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- Competition Info
- Projects
- 2023
- The Boat People Art Installation
- Downtown Eastside Art Engagement Project
- Ears That Listen, Hands That Help
- Food For Marginalized Youth
- GenConnect: Connecting Punjabi Seniors & Youth
- Inside Out
- Mitti Vancouver
- NaloxHome Community Panel: It Takes a Community: Exploring the Forces Behind BC’s Overdose Crisis
- One Tap Away: A chatbot to bridge the service gap in gender-based violence services
- Orange BC Run
- Read For Our Lives
- Rooted In
- Solastalgia Zine
- 2022
- Knowledge Translation Re-imagining: Healthcare in the DTES
- Memorializing the First Filipino in Canada: A documentary
- Mixed-Race Community Group: Exploring Self, Ancestries, and Lands
- Documenstory - Ashcroft Youth Media Club
- The Process of Political Activism
- Happy, Connected, Resilient Neighbours
- Crafting Circles
- Trans Connect-ing Youth in Sport
- Ocean Care through Data Embodying and Behaviour Changes
- Let’s Do Breakfast
- Empowering Muslim Youth
- Peer Connect: Accessibility Meet up/ Games Night
- The Reclamation of Women's Bundles
- 2021
- ACSSPA Sewing Mask Project
- Art for Comfort: Art for Connection
- BC Newcomer Camp
- Burnaby Mountain Festival
- Generation BXY
- Glow Within Foundation
- Haida Nerds
- Hastings Folk Garden Sound Map
- Indigenous Tutoring and Mentoring Program (ITMP)
- Math Walks
- NaloxHome SFU
- OMG I have ADHD
- OneTime
- Public Health Speaks
- ReRooting Relationships
- Singing Our Truths: Telling Our Stories
- Voices 4 Reconciliation
- Young Minds Exploring Science
- 2020
- 2019
- 2018
- 2017
- 2016
- 2015
- 2014
- 2023
- News & stories
- Thirteen student-led teams launch impactful community partnerships.
- Your personal connection is your greatest strength
- Making your project a passion
- Cooking up a breakfast program with love
- Fourteen student-led teams win funding to realize community impact!
- Leaders & Learners
- These 18 teams are springing into action with community
- Develop your capacity as a changemaker – and have fun!
- Embracing the complexity: pivoting as a practice.
- You know what’s not scary? $3,000 to fund your awesome project.
- SFU student creates youth-led overdose education and naloxone training during B.C.’s overdose crisis
- SFU student-community partnership creates local impact in Surrey
- SFU Students Exemplify the Spirit of Innovation and Community Engagement at the Annual President’s Gala
- Co-creation is difficult. And it's worth it.
- Hands-on for impact
- Congratulations to this year’s winners!
- On power and engagement – an interview with Aslam Bulbulia (excerpted)
- Herbert’s story: how one shopping cart made a difference.
- Don't wait for perfection – jump in
- Congratulations to our 2017-18 finalists and winners
- Discover what’s possible when university students and communities work together
- About
- Contact us
About the SFU Student-Community Engagement Competition
The SFU Student Community Engagement Competition (SCEC) started in 2014 as a collaboration between Blackwood Partners Management Corp., Central City, the City of Surrey and Simon Fraser University's Surrey campus.
In its first three years, the competition supported some amazing projects, such as S.C.O.R.E., Gro Carts and Media Minds, which have engaged youth, supported food justice and created foundational support for young people interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
In 2017, the competition expanded with two new awards designed to encourage collaborative projects between SFU students and community partners to create positive social impact in Burnaby communities. And in 2018, thanks to generous funding from SFU International, the Burnaby Festival of Learning and others, the competition was able to expand to include brave engagement anywhere and to increase the total available funding up to $30,000.
We are humbled to have provided over $170,000 in award funding through the competition, supporting more than 65 community engagement projects that have taken place all over the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley, further out in BC, like Victoria and Ashcroft, and as far away as Ecuador! Before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, SFU students have shown up with their community partners to do brave work on food justice, reconciliation, social connection, newcomer inclusion, Islamophobia, anti-black racism, career accessibility, toxic drug crisis, and more. We’ve had small projects and big projects. One team’s journey even resulted in the founding of a BC nonprofit that is in operation today.
Now in its tenth year, thanks to our committed partners, the competition is once again able to make up to $30,000* available to support SFU students who want to work together with community partners to create meaningful impact. We can't wait to see what you'll do with it!
PURPOSE OF THE COMPETITION
SFU's practice of community engagement prioritizes co-creation in cutting-edge research, transformative education, and community action. While SFU has plenty of inspiring examples of staff and faculty collaboration with community, the SFU Student-Community Engagement Competition works to provide students with an avenue for developing a strong community engagement practice outside of formal education. And if we're doing that well, it means that the projects we support also advance community agendas and issues.
Take a look at the competition's growing list of student-led projects to see how students are working together with community partners to co-create lasting, meaningful impact. And if you’re currently an SFU student, your idea could be next! Register today and then submit your idea by November 24, 2023, and take part in this transformational process. Think critically, listen deeply, and take courageous and responsible action on the issues that matter – in partnership with people and organizations in your communities
Thank you to our partners
It’s pretty amazing when people come together with the intention of doing something good in the world. While we can – and should – critically debate the meaning of “good”, there’s no doubt that meaningful change takes commitment, hard work, and some kind of intention to connect with others honestly, respectfully, and in an ongoing way. The SFU Student-Community Engagement Competition is a collaborative initiative that has been successful thanks to the involvement of Blackwood Partners Central City, the City of Surrey, SFU Public Square, the Burnaby Festival of Learning, SFU International and Simon Fraser University. We are so grateful to our past and present partners, who share this vision and who are the heroes who continue to make this opportunity available.
What would you do with $3,000?
Up to $30,000* is available to fund SFU students who want to work with community partners to create meaningful impact.
Maybe you’re working on an existing idea for a class you’re taking, through a student club, or through another organization. Or maybe you just have an amazing idea that keeps you up at night.... Whatever it is, we want to hear from you!
Start the process now by registering today and then submitting your idea before November 24 – all you need is your passion and an idea.
