Less than three years ago, SFU created the Vancity Office of Community Engagement, providing a new platform for community engagement initiatives in the Downtown Eastside, one of Canada’s most socially and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Now, thanks to a $750,000 gift from TD Bank Group, we have created the SFU Surrey–TD Community Engagement Centre.

This new facility, located in Surrey Centre Library, will enable SFU staff, faculty and students to deliver a broad variety of programs and services to the Surrey community, such as transition training for new immigrants and the Friends of Simon tutoring program for immigrant children.

TD has recognized the transformative impact university-community engagement can have on students, staff and faculty as well as on the communities we serve. 

As TD Bank Deputy Chair Frank McKenna put it at the Centre’s launch on May 3, SFU has “come down from the mountain” and recognized the “symbiotic relationship” between educational institutions and communities.

The Centre represents one more step in our Vision’s goal of being “Canada’s most community engaged research university.” As such, it will extend SFU’s capacities to provide our students with a greater sense of civic literacy and social responsibility and to better meet the demands of the communities we serve.

To these ends, we will also be engaging with the community to ensure that the initiatives and programs we offer are tailored to local needs.

Clearly, for the university and the community, the SFU Surrey–TD Community Engagement Centre is an initiative whose time has come.