31 community partners receive funding from UBC’s 2022-23 Community-University Engagement Support Fund

Immigrant and refugee youth in Canada often face challenges in accessing higher education due to cultural, linguistic, and financial barriers. The older they are when they arrive, the more difficult it can be for young people to complete high school and transition to college or university. According to the 2021 OECD Education Indicators, 19 per cent of those who arrived in Canada at age 16 or later are at risk of being neither employed nor getting an education, while refugee youth are at even higher risk. Despite the existence of programs designed to support immigrant and refugee youth in accessing higher education, awareness of these resources is often low within communities and settlement service providers. 

Through a combination of needs assessment, community consultations, and action-oriented programming, we will work collectively to increase the awareness and availability of resources and support for newcomer youth, helping to ensure that they are able to reach their full potential and succeed in their educational pursuits in Canada. To support social service providers, we will report on our findings and develop guiding principles and recommendations that workers can use to support the young people they serve. 

Amplify! brings together Let’s Speak Up! (LSU!) and students of UBC’s Urban Ethnographic Field School (UEFS) through community-led, project-based cohorts in an effort to support and amplify the model, work, and advocacy of LSU! We aim to communicate the issues affecting community members of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) to a wider audience of researchers, students, community organizers, governments, and Vancouverites. LSU! is a working group of DTES residents building grassroots advocacy and community governance. Operating independently of and within the organizational umbrella of the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House (DTESNH), our project continues a meaningful, long-term partnership between the DTESNH and UEFS. Established in 2010 and co-taught through UBC Sociology and Anthropology, UEFS teaches community-based ethnographic methodologies and context-specific social issues of urban Vancouver through intensive ethnographic research and volunteer fieldwork placements with diverse community partners. Since 2014, UEFS classes have been held at the UBC Learning Exchange in the DTES. 

Through LSU!-led projects, Amplify! will create leadership opportunities for LSU! participants, complimented and strengthened by the skills and capacities of UEFS students, to exercise their agency, expertise, and self-determination. As determined by the needs, desires, and most pressing issues identified by LSU! participants this upcoming Spring cohort of projects will draw inspiration from a host of past projects including participant action research projects (PAR), collective mapping activities, community expert panels, audio-visual and other expressive projects. Projects will strive to honor and leverage the lived experience, advocacy, and policy demands of DTES community members to wider audiences. This model acts as a prototype for cohort-based university-community partnership and a megaphone for efforts to promote self-representation, self-determination, and awareness of the oft-misunderstood geographies that DTES community members navigate. Through cohort-based projects, LSU! and UEFS concertedly and collaboratively practice ‘asset-based’ community development and research principles – emphasizing and exercising community strengths, capacities, and examples of agency rather than focusing only on perceived shortcomings or deficits. This strategy is also embedded within a broader goal of establishing a structure for LSU! that can be increasingly financially self-sufficient with regard to the DTESNH and sustainable beyond the timeframe of UEFS. 

Matsqui-Abbotsford Impact Society’s Devil’s Club is an Indigenous youth-led initiative supporting cultural revitalization and decolonization through art in the Fraser Valley. Currently, Devil’s Club supports youth to create regalia and engage in other artistic practices in community settings where they are both learning from and teaching Elders. This regalia creation not only supported youth to connect to their culture through art, but also provided opportunities to participate in cultural events like powwows in their regalia. Additional supports are needed to expand the initiative to meet youth needs and cultural priorities (e.g., beading to personalize regalia, and accessibility to land-based practices). Funds will be used for supplies, catering and honoraria for youth invited to UBC-talking circles. The talking circles will explore additional ways to support reciprocity between Indigenous youth and UBC researchers working with incarcerated artists, including ways to support healing, restorative justice and community building between youth and artists in prison. 

In 2022 more than 87,000 people sought refugee protection in Canada. In a sector that works at capacity to serve the practical needs of refugee claimants, and that depends on volunteers to do significant integration work, the values shaping refugee support can go unquestioned. 

The Becoming Neighbours project will do the essential but under-explored work of hosting community conversations about the culture of refugee support in British Columbia. 

Becoming Neighbours is a series of public, community-based dialogues in workshop format, each exploring one of five values that guide Kinbrace’s transformative approach to refugee claimant support. Our aim is to widen engagement with this approach and to inspire fresh imagination in and beyond the refugee-serving sector. We will do this by producing and running five interactive community workshops in 2023. 

