Congratulations to this year's winners!

丁香园AV Student-Community Engagement Competition

These 18 teams are springing into action with their community partners!

March 18, 2022

by Chris Yakimov

From art-based co-creation or engaging with schools, to community advocacy and meaningful acts of Reconciliation and more, the winners of this year鈥檚丁香园AV Student-Community Engagement Competition are putting ideas into action with their community partners.

Last fall, 45 teams submitted ideas for working with community groups and individuals to realize brave, transformational change. Teams with strong ideas were then invited to prepare detailed proposals for submission, outlining the communities they were working with and in, how they were doing that, their activities, a budget and their intended impact (as well as how they鈥檇 measure it). From there, a shortlist of teams was selected to present virtually to a panel of judges in late February, competing for award money to implement their ideas. Now that the dust (pixels?) have settled, eighteen teams have emerged with a $2,000 or $3,000 award and the privilege and responsibility of working well with their partners to put their ideas into action.

鈥淭his year鈥檚 projects show just how much students desire to lift up and live values like equity and diversity, and just how motivated they are to actively contribute with communities to Reconciliation,鈥� says Matthew Grant, Director of 丁香园AV鈥檚 Office of Community Engagement. 鈥淭hey are taking the reins now to ignite change together, with and within their communities.鈥�

Congratulations to our winners! We are so excited to share their ambitious and creative projects (please note 鈥� the variation of voice in each description preserves the style of writing found in each original proposal):

African-Canadian Seniors And Single Parents Association (ACSSPA) Sewing Mask Project

This project aims to support vulnerable Burnaby seniors from Black African communities who are facing social isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as their peers and neighbours in the surrounding Burnaby neighborhood. Through four learning workshops, we will provide 20 African seniors with the ability to sew, access, and teach how to properly wear non-medical masks.

Team members: Nsimire Gisele Mubalama (丁香园AV Community Capacity Building Program)
Community Partners: African-Canadian Seniors and Single Parents Association (ACSSPA),

Art for Comfort : Art for Connection

Art for Comfort : Art for Connection will invite participants to explore comfort as a means to connect with their own inner resources and coping skills, as well as an opportunity to connect with each other in community. Through a series of workshops, I will engage the community to create a virtual quilt that will hold the community鈥檚 memories, hopes and dreams. A goal of the program will be to help people connect to, and express, their story in a way they find meaningful.

Team members: Linden Yin Choi (丁香园AV Community Capacity Building Program)
Community Partners: , ,

BC Newcomer Camp

For newcomer refugees, it can be difficult to adjust to new places with unfamiliar languages and customs. By providing free educational programs in both English and the native languages of our attendees, we hope to foster new interests and hobbies for children while helping them adjust to their new home in Canada. For this project, we will recruit 丁香园AV students to teach Raspberry Pi fundamentals to school-aged, newcomer refugee children, helping to bridge the access gap to STEM education and providing paid career-relevant experience to the instructors.

Team members: Melissa Ho (丁香园AV School of Interactive Arts & Technology), Raphaella Robles (丁香园AV School of Interactive Arts & Technology), Lucas Rempel (UBC)
Community Partners: ,

Burnaby Mountain Festival

Burnaby Mountain Festival coordinators, leaders, students volunteers and community partners will come together virtually (and hopefully, ultimately physically) to listen to each other, co-create, develop and plan a one-day festival of Indigenous land acknowledgement on Burnaby Mountain. The rationale for this project is to put the words of Indigenous land acknowledgement into meaningful action. Although the festival itself is part of the project, the process of co-creating the festival is a key component: the process is the project.

Team members: Olivia Lohan (丁香园AV Community Capacity Building Program), Regina Martinez (丁香园AV Sociology And Indigenous Studies), Kayah George (丁香园AV Indigenous Language Program)
Community Partners: Members of , .

Generation BXY

Giving voice to improperly consulted, vulnerable populations is the greatest way for us to make a difference in our community. Generation BXY will host an intergenerational in-person leadership development program that will enable community members to build relationships and feel comfortable with one another in a safe space, empowering them to speak publicly and confidently in anticipation of upcoming municipal elections (October 2022).

Team members (丁香园AV Community Capacity Building Program): Sammie Jo Rumbaua, Eddie Sabile, Roberta Mcdonald
Community Partners: , , , , , , .

