From left to right: Akuzike Limbanga, UBC Geography, Environment & Sustainability, UBC Student; Caroline Beninger, Be the Change Earth Alliance, Educator & Grants Coordinator; Mutuma Caelan, UBC Geography, Human Geography, UBC Student; Zaida Schneider, False Creek Friends, Director; Kshamta Hunter, UBC Sustainability Hub, Manager, Sustainability Student Engagement.
Words by speakers above, edited by Caitlin Lichimo.
Sustainability Ambassadors and community-partners collaborate on climate action and environmental stewardship projects
Be the Change Earth Alliance and False Creek Friends are two community partners collaborating with the UBC Sustainability Hub on a number of experiential learning projects. Be the Change Earth Alliance is a Vancouver-based, charitable, non-profit organization that delivers eco-social education initiatives to engage youth and educators in meaningful learning and action. False Creek Friends is a society that works to restore the False Creek marine environment in alignment with First Nations stewardship values and marine science.
These community-university partners collaborated with student leaders participating in the Sustainability Ambassadors program, managed by the UBC Sustainability Hub, including students from the Youth Climate Ambassador Project (YCAP) cohort and the Environmental Justice cohort. This program engages youth and communities in climate action and environmental stewardship, with students playing a key role in shaping this work. Alongside their community partners, these cohorts have implemented community-focused projects such as the rehabilitation and public education of the history behind False Creek, and providing accessible workshops on the climate crisis to students across Metro Vancouver.
This article reflects on the lessons learned and insights gained from years of working together in a climate-focused setting. However, rather than focusing on specific projects, the conversation explores 'how' collaborations are sustained – highlighting principles like adaptability, reciprocity, and shared decision-making.
Connections can lead to new and unexpected places
Kshamta Hunter, Student Engagement Manager at the Sustainability Hub, started a discussion by emphasizing how important forming connections are: “We never know where a new connection will take us.” She explains how she was connected to these community partners by a mutual colleague who saw the potential alignment in both individuals’ goals. Had they not been connected, these partnerships would not have been formed.
Encouraging student connections in academia, research, and community fields
Zaida Schneider, Director of False Creek Friends, describes the academic environment as ‘transactional’ in the sense that [as academics] students are expected to create something that is acknowledged as their own personal work — but there are also students who want to contribute to and establish connections with the larger community. UBC Human Geography student Mutuma Caelan has been advocating for students to be recognized as valuable contributors, rather than merely consumers of education.
“[My relationship with Zaida and Kshamta] is almost non-hierarchical because they understand the value of young peoples’ perspectives, so they legitimize our role and our positions as important.”
- Mutuma Caelan, UBC Human Geography student.
From comradery to rivalry: the challenges of competing for research partnerships
On the topic of applying for grants like UBC's Community-University Engagement Support Fund (CUES), or the National Sciences and Engineering Research grant (NSERC), Zaida highlights some of the struggles from a small Non-Govermental Organization perspective. He stresses some of the structural issues related to creating resilience in our social enterprises and in civil society, and that real sustainability happens when we develop connections that form comradeship, rather than compete for success.
"As a small NGO, I’m competing with all the other conservation NGOs for funding; they become my enemy. How does that make sense?"
- Zaida Schneider, Director, False Creek Friends.
Sustaining hope and resilience
UBC Environment & Sustainability student Akuzike Limbanga describes how relying on volunteers can be difficult. Although they want to watch the seed of a project come to fruition, volunteers tend to leave once positions are replaced and previous relationships can be lost. But at the same time, new relationships are made along the way as new generations of volunteers are formed.
“Resilience is just the dreams of many people that have come and gone that continue to give it strength by forming new relationships.”
- Akuzike Limbanga, UBC Environment & Sustainability student.
Caroline Beninger, Be the Change Earth Alliance, Educator & Grants Coordinator, explains how despite the high turnover of staff and volunteers on her and Akuzike’s team, the Youth Climate Ambassadors cohort managed to thrive, thanks to the meaningful relationships that kept it afloat. Both Caroline and Akuzike agree that a practical lesson to keep hope alive is to not treat these projects as ‘work’, but rather as working toward a purpose bigger than themselves alongside friends whose perspectives you value.
"To surmount [these hardships] I think it’s just given us such a deeper relationship and can add so much more work to the meaning or meaning to the work, which we’re really grateful for.”
- Caroline Beninger, Be the Change Earth Alliance, Educator & Grants Coordinator.
Listen to the podcast: UBC Partnering in Research Conference + Stories of Partnership: Be The Change Earth Alliance, False Creek Friends and UBC Sustainability Hub - Community Engagement
Learn more about the Sustainability Ambassadors Program, UBC Community Engagement, Be the Change Earth Alliance, and False Creek Friends.