The workshop design will improve on a pilot event we ran in May 2022. We will evaluate the workshop format after each iteration, producing digital resources and packaging materials so that they can be repeated in the future and adjusted for different contexts. 

“Building Knowledge, Building Power: Empowering Migrant Filipino Communities Through Education, Community-Building, and Self-Advocacy,” is a partnership between Damayan Society for Migrant Education and Resources, a registered non-profit which assists Filipino migrants with adjustment to life in British Columbia and Christie Bernados, a member of Sulong UBC, a student group that advocates for diversity and inclusion for Filipinos on campus and in their communities and for human rights in the Philippines. The project is supported by Dr. Amanda R. Cheong from the Department of Sociology. 

According to the 2021 census, Filipinos make up the second largest group of immigrants in Vancouver. Many Filipinos struggle with racism, language/cultural barriers, labour exploitation, and economic hardship, family separation, isolation, and alienation from their culture. This partnership aims to foster connections between Filipino students at UBC and the Filipino community within the Greater Vancouver area, especially international students outside of UBC and youth migrant workers, by hosting community events and capacity-building workshops that will empower marginalized Filipinos to advocate for their rights and build meaningful connection. 

In light of the Hockey Canada scandal, other league sports recognize the significant problem of sexism, homophobia, and transphobia among their teams. BC Rugby and UBC’s Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre (SARAVYC) have partnered with Monash University to develop an initiative that would train team captains and leading players in changing the norms in Rugby clubs around sexist, homophobic, and transphobic language. The collaboration will connect SARAVYC’s expertise in health behaviour change strategies and evaluation with BC Rugby’s club leaders to create a new intervention for young men’s and women’s teams in community Rugby clubs across BC. We are proposing to create an intervention that will activate diversity ambassadors from among rugby team players, who agree to be role models to their peers and actively change the norms that support this language. Through this project, we will be meeting influential rugby players from community teams identified by BC Rugby and conduct advisory meetings to create training materials and approaches that can help key players intervene to challenge homophobic and sexist language in their clubs and make rugby more inclusive for all players. 

Academic institutions have increasingly expressed interest in community-based learning initiatives, and a desire to engage with communities through less extractive research practices. However, students are not always adequately prepared for how to approach and build these equitable and reciprocal relationships with communities outside the university. More often than not, the labour of teaching students how to work in reciprocity with communities falls disproportionately on the shoulders of those community groups, if they have the capacity to provide that training at all. 

UBC’s Asian Canadian & Asian Migration Studies (ACAM) program and hua foundation are working collaboratively to develop a community charter and upper-level undergraduate course to provide formalized training and mentorship on community-based research and engagement. 

The proposed project will enable students to improve their understanding of how building equitable research processes (inclusive of design, facilitation and activation), can go beyond academic and scholarly spaces to support, empower, and mobilize communities. Students will be able to develop skills and competencies that will prepare them for equitable work with communities beyond their time at UBC. 

Community Veterinary Outreach is a charity operating a One Health mandate to improve the wellbeing of vulnerable communities through integrated companion animal and human health services. CVO Vancouver offers One Health services in the Downtown Eastside. Research demonstrates that pets have significant benefits for the physical, emotional, and mental health of marginalized people. The positive impact of pets has proven more significant during the pandemic, while barriers to care have only increased. CVO reduces barriers by offering health services in a destigmatized setting. We advocate for pet and client wellbeing and offer human health services clients may otherwise not seek, all while having the support of their trusted companion. The need for cost effective, preventative healthcare has increased dramatically since the pandemic. We propose the expansion of a mobile One Health Clinic to meet community needs and address increasing public health concerns. The goal of this clinic is to provide preventive health care, collaborate with academic partners and stakeholders, provide student mentorship and leadership, and create healthier communities. The bond that humans and animals share is powerful and preserving it is essential for health. 

Members of disability communities have fewer options to engage in exercise and encounter many barriers when trying to use traditional exercise equipment at the gym or in their homes. This project brings together an existing multidisciplinary research team (biomechanics, engineering, kinesiology, occupational therapy) that has already designed 3 pieces of adaptive exercise equipment through a user-driven design process. Their designs modify popular cardio exercise machines (the Concept 2 Rowing and Ski ergometers that are found in many commercial gyms and community centres and rowing machine that can be purchased from Amazon for home use) so that they can be used without transferring from a wheelchair or while seated on a regular chair. The researchers will partner with the Disability Foundation (DF), a group of societies with the shared mission of ‘providing opportunities for people with physical disabilities to enable their individual journeys.’ 

