About SFU's Community Engagement Initiative

A small grants program that strengthens community-university relationships and catalyzes impact.

As one of Canada’s most community-engaged research universities, we know that lasting impact comes from research, teaching, creative activity and service characterized by the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.

The goal of the CEI is to catalyze, support, and broaden such partnerships.

Generally speaking, we look for proposals for initiatives that will advance a priority of What’s Next:  The SFU Strategy, are closely aligned with SFU’s Strategic Community Engagement Plan, and that improve and expand SFU’s capabilities to engage with its communities through rigorous community engagement. 

Community Engagement

The CEI considers community engagement to be an inclusive approach to teaching, research, and scholarship that is characterized by deep attention to relationships. In rigorous community engagement, the goals of projects and programs are co-created with community partners, ensuring that the resulting knowledge, education, and impact respect both scholarly and community-situated perspectives and priorities.

Successful community engagement is, of course, much more than just this. But successful community engagement often demands increased commitment and resources for building principled relationships, sometimes even before defining a project. As such, there is a particular need to support that part of the work. That’s where the CEI can be of use to many projects.

Whether you are just forming your partnerships or you’re taking a project to scale, if it is characterized by deep, equitable, and respectful relationships with community, it could represent a strong case for funding from the CEI.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.