The UBC Learning Exchange Action Plan is an exciting roadmap that lays out our commitment to support UBC to connect with the Downtown Eastside on pressing community-identified priorities relevant to all of British Columbia.
our mandate
The UBC Learning Exchange is a welcoming community-based learning hub in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that provides free educational programs for community members, diverse learning opportunities for students, and support for community-based research and knowledge exchange. The Learning Exchange works to better understand Downtown Eastside community goals, find ways for the university to support those goals, and fosters reciprocal and sustainable long-term relationships to achieve them.
our vision
UBC and Downtown Eastside communities have respectful, collaborative, and reciprocal relationships that support each other’s goals toward a more equitable and just society.
our Goals
Each year we work with thousands of people—from community members and staff at community organizations to UBC students, faculty, staff and academic researchers. Each of these groups have informed the following nine goals.
1
Engage with Downtown Eastside community and university partners to co-deliver community-driven educational programming.
2
Continue connecting student learning opportunities with community-driven priorities.
3
Strengthen relationships with xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations and urban Indigenous communities.
4
Enhance the Learning Exchange’s organizational capacity around equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility.
5
Facilitate community involvement in research and other scholarly activities.
6
Expand capacity for reciprocal knowledge exchange and knowledge mobilization.
7
Maintain a supportive and sustainable work environment.
8
Secure an accessible, permanent space for the Learning Exchange.
9
Expand and diversify the Learning Exchange’s connections within UBC.
OUR VALUES
Our core values inform how we work together, hold each other accountable, make decisions, and engage with others. They describe how we hope to be an excellent partner and place to work.
learning
We believe that everyone has something to teach and something to learn. We are dedicated to an approach that recognizes both strengths and needs—engaging people and communities through experiential opportunities, knowledge exchange, cultural sharing, and lifelong learning.
Sustainability
We take a long-term approach that builds capacity for the future while meeting the needs of the present. We are intentional about our commitments—promising only what we can deliver and working at a pace everyone can maintain.
Inclusion
We actively seek ways to foster a welcoming, accessible, equitable, and inclusive environment knowing there’s always more learning to be done. We are committed to offering a space where people can simply be and feel connected to one another.
Pragmatism
We are flexible and intentional in creating an environment for people to make concrete, useful differences in their learning and lives.
Collaboration
We work in and between dynamic communities to understand goals, capacities, and inequities to support reciprocal relationships. This involves listening, active coordination, and constant learning and unlearning.
Celebration
We recognize it takes courage to overcome the risks of learning. We celebrate and support every step, large or small, that leads to greater insight, understanding and action.
Our Core Areas
The work outlined in the Action Plan is divided into our four interconnected core areas:
Community Programming
Our community programming is rooted in the goals and needs of Downtown Eastside communities and offers low barrier doorways for people who have found it difficult to engage with formal education or who have had negative experiences with education. All community programs are rooted in and contribute to the latest scholarship in adult education, with input also from UBC faculty and students. Learn more.
Experiential Student Learning
Volunteer positions, co-op and Work Learn terms, graduate research positions—student learning is woven throughout the Learning Exchange. When students learn alongside community members and staff, it can be a powerful and transformational experience that offers rare and valuable insight into oneself and the world—the kind of learning experiences that can last a lifetime. Learn more.
Research & Knowledge Exchange
Through ongoing relationships with community non-profit organizations and academic and community researchers, the Learning Exchange is well positioned to advise on and support a range of community-based research projects, knowledge exchange and mobilization. Learn more.
People, Places, and Relationships
As a place-based unit in the Downtown Eastside, the Learning Exchange provides an inclusive, accessible and secure space in the community that offers people the space to connect, build relationships and understanding, and learn from each other.