The partnership has three aims. The first is to explore how the partners might collaborate to manufacture, advertise, sell and distribute the already designed adaptive exercise equipment through the DF’s existing social enterprise that sells adaptive equipment. TETRA (DF society that involves volunteer ‘makers’ who build and modify equipment) will be involved in this initiative. The second aim will explore what other exercise needs community members identify including options for online / at home exercise. This work will be done by BCMOS (DF affiliated society that provides exercise and active recreation programming) and will include the creation of an online course with videos showing community members how to use the adaptive exercise equipment. CONNECTRA (DF affiliated society that connects community to information and resources) will be involved in hosting conversations with community, soliciting feedback, and advertising equipment and programs. The final aim will be for partners to learn more about each other’s priorities and operations with the goal of developing future projects.  

South Asian people comprise the second-largest visible minority group in British Columbia. Within the growing population, many people identify as LGBTQIA2S+. Queer South Asian people struggle to find belonging due to targeted queerphobia from both within and outside their community. Existing at these intersections have been recommendations to create spaces that simultaneously celebrate queerness alongside South Asian identity. Sher Vancouver is a registered charity supporting South Asian LGBTQIA2S+ friends, families, and allied folks through grassroots ideology. The community-university partnership will sponsor a series of culture-based workshops rooted in strength-based healing, integrating South Asian queerness with culture. Community-led approaches are instrumental in improving the health and well-being of members; this project will honour relational-culture connectivity, cultural competency, and trauma-informed, evidence-based practices to support personal affirmation and community belonging. Proposed activities are a large-scale undertaking of current peer-led and outreach approaches remaining genuine to our history as a BIPOC-led, community-first organization. 

The UBC Indigenous Health and Physical Activity Program and the Vancouver School Board are partnering to co-create a culturally relevant toolkit to support Indigenous learners in parent-teacher conversations. Parents of Indigenous learners often experience deficit-based exchanges in parent-teacher dialogues. Dialogues between parents and teachers should reflect Indigenous ways of knowing, including ties to Indigenous community values and practices and utilize a strengths-based approach to child development. A strengths-based approach empowers Indigenous peoples, promotes levels of self-determination, and supports culturally-safe and relevant engagement. In the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation, this novel project addresses four Calls to Action to enable and guide the dialogue between educators and parents of Indigenous children. Through co-creation design, Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, scholars, and community leaders will ensure that the toolkit reflects Indigenous ways of knowing and honours sacred traditions and languages. This meaningful and reciprocal collaboration avoids perpetuating negative feelings of shame or stigma surrounding aspirations and aims to improve learner engagement and success rates in learning. 

West Moberly First Nations (WMFN), located on Peace River Country on Moberly Lake, are innovating solutions to the infrastructure and well-being challenges facing their Nation and community. Currently, West Moberly First Nations’ connections to energy are unreliable, unpredictable, and costly, posing safety risks and connectivity concerns. WMFN are building a healthy, strong and better future for themselves, and are actively seeking technical support from UBC researchers and industry experts. West Moberly First Nations (WMFN) and their industry partner, WDusk, are preparing to implement a community-wide solar energy project in early summer 2023. In partnership, and with CUES’ support, WMFN and the research team will continue to build relationships through community visits, laying the foundation to conduct in-person pre and post surveys with community members about the solar energy project, revealing important insights about the implications of renewable energy projects for community well-being. The UBC research team from community planning, engineering, and emerging technologies is committed to supporting the development of sustainable energy infrastructure to help advance Indigenous energy self-sufficiency and sovereignty. 

