Community of Practice
In alignment with the Equity Compass strategic focus area of Education and Capacity-building, and specific calls to establish a community of practice for EDI leads and practitioners at SFU, the EDI Community of Practice (EDI-CoPr) was established in December 2022.
Members of the EDI-CoPr are able to find support to develop their local area action plans and build their EDI knowledge and capacity. The purpose of the EDI-CoPr is to fulfill the following institutional and community needs:
- Align department/units with overarching institutional-level EDI goals
- Build capacity across equity practitioners by identifying learning needs
- Co-create local/unit-level solutions through an equity-centered design process
- Centre wellbeing to support one another in this work
Community Members
The EDI-CoPr is composed of staff and faculty leads/practitioners who are engaged in equity and inclusion work as part of their job description or are involved in unit-level EDI-related initiatives.
EDI-CoPr members commit to a one-year collaborative learning and action journey with SFU communities of faculty and staff, through three-hour meetings scheduled once per month.
Focus areas
As the CoPr enters the second year of work, 'Pods' operating as sub-sets of the larger CoPr will focus on three action areas identified as important by the community and to the Equity Compass. The three pods are as follows:
- Training and Resources
- This Pod will identify and document the educational resources that already exist at SFU related to EDI and develop an appropriate platform to share with the broader SFU community.
- Faculty Leadership Development
- This Pod focuses on developing an EDI path towards leadership development for faculty that would more intentionally validate and recognize faculty who center EDI in their teaching and research.
- Trans Equity Pod
- This pod focuses on advancing initiatives to address 2SLGBTQIA+ equity and inclusion structural gaps.
Developmental Evaluation
With a commitment to continuous learning and adaptation in our process, the EDI-CoPr is being supported by Developmental Evaluation, a tool for supporting social change initiatives in complex environments. This process employs consistent feedback loops and listening to facilitate learning and adaptation. After the EDI-CoPr completed its pilot year, outcomes and insights have been documented and applied. The EDI-CoPr will use this information to ensure responsiveness to emerging wisdom on this journey together, to stay accountable to collective goals/agreements and expectations and to make sure community members are supported.
Read the latest report
Contact Us
Community of Practice (capacity-building inquiries, goals and strategic directions):
Paola Ardiles Gamboa, Senior Advisor to the VP, People, Equity & Inclusion
pardiles@sfu.ca
Membership, Accessibility, and Equity Office related inquires:
Naz Babaeipanah, Director, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Initiatives
nnb2@sfu.ca
Administrative inquiries:
Calvin Liu, Manager Administration, VP, People, Equity & Inclusion
vppeimgr@sfu.ca