canada."
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