What is the Definition of Rural & Northern?
What is the Definition of a Community Partner?
How do you assess students’ contribution to a local community?
Are We Able to Receive Multiple Years of Funding?
What are the Funding Reporting Expectations?
What is the Definition of Rural & Northern?
For the purposes of this funding eligible communities are defined based on their proximity to — and accessibility from — UBC. For a community to be eligible it must either be outside of the Lower Mainland or not directly accessible from UBC via car. That means, students who work in areas within the Lower Mainland, such as the Sunshine Coast and certain Gulf Islands, are still eligible for funding if those areas can only be reached by boat or plane.
In addition, ‘rural’ communities are defined as being outside what Statistics Canada refers to as “population centres”. According to Statistics Canada, a population centre is an area with a population of at least 1,000 and a density of 400 or more people per square kilometre.
There are some rural areas within the Lower Mainland. Students working with communities in these areas are eligible for funding.
What is the Definition of a Community Partner?
The intention of the Rural Community Based Learning Fund is to enable students to work with organizations that bring value and are embedded within a rural or northern community.
Community partners are not defined based on their organization type. Non-profits, for-profits, government agencies and other organization types are all appropriate partners. The critical factor is that the projects students are completing will contribute to the local community in some way.
How do you assess students’ contribution to a local community?
For small local organizations or businesses, this will be simple to assess
For larger government agencies or corporate entities it will be important to demonstrate:
- how the student project or placement will bring value to the local community.
- how it will enable student learning about this particular remote or rural context.
It must be clear from the course learning objectives that there is a desire for students to learn about the community context as part of this experience.
Are We Able to Receive Multiple Years of Funding?
The BC Rural Community Based Learning Fund is not intended to be a permanent resource for courses that engage students in working with remote and rural communities. It is intended to be a short-term support over 1-3 years to enable faculty to:
- build relationships with rural and northern community partners who offer robust learning opportunities for their students
- understand the true costs associated with engaging with rural and northern communities in the context of a particular course
- demonstrate the value of the remote and/or rural CEL component of their course to decision-makers in their department or faculty.
In cases when courses do receive funding for three years, the Centre for Community Engaged Learning, and the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre will request that the faculty member meet with them at the conclusion of the third year of funding to discuss ongoing sustainability of the course.
This discussion will include consideration of:
- the student and community partner experience over the three year period – for example is the student learning robust, and is there a clear benefit to the community?
- what other funding sources, both internal and external to UBC might be available to support this engagement?
- would there be value in advocating to decision-makers within the course’s home department or Faculty for ongoing financial support for the CEL component?
What are the Funding Reporting Expectations?
All funding recipients have to report back to the Rural Community Based Learning Fund panel on students’ experience and the project that received funding. This includes, but is not limited to, providing any final student project outputs.
We are looking to demonstrate how funding this student project or placement has:
- brought value to the local community.
- enabled student learning about this particular remote or rural context.
Those who are awarded funds are required to report on the impact of this funding by the end of the funded term. All successful applicants are required to submit a copy of students’ final project deliverable to the Centre for Community Engaged Learning, e.g. posters, reports, videos, presentations, etc.
Do you still have a question? Please email the Centre for Community Engaged Learning at community.learning@ubc.ca.