To date, our Community Conversations have focused mostly on the potential impact of Community Engagement on students, faculty and off-campus partners. But how does in affect staff? Our fifth Community Conversation dealt with this issue.
How do you think staff can be more involved in Community Engagement activities? And how do you think we can better communicate our stories?
UBC has a diverse, talented, educated and experienced staff that remain largely untapped for community engagement initiatives. UBC staff are international, intercultural, multi-lingual and part of the very community we want to reach. Not only do many of them currently voluteer in the community but are able to offer professional perspectives and expertise in a consistent, functional capacity unlike that of faculty or students. UBC staff have a lot to offer, we just need to ask.
There needs to be a university wide policy on the conditions for engaging staff for community initiatives. There are no provisions for time off to participate in Leave for Change, Learning Exchange Reading Week, staff exchanges, and/or any other community based project. If staff are representing the university in ANY capacity, they need to be provided with the time and resources. Currently staff feel penalized for opting into initiatives, hence the lack of willingness to participate. Just as faculty and students act as ambassadors for UBC, so too can staff if facilitated and encouraged through progressive policies.
Thanks for highlighting some of the community-based programs available for staff participation at UBC. How we support and encourage staff to participate in these and other community-based initiatives is an important point for us to consider.
Leave for Change and the Community Leadership Program (CLP) are part of our staff development offerings where “learning is a shared responsibility” between a staff member and UBC, is one of the key principles.
Some programs are done entirely during work hours and others, like Leave for Change, are a mixture of work time and vacation as required by our partner organizations.
– Ashley Castellan, Community Engagement