Camosun College
EN-9: Community Partnerships

Camosun College annually sponsors and supports Bike to Work Week. Bike to Work Week is a province-wide initiative that hosts celebration stations and free community events. The Greater Victoria event attracts over 8,000 commuter cyclists, including 12,500 new cyclists since inception. Partnering with the Bike to Work Week Greater Victoria, Camosun provides funding, and hosts a "celebration station" on campus grounds. Camosun staff provide assistance to the society in running the event. Camosun College and Camosun’s Indigenous Education and Community Connections partners with local First Nations communities to sponsor events and projects, such as an annual Welcome Feast, National Aboriginal Day, a Pit Cook and Indigenization Project. Additionally, as many Aboriginal students at Camosun live far from their home communities, and many others have been fostered or adopted and do not have access to Elder support, the College has implemented Elders Voices and the Elders-in-Residence Program. Elder Voices : Aboriginal students and communities have identified Elder support as crucial to helping students stay on track with their studies so we developed the Elders' Voices project. Nine local First Nations and Métis Elders make class presentations (both on the land and on campus), participate in ceremonies and engage in healing activities to help support students. Elders-in-Residence Program: The Elders-in-Residence program provides the entire college community with access to the mentoring and counsel only an Elder can provide. Elders are available to meet with individual students, staff and faculty on either Lansdowne or Interurban campus at least 12 hours a week. (http://camosun.ca/learn/school/indigenous-education-community-connections/projects/projects.html)

The Camosun College Bookstore has partnered with Better World Books to distribute donated text books to less fortunate people all over the world. As of March 2014, the Camosun community has reused (donated or resold) 18 630 books. With our help, Better World Books has funded the shipment of over 200,000 books to Africa and built seven new schools in Southeast Asia. http://www.camosuncollegebookstore.ca/camo/store_sustain.asp?

Camosun College just signed a letter of support for a Capital Region Waste & Resource Labour Market Study project. This project will identify and quantify the opportunities for employment in the waste management / resource recovery industries within the Capital Region, with a specific focus on low-barrier jobs and related pathways to skilled employment in these areas. This partnership will be "collaborative" as representatives from Camosun will sit on the advisory team and/ or on the Steering Committee. The expected project timeline will run from February 2015 - January 2016.