Community-University Liaison Initiative
We are excited to announce that we have received funding for a 2-year pilot staff position of Engagement Strategist that will link UBC migration researchers from across faculties with practitioners and organizations in the BC settlement sector. Starting in September, this new role will allow us to both expand and enhance relationships and collaborations with community partners focused on research, advocacy, and capacity-building. The Engagement Strategist will be housed in the Centre for Migration Studies and will work closely with CMS Community Liaison Sean Lauer (Associate Professor, Sociology) and Katie Crocker, CEO of AMSSA. They will be someone with sector knowledge and existing relationships who is tasked with bridging the gaps between UBC and the wider community in areas of research coordination, sector research capacity building, student learning, and policy advocacy.
This initiative was born out of the discussions had at the UBC President’s Roundtable on Our Role in Migration & Integration in 2019. At that time, community partners and leaders expressed the need for education, training, and capacity building for immigrant and refugee serving organizations and pushed for UBC to take a more multidimensional and multilevel engagement with community partners. Since that time, multiple stakeholders both within and beyond UBC, including Gage Averill (Dean, Faculty of Arts), Katie Crocker (CEO, AMSSA), Kat Cureton (Advisor, Community Engagement), Antje Ellermann (Professor, Political Science), Blye Frank (Dean, Faculty of Education), and Sean Lauer (Associate Professor, Sociology), have continued to meet to discuss the ways this relationship would benefit one another and identify tangible steps on how to best seek and grow new relationships. CMS is thrilled to be supporting this innovative pilot project and play a key role in advancing collaborations between UBC and the community. In the coming months, we’ll begin advertising the position. Questions about the initiative can be addressed to Sean Lauer at sean.lauer@ubc.ca.