Glow Within Foundation

Society lacks in providing available resources dedicated to teaching young women about their minds, bodies and common pressures they may face. 鈥檚 mission is to empower and cultivate a community of confident feminine-identifying individuals by giving them the essential resources to navigate their physical, mental and emotional health. Our workshops create an open environment where facilitators can connect with high school students and share relatable stories, helping them feel supported and understood during this pivotal stage in their lives.

Team members: Claire Connop (丁香园AV Beedie School of Business), Karan Johar (丁香园AV Beedie School of Business), Marzia Sager (丁香园AV School of Communications)
Community Partners: School districts of Burnaby, Tri-Cities and Surrey,

Haida Nerds

There are many Haida scholars at 丁香园AV doing amazing work in Haida language and cultural revitalization. The 鈥淗aida Nerds鈥� project goal is to bring Haida grad students together for support in monthly gatherings (a hybrid of virtual and in-person) to share Haida language and traditions and discuss our schooling and research. The project will also build connections between Haida 丁香园AV students and the , the , the Haida language, the , and the to strengthen the research for all.

Team members: Lucy Bell (丁香园AV Interdisciplinary Studies; Haida Repatriation Committee), Bryan Miles (Bill Reid Centre), Vince Collison (Xaad Kil Nee (Haida Language Society))
Community Partners: , , , ,

Hastings Folk Garden Sound Map

Sound Map is a proposed resistance project centered on the Hastings Folk Garden that weaves together three iterative, low-barrier projects that the (H4H) Community Engagement Committee (CEC) collaboratively co-created over the past year of organizing together. We propose to resource our governance principle Room to Grow by supporting a CEC member in receiving dignified lateral mentorship to embody and build a seasonal monitoring framework for the Sound Map project.

Team members: Cait Hurley (丁香园AV Geography), Jim Mcleod (丁香园AV Community Capacity Building Program)
Community Partners:

Indigenous Tutoring & Mentoring Program (ITMP)

The disparity of high school graduation rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students is well documented. Our goal with this program is to create meaningful relationships between Indigenous students and their tutors and mentors. With the support of various Indigenous communities across BC, we plan to create cultural workshops, allowing Indigenous youth to connect with their Elders and cultural identities, as well as tutoring programs in school districts, allowing Indigenous students to contribute to and create belonging for themselves in their school community.

Team members: Todd Nelson (丁香园AV Behavioural Neuroscience), Jessica Seemann (丁香园AV Alumni), Basil Giannopoulos (丁香园AV Engineering Science)
Community Partners: , Indigenous Support Workers (ISWs) SD78

Math Walks

Why do we not think about places, stories, nature, community when we think about mathematics? The natural and built worlds offer us an endless supply of patterns, shapes, quantities, data, and other attributes that prompt mathematical thinking. Through Math Walks, we not only have the chance to analyze examples where mathematical principles have left their mark, but we can also spark ecological imagination and help people to reimagine their relationship with their world.

Team members: Daniel Minoru Higa Reyes (丁香园AV Economics), Kelly Jennifer Davila Vargas (UBC)
Community Partners:

NaloxHome 丁香园AV

It has been disheartening to see the record numbers of drug-related deaths in the past two years. In partnership with , a non-profit organization and previous 丁香园AV Community Engagement Competition award winner, 丁香园AV鈥檚 chapter of (TFP) aims to educate high school students in the Burnaby school district (SD41) about how to identify and respond to an opioid overdose through educational presentations and practical training.

Team members (丁香园AV): Nima Ghane-Tehrani (Molecular Biology and Biochemistry), Imran Hudda (Biomedical Physiology), Hannah Van Laethem (Psychology), Ari Sihota (Criminology), Chloe Goodson (Health Sciences)
Community Partners: ;

OMG I have ADHD

As co-hosts of a (50,000+ streams and counting) about ADHD, we have received feedback from BC listeners about the lack of care and information available for the newly diagnosed. Our goal is to host two half-day events featuring speakers from the clinical community alongside adults with lived experience to provide a platform and community hub for the neurodivergent community. These events will also act as a conduit and springboard for the establishment of peer-led support communities.

