The VPS Strategic Initiatives Fund (SIF) was initiated to support staff from across the VPS/AVPS portfolio to take on innovative projects and initiatives to continue to advance the three commitment areas of the Student Strategic Plan (SSP).
Funding overview
After careful review, 16 outstanding projects have been selected, showcasing a remarkable blend of creativity and a profound commitment to enriching the student experience. The total funding allocated to these projects amounts to $291,603.
- Vancouver: 9 projects received $163,795.00 in total funding
- Okanagan: 7 projects received $127,808 in total funding
Funds were allocated to projects in support of the three commitment areas of the Student Strategic Plan:
- Transformative learning reinforced through local and global engagement
- Wellbeing for people, places and the planet
- Connections within and across campuses and communities
UBC Vancouver
Investigations Office – Professional Development: Restorative Justice for Campus Sexual Harm
This initiative will provide IO staff with the necessary theoretical background and skills to apply a restorative lens to campus sexual violence complaint processes.
Health Equity Promotion and Education – Trauma-Informed Tutoring Support
This project aims to provide private, one-to-one, trauma informed tutoring support to UBC students who are navigating recovery from substance use issues and/or process addictions. This initiative is intended to support both the academic success and health and wellbeing of this distinct population within the UBC community.
Centre for Accessibility – Career Development Opportunities for Students with Disabilities
This project aims to support students with disabilities, specifically those whose disabilities impact social engagement (e.g., Autism Spectrum Disorder, Social Anxiety) leading them to encounter barriers to accessing existing career development resources. Additionally, this project would support Alumni with disabilities through providing paid opportunities to share their impactful stories of career success. These mentors will share insights on how they have navigated disability-related intersections in employment and personal contexts. Both students and alumni mentors will be provided stipends for their involvement.
UBC Bookstore – Empowering Indigenous Access through Digital Equity (EIADE)
This initiative aims to remove barriers by providing equal access to materials for all sponsored students, regardless of background. By streamlining access to both physical and digital formats, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous sponsored students are empowered to seamlessly access materials, aligning their experience with that of their peers.
Athletics and Recreation – Mental Health Toolkit
The project aims to enhance the awareness, support, and management skills of coaches and front line staff working directly with student-athletes in the area of mental health and mental performance.
UBC Career Centre – Supporting Beyond Tomorrow Scholars’ (BTSP) Career Development
The project aims to deeply understand the literature and approaches that can effectively support UBC Black undergraduate and graduate students’ career development. The primary focus of this project is to work with the BTSP to develop career development programming that will support BTSP participants in better leveraging their degrees and professional networks. The secondary goal of this project is to develop an action plan that allows for the implementation of career development programming for BTSP and Black students generally.
UBC Career Centre – Thunder Forward: Student Athlete Career Transition Initiative
This project will create specialized career transition programming for student athletes who are nearing the end of their athletic career at UBC. Student athletes will find answers to the question of “what’s next?” and increase career clarity and confidence in their upcoming transition. This project aims to create the basis for an on-going program to be offered to student athletes.
Student Communications Services (SCS) – Phase 1: Alignment and Discovery
Understanding students, their needs, and the services they are navigating is a crucial part of improving how SCS delivers its services. This project aims to improve clarity, consistency, and processes across SCS’s work with service and program units, and to identify approaches to improve students’ navigation of and pathways through critical information and resources across student channels.
Student Communications Services (SCS) – Phase 2: Co-creation
Building on Phase 1, this project will focus on on the co-creation and design of a coordinated, student-centred approach to communications strategy across the 15+ units supported by SCS. A key area of focus will be redesign of key landing pages on students.ubc.ca. The aim is to improve how Vancouver students navigate and engage with content on SCS, VPS, and other UBC channels. Using a service design thinking approach, co-creation is an innovative, collaborative, and user-centered approach, and is particularly effective for complex, large-scale website projects.
UBC Okanagan
SHCS – LivingWorks Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) for UBCO Staff
This project intends to develop skills and confidence for frontline staff to respond appropriately to students experiencing suicidal ideation. This program will support participants to recognize the signs and take life-saving action by connecting students to hope and support.
Student Communications – Student Engagement: Content and Community Builders
A team of five supervised students will create authentic content on @ubcostudents social media channels to promote social connection, break down barriers to access university resources and opportunities, and raise awareness for campus services. This initiative will be focused on the objective of encouraging, enabling, and inspiring full participation in the student experience, while building up the vibrant, close-knit community that UBCO is known for.
Student Engagement and Learning – On-campus Space for Equity-Deserving Groups
This initiative seeks to uncover the needs of students belonging to equity deserving groups as they navigate the UBCO campus and identify community needs regarding a dedicated space on campus. Our findings will inform the pilot of a space for equity-deserving groups on-campus
that will support students’ identities and foster a sense of belonging for those who may experience marginalization and alienation in other campus spaces.
Athletics and Recreation – Athletics and Recreation Student Athlete and Alumni Lounge
The project is intended to transform the mezzanine space in the gymnasium so that it can be used to promote student health and wellbeing by providing space to study, congregate, promote healthy eating and food prep, and relax.
Wellbeing & Accessibility Services – Journey Mapping of Student Health Clinic and Student Counseling Services
UBCO’s Student Health Clinic and Counseling Services will conduct patient journey mapping to understand how students experience each clinical touchpoint from when they begin their journey by requesting health/counseling services, to completing service agreements, to having an appointment, to (ultimately) leaving the service. Knowledge of the student experience and any barriers they face while accessing services will inform necessary changes to make services more student-centred, culturally safe, and anti-ableist.
SVPRO – The ABC’s of Pleasure: Anatomy, Boundaries and Choices
The “ABC’s of Pleasure: Anatomy, Boundaries and Choices” series will empower students in residence with the knowledge and resources they need to make informed decisions about their sexual health, fostering a campus culture rooted in respect, consent, and well-being. By addressing topics that range from the anatomy of pleasure and porn to consent and contraception, the program sets students on a path for healthier, safer, and more fulfilling sexual and emotional relationships throughout their time at UBCO and beyond.
Global Engagement Office – Mindful Move-Out
Creating a structured move-out program for students living in residence, which includes an adequate and sustainable space for storing household items, that will enable exchange and international students to reuse and recycle these items as they move into residence. These items will be donated and supplied to new students free of charge to assist students with the move-out process while new students benefit from receiving free household items. We all recognize the financial barriers students are going through as well as the household waste of items being tossed out or given to big companies such as Value Village to just be re-purchased by financially struggling students.
We look forward to seeing the impact these projects have in advancing the Student Strategic Plan, and the outcomes for students and the UBC community. We will continue to share ongoing impacts, outcomes and learnings with you.
Thank you to everyone who submitted applications to the first VPS Strategic Initiatives Fund, and to members of the advisory committee. Stay tuned for future calls for submissions coming later this summer.