The Learning Exchange is an entry point for faculty from UBC and other universities to engage with Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. We can support you to:
Connect with the community
We can help bring people together to do community-based participatory research, including facilitating recruitment and data collection. And we can connect you with people and organizations in the DTES. We’ve been building relationships here since 1999; our experience allows us to span conventional boundaries and our locally based staff team can help navigate the community and its culture.
Find new routes to share research results
Our connections allow you to access local networks conducive to knowledge exchange and translation. We also lead a collaborative initiative between community organizations and university partners to make research findings accessible – the Making Research Accessible initiative (MRAi). One of our vehicles is the DTES RAP – an online, open access information portal. It’s just one way your research can be brought to a wider audience that includes the local community and the general public.
With new routes to share findings from the DTES, we aim to help researchers broaden the positive impact of evidence-based information in people’s lives.
Access free academic space in the DTES
The Learning Exchange offers researchers a welcoming space that is both part of UBC and part of the community. Our free bookings for academic activities include private small rooms for one-on-one interviews, and semi-private rooms for focus groups, project meetings and knowledge exchange events. We also have bookable workstations and full UBC wireless connectivity.
If you’re interested in support for your research activities, come visit us at 612 Main St. or contact our Community-Based Research Coordinator, Katherine Cheng, at katherine.cheng@ubc.ca.