Indigenous midwives have cared for pregnant people and their families for thousands of years and their role is foundational to Indigenous community health and wellness. It is well-established that the impacts of colonization are linked to persistent disparities in birth outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Worldwide, Indigenous women are at increased risk of preterm birth (birth before 37 weeks of gestation), which is an adverse birth outcome that can have acute and enduring adverse impacts on the child, mother, and their family. In BC, a 2020 report found that preterm birth among Indigenous women was two times higher than non-Indigenous women (15.2% vs 7.5% respectively, In Plain Sight). In 2018, staff at Cowichan Tribes’ Ts’ewulhtun Health Centre in Duncan identified an unprecedented preterm birth rate that was 3-times higher than Indigenous Peoples in Canada. A community-led project, the Quw’utsun (Cowichan) Preterm Birth Study is investigating reasons for this high rate of preterm birth.   

The “Champions for Life” mentorship project builds on an existing partnership between UBC Thunderbirds Soccer Team and Hope and Health to maximize soccer as a tool for social impact and holistic wellbeing of Indigenous youth, coaches and their communities while developing our future leaders. 

The proposed activities within this application will build on our shared experiences by designing and piloting a formal mentorship program for advancing Indigenous athletes and coaches to provide targeted development through mentorship, shadowing and experiential learning. An integral part of this will be to partner with UBC Thunderbird athletes and coaches with elite Indigenous athletes and coaches in a mentorship circle (where they will spend time together in triads), as well as a full circle (both on and off the pitch). 

This project will offer expanded opportunities for UBC student athletes and coaches to contribute to reconciliation through sport and advance the UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan. 

Parkinson Disease (PD) is a progressive and long-term disorder affecting the motor function of the nervous system, resulting in unintended and uncontrollable movements. Patients with PD often rely on many medications to treat these symptoms and can typically experience over 12-month wait times to see specialists for treatment and therapy adjustments. Despite these challenges, patients with PD and caregivers to those with PD demonstrate incredible strength and resiliency in trying to manage symptoms on their own with limited resources. To address this, Parkinson Wellness Projects will be partnering with the BRAIN Team, a student-led and faculty supervised group, at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences to build a joint-educational program entitled, “Leading by Learning,” which features 4 key pillars:  

1) A medication decision-support tool: a guide for patients and partners for PD medication adjustment 

2) PD video series: an instructional video series on medications physical exercise 

3) Students as educators medication support groups: two ongoing support groups for i) patients with early PD, and ii) patients with advanced PD 

4) Patients as educators in neurology: an educational panel series, as part of mandatory curricula 

A coalition of Black youth based out of Solid State Community Industries in Surrey, BC is interested in researching the factors that encourage and support Black youth in Metro Vancouver to apply for and succeed at post-secondary institutions, UBC in particular. In collaboration with Education Professor E. Wayne Ross and racial justice advocate and postdoctoral fellow Paula Littlejohn, Solid State youth will investigate and document (primarily via video and social media) the experiences of Black people in British Columbia as they have interacted with post-secondary institutions. We will reach out to a variety of people: high school students, students who were thwarted in their applications to post-secondary, those who were accepted, those who dropped out or changed paths, current post-secondary students, and alumni. This will happen through a mix of interviews, focus groups, surveys, and public-facing gatherings which will be informed by participatory and activist research methodologies. Research questions for this project include: What barriers do Black people in British Columbia face when pursuing post-secondary education, what types of support and structural change are necessary to remove these barriers, and how can we move towards a more just and equitable educational future? Solid State youth will compile and present our findings in multimedia formats. These audio-visual deliverables will be produced with multiple audiences in mind; Black people interested in pursuing education, post-secondary educators who wish to support Black students and foster diverse and just institutions, as well as community members and advocates who care about these issues. The research will conclude with a community event drawing together Black post-secondary students – current and future – from across the region, as well as other stakeholders to create a space for networking, information and supporting Black youth to meet and learn from fellow students. 

BRCA gene mutations are best known for their roles in increasing an individual’s lifetime risk of developing breast, ovarian, prostate, pancreatic cancers and melanoma, up to 90 per cent. The risk of carrying a mutation is approximately 1/400, but up to 1/40 in high risk groups. Gene carriers and their family members reportedly desire and could benefit from regular access to support groups with peers, supported by health care professionals and experts in the field. These types of groups serve to provide carriers with 1) up-to-date education, 2) timely answers to complex questions 3) psychosocial peer support, and 4) a better understanding of the experiences of fellow carriers through their own lifelong BRCA journeys. At present, no groups of this nature exist in British Columbia. 

