Community Engagement
A place of engagement: UBC faculty, staff and students, across both campuses, dedicate resources to community-university engagement as both foundational to UBC’s excellent teaching, learning and research, and critical to enhancing economic, social and cultural well-being.
Okanagan Community Engagement Office
The Community Engagement Office is one of a number of entities on the Okanagan campus that drive community-university engagement. Reporting to Public Affairs, the Community Engagement Office includes one strategist who has expertise in public events, external communications and stakeholder relationships.
The office operates independently and collaborates with University Relations experts in media relations, social media, graphic design to execute event plans.
Goals
- Increase the community’s connection to community engagement activities conducted by the university
- Enhance the quality of community engagement activities conducted by the university
Target Audiences
- The broad Okanagan communities, external to the university
- Community leaders, business leaders, government leaders
Top Priorities
Content catalyst – Collect, develop and share content that brings the community engagement work of the university to the public
Event lead – Plan, deliver and execute the signature UBC public events which speak to the university’s community engagement goals
Event advisor – Guide faculties, schools, units and institutes in the development of their event to optimize engagement with their audience groups
Point of contact/entry – Serve as a point of contact for questions or requests from the community, as well a point of entry for organizations/businesses to navigate the university system to find the best match for their needs
Stakeholder cultivator – Enter into and nurture relationships with local and regional stakeholders and organizations where there is a mutually beneficial exchange
Bookings & Event Equipment
As part of the event advisor role, the Community Engagement Office supports off-campus space bookings at partner locations, including:
- The Rotary Centre for the Arts
- UBC’s Clinical Academic Campus (@ Kelowna General Hospital)
- UBC Innovation Library
- Okanagan Innovation Centre
A variety of event equipment — banners, tents, tablecloths— is available for loan to faculty and staff presenting at public events, providing a consistently strong, tier-one level UBC image. For a complete list, see Event Equipment.
Campus Partners
Sharing the community engagement commitment are:
- Community Service Learning program
- Faculty and School led public events programs
- Southern Medical Program: Volunteer Patient Program
- UBC Co-op Programs
- Researcher lead Community-Based Research projects
- Professors through course curriculum
- Institutes, including the Institute of Community Engaged Research and Institute of Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention
- And others.
Explore
Learn more about our Community Engagement activities.