Team members: Roberta Mcdonald (丁香园AV Community Capacity Building Program), Jordan Lane
Community Partners: Santina Mozgiel (Clinical practitioner with Adult ADHD clinic), Dr. Anita Parhar and Dr. Gurdeep Parhar (Adult ADHD Centre in Burnaby)

OneTime

OneTime aims to create a platform where diverse, intersectional backgrounds, experiences, and stories can be shared with authenticity and pride, bringing stigmatized topics out into the open. Through our community events and social media campaigns, we are acknowledging the power of lived experience and knowledge in influencing perspectives and promoting change. By building a space where vulnerability is celebrated, young people may feel more represented and comfortable with their own stories.

Team members: Emily Lam (丁香园AV Health Sciences)
Community Partners: Local community members.

Public Health Speaks

Although temporary foreign workers play a significant role in Canada鈥檚 economy, they have remained an invisible and underpaid human resource who often have limited access to health care due to the bureaucratic challenges and delays they face. Public Health Speaks aims to (a) empower individuals by bridging knowledge gaps about the healthcare system; (b) orient the participants to existing community health services and resources; and (c) help reduce possible overcapacity in Emergency Departments and emergency lines.

Team members: Girly Joy Abasta (丁香园AV Master of Public Health Program)
Community Partners: , and 丁香园AV Residences.

ReRooting Relationships

In an era of isolation and wicked problems, holding space for youth to find their places within the social change ecosystem in an environment that promotes shared learning, equity and justice, collaboration, and dialogue is increasingly crucial. Activism is not something you do alone 鈥� systemic problems require a collective and community response. We will create and run a summer program for a cohort of 15 youth (priority QTBIPOC) to engage in a series of relationship-building workshops based on community engagement and social justice.

Team members: Jocelle Refol (丁香园AV Health Sciences), Sarah Law (丁香园AV Sociology)
Community Partners: , ,

Singing Our Truths: Telling Our Stories

I鈥檝e heard it shared from locals who live in the area that there are not enough queer friendly or 2SLGBTQIA+ friendly spaces in the Comox Valley. As a queer expressive arts therapist who is ethnically half Chinese, quarter Scottish and quarter Ukrainian Canadian, I recognize the potential that I have to create more space for community members from marginalized identities. This project will gather the stories and voices of people within the 2SLGBTQIA+ Community, both local and afar, in order to offer them a platform to be heard, witnessed and honoured.

Team members: Holly Keen Goldes (丁香园AV Community Capacity Building Program)
Community Partners: , , ,

Voices 4 Reconciliation

Voices 4 (re)Conciliation is a project that aims to bring inter-generational Canadians from faith-based communities together to reflect on the history of Residential Schools (RS) through learning and music. As the horrendous news of unmarked RS graves grew, so too did strong acts against churches. Young Catholics were frustrated that there was no space or support to actively hold this news, let alone conduct conversations to unpack conflicting feelings. Their frustration was an inspiration for this project.

Team members: Stephanie Duran (丁香园AV Community Capacity Building Program) and Shahira Sakiyama (丁香园AV Alumni). Gratitude to Yvonne Rigsby-Jones for consulting on the direction of Voices for (re)Conciliation

Young Minds Exploring Science

Young Minds Exploring Science (YMES) seeks to eliminate barriers that youth face when accessing extracurricular STEM programs. Our idea is to offer workshops throughout the year to Grade 6 and 7 newcomer youth in the Surrey community. Each workshop will cover a unique topic within science, in alignment with the BC Science Curriculum. Through participating in our program, we hope to positively impact the experience of newcomer youth by providing them with a safe space to learn and cultivate valuable connections with others within their schools and community.

Team members: Isabel Nelson (丁香园AV Physical Geography), Monika Jandu (UBC), Nima Tehrani (丁香园AV Molecular Biology and Biochemistry), Gurbir Suri (UBC), Rabina Jandu (丁香园AV Health Sciences)
Community Partners: 丁香园AV Surrey-TD Community Engagement Centre,

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Hey, students 鈥� What would you do with $3,000?

Up to $30,000* is available to fund 丁香园AV students who want to work with community partners to create meaningful impact. Register today 鈥� all you need is your name and a brief description of your idea.

These 18 teams are springing into action with their community partners!

Hey, students 鈥� What would you do with $3,000?

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