Alumni Awards for Community Engagement

ALIE LYNCH: ADVOCATING FOR BETTER HOUSING SOLUTIONS

Simon Fraser University Urban Studies master’s student Alie Lynch devotes her professional and academic life to advocating for better housing in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Her commitment to helping people in one of Canada’s poorest communities has earned her the 2024 Urban Studies Alumni Award for Community Engagement.

Lynch’s interest in the Downtown Eastside developed when she was an undergraduate who played in local bands.

“I would be playing music all over the city, in all these different underground venues, most of which were illegal, some of which were legal,” she says. “A bunch of venues were located in the Downtown Eastside, so I became more involved in the community.”...read more

BILL YUEN: REDEFINING HERITAGE

Bill Yuen’s understanding of Vancouver’s urban heritage goes well beyond the age of its buildings. As Executive Director of the Heritage Vancouver Society since 2015, he has created opportunities for place-based and intersectional identity-based knowledge of the city’s development. In SFU’s Urban Studies master’s program, he has focused his thesis research on sustainability and community building within the challenging realm of housing provision in Vancouver. His excellent work in the program has won him graduate fellowships and awards, including the Urban Studies Alumni Award for Community Engagement.

Belle Cheung, Senior Manager of Strategic Initiative in the City Manager’s Office at the City of Vancouver, has worked with Yuen through the Heritage Vancouver Society. She says, “I cannot think of someone else who has had such an outsized impact in supporting communities, the practice of heritage, and in advocating tirelessly for a more equitable city.”... read more

ROBYN CHAN: BUILDING NEIGHBOURHOOD FUTURES

Robyn Chan pursues her conviction that engaged urban communities can plan, replan and shape their home environments to be the best places to live. She lives and is raising her family in Vancouver’s False Creek South, a remarkable part of the city that was designed in the 1970s as an experimental, mixed income community of co-ops, rental, supportive and market housing, where families could thrive in a green and blue oasis of post-industrial False Creek.

Robyn began her work in False Creek South with a track record of engagement and activism with Evergreen, including Green Bloc and 100in1Day Vancouver projects, that address critical and timely urban issues from sustainability choices, to urban nature, public space activation and accessibility... read more

CLAIRE ADAMS: EMERGING LEADER

Urban Studies master’s student Claire Adams is dedicated to helping transform the way self-identified women experience urban spaces and participate in civic processes, and she has been recognized for this work with the Urban Studies Alumni Award for Community Engagement.

The award recognizes and supports graduate students in SFU’s Urban Studies Program who have an established record of, and future promise in, urban leadership, while maintaining an excellent academic record...read more

DIONNE HILARY CO: TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES

From a young age, Dionne Hillary Co has always been fascinated by cities and urban spaces–having lived in them her entire life. She was drawn to Vancouver to SFU’s Urban Studies program for the diversity in faculty research and the university’s commitment to community engagement. 

Since arriving in Canada, Dionne has worked with vulnerable people in the Metro Vancouver region, despite being in a vulnerable position herself as a recent immigrant. Dionne worked as a Housing Outreach Worker at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, where she helped community members access safe, adequate and affordable housing. From here, she joined the volunteer board for Women Transforming Cities, a non-profit society advocating for women’s political participation at all levels of municipal governance... read more

AMAN CHANDI: DEDICATED COMMUNITY MEMBER

For Aman Chandi–a Surrey, British Columbia resident–community has been a long-time inspiration and interest. When asked what inspires her, Aman writes, “I am inspired by the dedication and creativity of volunteers, artists, activists and students who work tirelessly to create radically inclusive spaces in Newton, Surrey. Additionally, I am inspired by the legacy of local heroes and artist-activist, Don and Cora Li-Leger, who conceptualized several art-led and place-based solutions addressing critical urban issues like food insecurity, homelessness, addiction and social isolation”... read more