The BRCAinBC initiative, in partnership with the BC Cancer’s Hereditary Cancer Program and High Risk Clinic, and other community partners, will test and evaluate the delivery of a BC-wide high-quality, accessible, community-engaged, drop-in virtual support group to provide a regular meeting space for gene carriers. The group will be a confidential, non-judgmental space for all BRCA carriers, regardless of age, gender, religious affiliation or ancestry. 

Mistreated: The Legacy of Indian Hospitals in BC and Alberta seeks to shine a light on the Indian Hospital System in British Columbia and Alberta from the 1940s to the early 1970s and the ongoing impacts and implications for Indigenous communities. IRSHDC at UBC will work in collaboration with the SRRMC along with other Indigenous partners to curate and develop an online exhibition to tell, share and gather stories about Indian Hospitals in BC (and Canada). The exhibition will include a place-based examination of federally funded Indian Hospitals with inclusion of other sites, such as church-run hospitals, nursing stations and sanatoria. 

Indigenous community voices will lead this project and inform curatorial scopes, objectives, and directions taken. The project will employ a traditional story-telling methodology, gathering stories from different participants about their experience at these hospitals and conducting a participatory analysis to understand impact and what we can learn from them. The intention of the project is for the histories and the ongoing impacts of these hospitals to be told in a broader context of colonialism 

The Overdose Prevention Peer Research Assistant (OPPRA) Project is a community-based participatory research (CBPR) collaboration between the Overdose Prevention Society, SpencerCreo Foundation, UBC and the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU). Since 2019, OPPRA conducted research on the stability, resilience and wellbeing of peer workers involved in overdose response in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), deploying a CBPR model centring capacity building and involving people with lived experience using substances and/or harm reduction at every step of the research process. This project will seek to accomplish 3 objectives: 1) disseminate original findings from OPPRA research about stability, resilience and wellbeing of peer workers to support the implementation of promising practices in harm reduction settings and the development of a toolkit; 2) bring together researchers, community members (peers, harm reduction workers, DTES residents), service providers and decision-makers for a one-day Community Research Forum to share research findings and engage in dialogue related to research about peer involvement in overdose response in the DTES; 3) describe and share the OPPRA model of CBPR to support its adoption in other contexts. 

We endeavor to grow healthy, local, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods to unite our community and enhance food security. Although 2023 marks the fourth year of growth of the Musqueam garden at UBC Farm, we aim to expand our food security program and increase food production and distribution during the growing season. Our Food security program addresses the social determinants of health, particularly “access to nutritious food,” a fundamental human right. 

In addition, we will deliver health and wellness workshops and provide opportunities to learn about traditional medicines, food preparation, and nutritional literacy. We will focus on healthy cooking and eating, diversification of vegetable consumption, medicine gathering, storage, and preparation. Also, we will offer medicine walking tours and introduce community members to healthy land-based activities. 

Another goal is to increase community members’ participation and UBC students’ volunteerism, nurture leadership skills, and increase food security capacity at Musqueam, including grassroots programs that expand skill capacity in a “close to home” model to address food disparities. 

The New Leaf project is the world’s first program evaluating the impact of cash transfers in empowering individuals experiencing homelessness to move back into housing, regain food and financial security, and improve their physical and psychological well-being. A collaboration between UBC professors and Foundations for Social Change, the project will provide 200 individuals experiencing homelessness unconditional cash transfers and other non-cash supports. To address the lessons learned and better engage the community in our research, we established an Ambassador Program of people with lived experience that contribute to the project’s ethical and effective development, implementation and knowledge mobilization, build trusting relationships with participants, and work with them on mini-projects that amplify their voices. As one of its activities, we are embarking on a new project for 2023/2024 that will use Photovoice – an arts process and method of working with people in communities that are typically underrepresented or excluded from decisions that affect their lives. The project will document a day in the life of these community members, and initiate dialogue about what is significant to the community. 

The Newcomer Youth Mentorship Program aims to establish a mentorship program that can connect newcomer youth with mentors who have similar lived experiences such as resettling in a new country, navigating foreign systems, and adjusting to an entirely different culture. Pairing mentors who can relate to the struggles of newcomer youth and provide meaningful insight, wisdom, and guidance can be crucial in establishing a much-needed support system. 

The mentorship program will not only help mentors and youth connect and develop life-long relationships, but the program aims to build an interconnected community where youth can connect amongst themselves for support and friendship. We aim to not only develop a sense of community within participants, but additionally help them recognize that they are not alone in their struggles.  

