The National Emergencies Trust has provided £450 of match funding
Lucy's Race to Space for Lightyear Foundation
England, United Kingdom
Aim
breaking down barriers to get more disabled children into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
I am proud to be a trustee of Lightyear Foundation, a small but mighty charity breaking down barriers to disabled children taking part in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). Lightyear does this through 'sensory science' creative workshops, engaging virtual labs, highlighting disabled scientist role models and workplace inspiration trips.
I am taking part in Race to Space, a sponsored challenge to cover 62 miles (the distance from Earth to the start of outer space) by foot. Lightyear has match funding in place for this, meaning donations are being doubled so your support can have a stellar impact!
Some more background ...
As a disabled teenager interested in STEM, I felt these barriers to participating personally. During my physics degree, lecturers still used chalk and blackboards, overhead projectors in faint red pen, and don't get me started on labs! The contact hours and exams can also be extra tough on disabled people, where all tasks often take longer, and may be more tiring.
78% of the autistic community and 95% of people with a learning disability are unemployed. For blind and partially sighted people like myself, this sits at around 75%. But being disabled can bring so many skills useful to STEM industries! For example, visually imapired people are constantly problem solving to be able to access the world, and many autistic people have excellent attention to detail which lends itself to coding. Back in 2020 I spoke on Pop Astro Live for the Society of Popular Astronomy, where I talked about accessibility and inclusion for disabled people in astronomy. You can read more about my time studying and working in a STEM industry on the Lightyear Foundation website.
Witnessing the work of the Lightyear Foundation team as a trustee for the last 18 months has been a true privilege, they do such incredible work and really make an indescribable difference to children's confidence and lives. Head to the website or central fundraising page to learn more.
But we're a very small charity, the team is the equivalent of just 1 person full-time. We're raising money to help cover the essential core costs of running the charity, along with recruiting new STEM Leads to reach more areas - last year we supported 5,000 children and, with your help, we hope to dramatically increase this by 2023.
Finally, the best part...
There are rewards for anyone donating! Choose from free science magazine subscriptions, signed copies of children's STEM books, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Natural History Museum and more!
This project successfully funded on 13th October 2022