Principles and Good Practices
Principles, protocol, established practices and formal agreements already exist at UBC to guide many aspects of community engagement: public events, community-based experiential learning, domestic or international partnerships, institutional or industry partnerships, community-based research, collaborative programming, etc. Principles can increase the rigor and quality of community engagement. They are decision-making tools. Principles act as a foundation for the development of engagement goals, objectives, and activities. For those involved in community-university engagement, principles are one way to defend and advocate for quality, while also acting as a guide for those new to the area.UBC has been exploring a common set of overarching principles to inform community engagement. What we’ve heard so far from people engaged in deep partnerships is the need to operate based on principles of reciprocity, flexibility and openness, transparency and a respect for difference.
The following is a collection of examples and resources from units across campus that articulate principles and good practices for community engagement. Please email community.engagement@ubc.ca if you have more resources to add:
Connecting Communities: Principles for Musqueam-UBC Collaboration
A student review, produced as part of a UBC Sustainability Scholars project, that outlines the history of the relationship between the Musqueaum people and UBC, core principles for engagement, tips for success and directions for collaboration.
Patient & Community Voice in Health Professional Education
A collection of research reports from a 3-year community-based participatory action research project that looked at improving care for vulnerable populations through their participation in the education of health professionals. Good practices for community engagement are articulated in the key findings.
Campus and Community Planning Principles
Campus and Community Planning’s ten engagement principles are design to enable constructive dialogue with communities in land use and community planning processes.
UILO Global Access Principles
UBC Global Access Principles are intended to guide the societal impact of and global access to UBC technologies.
Learning Exchange
UBC’s Learning Exchange has developed a set of principles and values for their work at UBC’s Downtown Eastside campus. The principles are inclusion, collaboration, celebration, learning, pragmatism, and sustainability.
Examples of Principled Community Engagement
In many cases, examples and stories are the best way to show how principles and values are enacted within specific context. Many faculty and units are guided by values and principles that are specific to the context in which they work, and are best shared through examples and stories of community-engaged work. Following are some key examples of principled community engagement work at UBC; please email with additional examples:
If you know of additional sets of principles or good practices at UBC, or examples of principles in action, please email community.engagement@ubc.ca.