Dialogue and Civic Engagement Practicum

Mentors:

• Susanna Haas Lyons
• Khari Wendell McClelland
• Andrea Reimer

Practicum projects are as varied as the people who convene them. There is no expectation that you host an event or complete a project (although many do), but rather that you demonstrate that you’ve engaged with the learning and challenged your own learning edges. This is your opportunity to take a strategic risk and take on a project, or a piece of a project, that you’re passionate about. You can situate the project in your workplace or in a community context. Often the richest learning—and most surprising but wonderful outcomes—happen when things don’t go as planned!

Previous projects have focused on many issues, including this small sample:

• Alumni engagement at UBC – evaluating a pilot initiative
• Parent/Admin/Student engagement initiative with the BC Ministry of Education
• Hosting a series of public consultations regarding a contentious land use issue for the City of Saanich
• Planning and implementing a series of BC Hydro consultations in a rural community that had never had hydroelectricity
• Death Café – an open event to talk about death and dying
• Youth homelessness in Vancouver, working with the Vancouver Foundation
• Sustainable waterfront initiative in Vancouver, working with the Georgia Strait Alliance
• Blue Dot Initiative – working with the David Suzuki Foundation to enshrine environmental rights in the Canadian constitution
• The food industry and the Agricultural Land Reserve – a multi scale initiative to engage food industry stakeholders with regard to the risk to the ALR
• Composting in apartment buildings – an project that turned into a multi-year initiative to innovate and introduce a composting program in Vancouver
• Recycling shelves for binners – an initiative to strengthen community and dignity for urban recyclers
• Mapping safe, queer spaces in East Vancouver – a series of kitchen table conversations
• Hoarding in North Vancouver – a multi-stakeholder forum including first responders, municipal/regional employees, social service organizations, and clients of services
• Discovery Café – an initiative to explore whether ‘women can buy a better world’
• Community of practice for engagement practitioners – an event that sparked a series hosted by SFU Continuing Studies and SFU Centre for Dialogue
  
• Online engagement – an inquiry into how IT practices are impacting face-to-face interactions
• Evaluating the effectiveness of Reconciliation Canada’s existing engagement strategy

• Demonstrated application of what you’ve learned
• Engagement with other students and your mentor
• Final presentation
• Reflection paper 

No textbook is required. We will provide all course materials online.