Overall, the Newcomer Youth Mentorship Program aims to: 

• To develop and train a network of mentors who provide real life support and advice to the newcomer youth to advance their academic and professional goals 

• Create socialization, professional, and networking opportunities for the newcomer youth 

• Equip the youth with the confidence and skills needed to excel academically and professionally 

On Afrofuturism and the Black Speculative Arts Movement is a partnership between UBC Museum of Anthropology and Ethos Lab to co-develop the foundations of a regular collaboration. A partnership grounded on empowering Metro Vancouver BIPOC youth (ages 13-17) to co-create new narratives in building an inclusive future. The common ground is a creative approach to MOA’s collections centered on views of African heritage both as educational resource about the past and present of African societies and their diverse cultural legacies and contemporary arts, and as creative sources to imagine, create and communicate African and Black Canadian understandings of our present and future. With Ethos Lab’s practice of leveraging culture as a vehicle to access Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) exploration, both partners are grounding in the art of storytelling as a means to increase representation of Black youth and girls in these fields. Since 2020, Ethos Lab youth has been developing a multiple platform narrative centered on Atlanthos. The project will expand this narrative to further integrate culture and STEAM via the completion of the story, a related museum display and educational programs. 

An unrelenting epidemic of overdose deaths exists in British Columbia and drug overdose is now the leading cause of death for people leaving prison in British Columbia. Since 2011, Mo Korchinski and Pam Young of Unlocking the Gates Services have been providing peer mentorship and support before and immediately after release for individuals who have been incarcerated at both men and women’s provincial and federal facilities across BC. Meeting the immediate needs of people upon release (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, housing) is both complex and challenging when risks for death from overdose increase due to unsafe supply, little to no access to treatment facilities, situational stressors, reduced drug tolerance, a lack of social networks, and barriers to safe housing. In this CUES grant for an established partnership, we will use the funding to host UTG-led monthly dialogue circles (supplies, catering, & peer and Elder honoraria) with key community and non-profit stakeholders to graphically record and map the needed support, policy action, interventions and peer-led programming to reduce risk of overdose for people leaving prison. This project builds from an established network within the UBC Transformative Health & Justice Cluster. 

Kanaka Bar Indian Band (KBIB) is a community living on the frontlines of climate change in Canada. In 2021, the community withstood climate change-exacerbated extreme heat, and a fire devastated nearby Lytton, BC, displacing 90 per cent of the community, including KBIB members. On its heels came even more climate-related disasters, in the form of flooding and other environmental impacts that have prolonged displacement and further strained existing systems of support. With Canada warming at twice the global rate, worse is yet to come. KBIB is working proactively to meet the coming crises, adapting to changes to the land and waters that sustain their community and culture. But cascading climate emergencies are taking a toll not only on the environment, but also on the people of KBIB, particularly on mental health and wellbeing. Another fire in 2022 retraumatized many and underscored the deep need for healing and mental health supports for community members as well as frontline workers who have been engaged in nonstop emergency response and recovery work. Now KBIB, in partnership with a UBC MA student and a team of researchers and community advisors and Elders, is taking steps to harness community resources and build intra-regional relationships toward healing and fostering resilience. 

UBC Library, Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) and YWCA Metro Vancouver (YWCA) have partnered to catalogue, preserve and make available, to both the general public and the research community, 70 boxes of YWCA records dating as far back as 1897. 

YWCA Metro Vancouver opened its doors in 1897 to provide housing and services to women arriving in Vancouver in search of education or employment. It has a long and rich history in this community. Our archives tell the story of our city, Vancouver, from the perspectives of the dedicated women concerned about the safety and wellbeing of women and their children. These historical materials illustrate the development of service provision alongside the advancement of Women’s Rights, Truth and Reconciliation and other pro-social policies.  

The project will result in an expanded archive that will allow community members and researchers to get a clear understanding of the YWCA’s impact in the community. The finding aid on RBSC’s archival description database, and on the library catalogue, will provide detailed descriptions on-line, while the physical materials will also undergo processing and rehousing in archival quality files and boxes to ensure their longevity. 

The CODE Initiative is a nonprofit founded in 2017 by 3 female UBC students to create digital literacy learning opportunities for underserved youth in STEM fields, with a current focus on neurodivergent students. So far, CODE has engaged more than 1600 student participants and volunteers. 

