Simon Fraser University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

CityStudio Vancouver is an innovation hub where City staff, students and community co-create experimental projects to make Vancouver more sustainable, livable and joyful. It launched in 2011 as a collaboration between the City of Vancouver and the city’s public post-secondary institutions and is part of a global shift in education that provides practical learning experiences to help students get jobs and change the world. CityStudio Vancouver is the first of its kind in Canada and unique around the world. CityStudio Vancouver is working to shift the way students, City staff, faculty and community members work together to co-create solutions to our city’s most complex problems. Through the launching of experimental projects on-the-ground, university students learn the skills they need to succeed in today’s economy and inspire action in the community and government. Semester at CityStudio courses have been offered at SFU every year since 2012: Semester at CityStudio brings together bright, innovative students from diverse backgrounds, disciplines and universities to collaborate with The City of Vancouver on demonstration projects. By focusing on current issues that matter in Vancouver, students have an opportunity to develop innovative solutions that assist The City of Vancouver in reaching its goals. The course offers field experiences, on-the-ground training, leadership development, group process, and urban sustainability project management skills. Upcoming course will be offered in Fall 2018. http://www.citystudiovancouver.com/

Simon Fraser University is actively engaged with the South Fraser community. We are a member of the Surrey Board of Trade, the Chambers of Commerce in White Rock, Surrey and Langley, the Downtown Surrey Business Improvement Association, and the Surrey Tourism and Convention Association. We also have partnerships with both the City of Surrey and School District 36. We sponsor and take part in community events and festivals like Surrey Party for the Planet and we offer our facilities for public lectures, debates and other activities. Our faculty, staff and students are busy with a variety of volunteer activities in the South Fraser area. In addition, through our cooperative education and industry liaison activities and entrepreneurship, we engage with local businesses and organizations in helping to energize the economy of the region. SFU's Surrey campus is fast growing with a five-story, 15,000-square-meter building currently in construction to house a proposed Energy Systems and Environmental Engineering Program, an interdisciplinary engineering stream that will support the clean tech and sustainable energy sector and enable SFU students and researchers to gain the knowledge and skills required to help British Columbia and Canada become innovation leaders in the clean tech and sustainable energy sector.

SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement supports creative engagement, knowledge mobilization and public programming in the theme areas of arts and culture, social and environmental justice, and urban issues through public talks, dialogues, workshops, screenings, performances and community partnerships. SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement provides community educational opportunities for local residents, access to artist talks and cultural events and builds partnerships with community organizations. The Office opened in December 2010 and engages over 9,000 people per year. Working with students, faculty and community, the Office is committed to long term relationship building and creative collaborations between the university and the community, in all its diverse formations and recognizes the arts as a catalyst in social change and transformative community engagement. SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement is an educational, cultural and community building resource that engages the public sphere, the local First Nations community and the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. The Office is committed to challenging the status quo in the tradition of the public mission of SFU to be the most community engaged university in the world. Our work is supported by SFU and external funders such as Vancity Credit Union and the Goldcorp Community Endowment.