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Fall 2023 Participants

Project Title: Knowledge Mobilization through digital story-telling:  Showcasing MAP-SWAN user-led data collection in the City of Burnaby

SFU Research Lead:

  • Atiya Mahmood, PH.D. - Associate Professor in the Gerontology Department at SFU
  • Sogol Haji Hosseini, M.Sc. 

Community Partner Organization: SFU Civic Innovation Lab

The Stakeholders' Walkability/Wheelability Audit in Neighborhoods (SWAN) project empowers older adults and individuals with disabilities as co-researchers to assess local streets and sidewalks. SWAN aims to uncover mobility barriers and facilitators in the community, fostering advocacy for accessibility. In collaboration with the Civic Innovation Lab (CIL), the project intends to create an informative video with select participants, shedding light on accessibility issues identified during SWAN audits. This video, co-developed by participants, will serve as a vital knowledge-sharing tool in Burnaby, promoting inclusive urban discussions at community forums, in partnership with CIL.

CERi funds will be allocated to facilitate the knowledge mobilization of data collected from older adults and individuals with disabilities regarding neighborhood urban design within the City of Burnaby.

Learn more about the project: here

Partner logos:

Project Title: Indigenous salmon stream caretaking: Ancestral lifeways to guide restoration, relationships, rights and responsibilities

SFU Research Lead: Kirsten Bradford

Alongside collaborators from five First Nations, we are co-producing a paper with the intention to re-awaken Indigenous salmon stream caretaking knowledge and be a landing point for Indigenous Peoples in their work to restore their salmon streams and the relationships, rights, and responsibilities tied to those streams.

CERi funding is supporting Lauren Marchand, a Syilx illustrator, to create two visuals to accompany the paper.

Project Title: Urban Food Justice for All: (Re)Shaping Food Sustainability and Food Justice in Diverse Cities

SFU Research Lead: Isabela Vera, PhD Candidate, ICTA-UAB and School of Resource and Environmental Management

Community partner organization: Pacific Immigrant Resources Society

Vancouver is considered a world leader in sustainable food planning but its urban food policies may (re)produce a hegemonic ideal of "sustainable food" that excludes the rich knowledge held by racialized immigrant communities. In collaboration with the Pacific Immigrant Resources Society, this project uses Photovoice to create space for racialized immigrant women in Vancouver to share how they define and access food they consider to be good for people and the planet. Participants will use this research to inform policymakers on creating more just and inclusive food policy.

CER funding provides vital support for honoraria for Photovoice participants, administration fees for community partners supporting with recruitment and logistics, and developing knowledge outputs (podcasts and policy briefs).

Project Title: Building social connections: Housing design policies to support wellbeing for all

SFU Research Lead: Michelle Hoar

Community Partners:

Led by Hey Neighbour Collective and Happy Cities, in partnership with SFU Gerontology, this three-phase project explores design policy solutions for socially connected, resilient, and inclusive multi-unit housing. Phase 1 gathers evidence from the City of North Vancouver’s Active Design Guidelines and other case studies. Phase 2 involves four co-design workshops, engaging representatives from six Lower Mainland jurisdictions to create innovative multi-unit housing policies. Insights gathered will shape a comprehensive toolkit in Phase 3.

The CERi funding will support Phase 1 of the project, allowing SFU researchers to collect data at sites across North Vancouver and engage with residents, planners, and developers.

Project Title: Sharing Knowledge through Film: Stories from a Rural and Remote Climate Action Plan

SFU Research Lead: Dr. Maya Gislason

Partner: Cortes Island Community Foundation

Building on the community resilience work the Research for Eco-Social and Equitable Transformation (RESET) Lab has been leading on Cortes Island with funding from past CERi Project Funds, we will be filming a short documentary-style film to showcase opportunities for climate change resilience on the island. We will work together to understand who holds knowledge related to climate change, where this knowledge is situated and how it informs community organizing for climate change adaptation and mitigation. The documentary film will showcase interviews with residents of Cortes Island, with specific attention to intergenerational involvement and priority populations.

Project Title: Reframing Food Justice in South Vancouver

SFU Research Lead: Meg Holden, Professor, Urban Studies and Resources and Environmental Management

Community Partner Organization: South Vancouver Neighbourhood House

During the crisis period of the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by the restrictions and closures affecting food bank usage and food access programs, SVNH has taken up a significant role as a regional food hub. This work now extends well-beyond staff and funding capacity, with demand for food access outstripping service availability and an estimated 2 year wait list across South Vancouver neighbourhoods. SVNH has learned to meet needs in the community through partnership, advocacy, and voluntarism. The Neighbourhood House also has come to recognize a need for a new, rights-based, model for food system access that is more aligned with its grassroots, network-based community development approach. This project seeks to partner with and accompany SVNH on this new leg of its community empowerment journey. The proposed community engaged research project builds upon the existing partnership between SFU CERi and the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House (SVNH) to build a food justice action strategy for South Vancouver neighbourhoods.