Their academic expertise behind the curricula involves inclusive education, computer science, and educational psychology. They use evidence-based teaching strategies to provide individualized support for students and are planning to serve more communities of learners. 

CODE is partnering with Dr. David Ng, who runs a science literacy lab (AMBL) at the Michael Smith Laboratories, to create specialized, individualized, and evidence-based STEM workshops for two groups who share some similar learning barriers-neurodivergent and newcomer youth. 

Building on previous experiences, CODE and Dr. Ng will develop and pilot 2 workshops for the separate learning needs of these groups. To address persistent inequities in STEM fields, recruitment will focus on girls-women, where Dr. Ng has extensive knowledge and experience in outreach programming. The collaboration will work to produce workshop curricula that can be further researched, tested, and assessed. 

This project aims to raise Canadian’s awareness of Ukraine in general and its current situation, in particular, by bringing into focus life experiences of Ukrainian women coming to British Columbia under the CUAET program. 

Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, over 135,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada, and this number is growing every day. Since under the martial law men are not allowed to leave Ukraine, most of the arrivals are women. Each of them has a unique story of life and loss. 

Maple Hope Foundation, the Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies, and the Department of History at UBC have partnered in order to document life experiences of Ukrainian women who have found refuge in British Columbia. Results of the in-depth analysis of their stories will enhance understanding of their experiences and needs, enabling the respective organizations to fine-tune the directions of help provided to them. In its turn, this will facilitate Ukrainian women’s adaptation and integration into the Vancouver community. Including the data in public exhibitions and UBC curricula will inspire a better understanding of Ukraine’s complex present and its implications for the world’s future. 

Options is Canada’s largest non-profit provider of sexual health services. Through our clinical  service, education and advocacy programs, and the Sex Sense information and referral line, we pursue our vision of a society that celebrates healthy sexuality, its diversity of expression, and a positive sexual self-image for individuals throughout life. 

Recognizing the need for providing culturally appropriate care for newcomer youth, and the role of settlement service providers in making sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care accessible, Options has partnered with Dr. Sarah Munro and the Contraception & Abortion Research Team (CART) at UBC to conduct a series of knowledge exchange workshops with settlement service providers in BC. Through these workshops, Options, CART and settlement service providers will codevelop a resource that can be used by community organizations to support newcomer youth in accessing SRH care in BC 

A 2019 provincial roundtable was organized by the Provincial Palliative Hospice Care Working Group (PHWG), including the BCHPCA, BC-CPC, VH, VIFH, and SOSJ. It concluded with a unanimous call for an action plan to improve access to high-quality, fully integrated, and sustainable whole-person hospice care for all —specifically older adults, individuals with life-limiting illnesses, family caregivers, bereaved individuals, and underserved, vulnerable populations. 

The funding will support the implementation of previously identified actions in the 10-step plan through the recently launched Hospice Care Alliance of BC. The Alliance is comprised of the same members of the PHWG. It is a multisector committee that brings together hospice organizations, community partners, health authorities, policymakers, and experts to coordinate implementation and evaluation of the 10-step plan. BCHPCA will provide leadership and administrative coordination for the Alliance. 

The Alliance aims to convene stakeholders, support the coordination of action, and communicate the impact of collective efforts toward improving community-based whole-person care for older adults and elders, individuals living with life-limiting illnesses, and their caregivers. 

Youth who experience trauma from family violence often develop mental health and substance use disorders and require treatment that addresses the underlying trauma. However, many of these standard approaches to treatment fail to help extremely marginalized youth and address their specific needs, including the discrimination and stigma Indigenous and/or LGBTQ2S+ youth face from society. Dan’s Legacy is one of the few organizations that provides free, trauma-informed, and culturally relevant mental health and substance use care tailored to the needs of marginalized youth. Researchers at UBC’s Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre (SARAVYC) will collaborate with Dan’s Legacy and partner services to help them develop an evaluation plan for their innovative programming. Together we will develop new youth- and provider-identified measures of improvement and healing, beyond the commonly used measures such as emergency health services use, overdoses, housing stability, or further family violence. This co-developed evaluation plan will help Dan’s Legacy share evidence with government funding agencies in addressing family violence and fostering healing among youth.