Click on the image below to download the PowerPoint slide deck they presented at the conference!

Boundary spanners are integral to the success of community-campus engagement (CCE). At CFICE (Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement), we are lucky to have several boundary spanners on our team. We see boundary spanners as people with the ability to bring together academics, community members, and organizations to work towards a common goal. Not to be confused with a broker, a boundary spanner is heavily invested in both sides of the collaboration and is often directly involved in the project as opposed to acting as an intermediary.

In order to understand more about boundary spanning, I interviewed , associate professor in the Department of Geography & Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo, and a member of CFICE’s Community Food Security Hub. Dr. Scott is a boundary spanner, which can be seen from the many roles she’s taken throughout her career. Her work focuses on international and rural development issues including: land access, ecological farming and rural livelihoods, social justice, and equality. She’s also the past president of the Canadian Association for Food Studies (CAFS), which brings together academics as well as professionals from government and community organizations.

Dr. Scott became convinced of the value of an integrated food system approach, which she later linked to CCE and boundary-spanning, while at the inaugural Food Secure Canada assembly held in Waterloo in 2005. She later became involved with the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable, a networking and policy-making group working on building a strong voice for a healthy food system in the Waterloo region. Dr. Scott draws on her experience and involvement with the Roundtable, of which she was co-chair from 2007-2011, as an example of her work as a boundary spanner. It’s important to Dr. Scott because of its interdisciplinary and cross-cutting nature. Through her work with the Roundtable, Dr. Scott has been able to collaborate with community and government partners (such as Waterloo Region Public Health) to identify research issues of interest to these food system stakeholders. Dr. Scott says, “I also reached out to Food Secure Canada for their input on relevant research needs as well. As a result, some groups researched issues of food security in Canada’s north, and challenges facing new farmers, which are two of Food Secure Canada’s priority areas.”

In addition to diversifying Dr. Scott’s research and knowledge, her involvement with the Roundtable provides opportunities for students in her 4^th year food systems and sustainability course to work on research issues identified by community groups and Roundtable members. According to Dr. Scott, working collaboratively with community groups is particularly beneficial for students. Through her CFICE work, Dr. Scott has seen first-hand how partnerships between students and community organizations teach students about the challenges that community groups face, and how to utilize campus resources, particularly the time and energy of students and faculty, to help tackle these challenges. By going out into the community, students are exposed to different forms of community knowledge, providing them with an alternate perspective from what they usually learn in class. By gaining an understanding of the community perspective, students can apply this new knowledge in class to critically think about the issues facing these organizations. The students then prepared meaningful research reports that were later posted on the Roundtable’s to be publicly accessed. Some have even been cited in by Waterloo Region Public Health.

In CCE, in general, the community partner benefits by having students assist with addressing the needs of the organization. Community-campus partnerships also provide the community organization with an opportunity to expand their network to include a student audience. Students often encourage each other to volunteer and get involved with organizations with which they’ve had a good experience.

In Dr. Scott’s experience as a boundary spanner, she says that the most important requirements for successful community-campus partnerships are trust, and personal connections. Boundary spanners should work towards building trust between both parties. “Personal interest in the collaboration and commitment go a long way as well,” says Dr. Scott. Taking the time to get to know the people involved rather than working on the project itself straight away may not seem so productive, but Dr. Scott says that in the long run this personal relationship enhances the collaboration, ultimately leading to partnerships that last longer and produce more results.

To young people looking to get involved in CCE, Dr. Scott says, “Have an open mind, find out who the movers and shakers are in the community, and connect with them.” Dr. Scott also advises young people and students to get involved, regardless of their experience-level.

During the workshop, Andrée, Yordy, and Elsharkawy, among others, will provide short presentations of their research/project/program activities. Guiding questions for the presentations include: How are you working to address food justice on your campuses, and in your communities? How are you connecting this work to the curriculum on campuses? What are the greatest challenges or opportunities your organization/campus are facing? How can academia contribute to promoting food justice and supporting local community partners? How best can community organizers and researchers contribute to academic teaching, research and campus food justice?

Guest speaker  (UVic and UBC) will also be there to provide an informative presentation on zines as a community-based foodscape mapping tool.

Event Details:
10am-1pm, including a potluck lunch (beverages provided by U of O’s food lab)
Location: GSD 307, just above Nostalgica Cafe, University of Ottawa
Event is by invitation only. Please contact Peter Andrée for more information.

While Food Security Day is primarily geared toward students, all are welcome to join! For more details, please visit their Ěý´Ç°ů .

I saw the as a great opportunity to travel and learn about sustainability, so in October 2014 I decided to participate. The Alternative Spring Break program at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University is a 6-month immersive community service learning (CSL) program that connects students’ academic learning to hands-on community experiences. The program’s main attraction is its February service learning trip, where students are sent to a specific community to work with one of the program’s many partner organizations.

As part of my trip, I traveled to Uaxacutun, Guatemala to assist the community with implementing creative recycling. As an environmental studies student, I initially found this CSL opportunity very exciting since I thought it would give me insight into how a community becomes more environmentally conscious in a grassroots fashion. Though we participated in useful tasks, from picking up and separating plastic, paper, and garbage to painting and labeling recycling bins, I noticed that the community seemed to expend greater energy on hosting us than what we were giving them in return. For example, the community put a lot of effort into welcoming us through a huge community-wide welcome party. They also provided us with accommodations, and multiple meals throughout the day. As the trip progressed, it became evident to me that we were using up a lot of the community’s already scarce and valuable resources.

Upon returning and reflecting on the trip, I had mixed feelings. I was under the impression that we would be mostly working with and for the community during our time in Uaxactun, however I felt that my group and I benefited the most from the trip.

Voluntourism is problematic because it reinforces the false stereotype of the need for northern aid. Children in the community saw us, the students from the global north, as people with knowledge and skills beyond those of their community leaders; on several occasions the children and community members watched as their community leaders and elders thanked us for lending them our assistance. We were also teaching children at the local school English words related to health and recycling. Being positioned as teachers does not demonstrate collaboration between the community and Westerners. Rather, it reinforces to the children the idea that Westerners are the ones with the answers and that communities like theirs must depend on the West for guidance.

Because of the very short duration of our trip, and our lack of skills in carpentry (among many other factors), I believe the people of Uaxactun were more than capable of implementing this recycling project themselves. It could have been a great community engagement project by the community and for the community. The community did, of course, benefit from having recycling bins, but what is the purpose of Canadian students travelling such great distances to help the community paint recycling bins, and do the benefits to the community reconcile in the end with the amount of resources that the community used to host us?

Overall, the experience has made it clear to me that international service learning needs to be radically restructured. For example, students could commit to working with their home communities by having fundraisers to assist with the community’s needs with building infrastructure. This type of student contribution would be much more beneficial to the community as the community would be able to specifically outline the developmental barriers they are facing.

If you are planning to go on an international volunteer trip during spring break this year, I recommend you do your independent research of where your money is going. Look into whether your money is going to the community directly or whether it’s mostly covering administrative costs or big salaries. Finally, make it a goal to yourself and your group to work towards long-term structural change prior and subsequent to your trip.