“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

-Margaret Mead

This quote, by anthropologist Margaret Mead, embodies some of my greatest values and dreams. After all, it was thanks to one such “small group of thoughtful, committed” and basically awesome young individuals that our CommuniCreate program came into being.

Five of us teamed up to develop a game plan for CommuniCreate

Nine months ago, having learned about the SFU Student-Community Engagement Competition (SCEC), five of us teamed up to develop a game plan for CommuniCreate; a free afterschool program intended to help newcomer youth, ages 13 to 17, improve their English through fun and engaging activities. Eunbee, Rufaida and I, the main curriculum designers, had all been newcomers too at some point, so the issue felt close to our hearts; what we really wanted was for these youths to feel more connected to and supported by their communities.

Picture from the SFU Media Minds program Film Showcase where all 5 original members of the CommuniCreate project first met. Team members: Ricky Lalli (top row, column 2), Trisha Dulku, (top row, column 3), Saba Fatemi (top row, column 5), Eunbee Baik (bottom row, column 1), Rufaida Kheraj (bottom row, column 3)

At an end-of-term gathering with our partners from DIVERSEcity. From left to right: Saw Joe Teeshara, Rola Nasreddine, Saba Fatemi, Eunbee Baik, Rufaida Kheraj, Rapheal Ochil

The difficult decision to go virtual

Not long after having received the support and funding of both SCEC and the Embark & RADIUS Social Innovation Seed Fund, the State of Emergency was declared, and our in-class program would either have to come to a complete halt or go virtual. We chose to go virtual and spent the next few months updating and revising our curriculum as a result.

The difficult decision to go virtual and offer the program through Zoom turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Feedback from both our newcomer youth participants and the university students who volunteered for the program showed that one of the greatest strengths of this program was that students could be paired with volunteers at an almost one-to-one ratio, and placed in a Zoom Breakout Room where the students could get individual attention. Students and volunteers began to develop stronger relationships and mutual trust over the course of the program. In fact, some of our students expressed that one reason they came back every single
time was to see and talk with their volunteer, who was now like a friend to them.

The summer pilot run of CommuniCreate was a success, thanks to the support of our partners the DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society, who referred over 20 of their youth to our program, and the SFU Surrey-TD Community Engagement Centre, who helped us recruit more than 22 university volunteers. This program has now been adopted into SFU’s regular community programing and will be offered on an ongoing basis.

CommuniCreate schedule & volunteer opportunity

The next iteration of CommuniCreate goes from September to November (2020). Sessions are scheduled to be held on Mondays from 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm.

If you would like to volunteer with the program, visit https://www.sfu.ca/cec/volunteer-application-form.html to apply.

Author: Saba Fatemi