Educate & Activate is a campaign set to provide student-led, powerful, and educative discussions centered around anti-racism, the perpetuation of direct and indirect racism, and how to stand up for others in public and private spaces. Three public workshops relating to anti-racism released at three time points in the academic year. The topics will relay pertinent information to the student body, such as: how to recognize and stay away from racial microaggressions, how to break internal biases to be an efficient leader, and bystander intervention in terms of racism. These workshops will be presented by individuals in the BIPOC student community to ensure optimal allyship. With consultations across the UBCV campus, from EIO to the UBC Ombudsperson’s office, student leaders from UBC BSU and UBC AAI will be connecting with you on how to better educate yourselves and activate others.
For more information please contact: avpuniversity@ams.ubc.ca
Last year the AMS began working on advocacy towards the establishment of equity-based grants. These grants would be designed to support low-to-middle income students who lack funding to pursue a post-secondary education as a result of financial hardship. These grants would follow the same low-to-middle income requirement that needs-based grants follow. This year, the AMS will be expanding its advocacy strategy on equity-based grants by way of two parts: first, advocating for the collection of race-based data on a provincial and federal level and second, working with the SEEDS Sustainability Initiative to commission our own research into financial and health inequities that marginalized students face. Currently, the AMS and SEEDS are looking for student researchers to investigate the systemic inequities that marginalized students face in a provincial context.
For more information please contact: avpexternal@ams.ubc.ca
The BIPOC community care group is a bi-weekly peer support group that aims to create community, solidarity and connection between folks who self-identify as Black, indigenous, or a person of color*. This group is open to people of all and diverse genders who are UBC students, faculty and the larger community. The purpose of the group is to build community and to connect with others to foster healing and empowerment. Compared to other groups, there is an emphasis on discussions of intersectionality, identity and how to practice collective care. You can expect to explore topics such as establishing safety and community, practicing and integrating radical self-love and pleasure into your life and activism, embracing community justice as a means of confronting institutional harm, identity and intersectionality.
The group will be held every two weeks in person from January 26th to April 6th 2023, and will be facilitated by SASC staff.
*We acknowledge that identity is complicated, if you believe you belong in this group, we welcome you. By joining this group, you recognize the intention of this group is to center and uplift voices of Black, indigenous, and people of color and create a collective of care.
For more information or to register, please contact: sasc@ams.ubc.ca or 604-827-5180
The AMS Anti-Racism canvas modules are currently being created by a collective of AMS student staff to assist the student body in developing tools for ally-ship. The modules, including Bystander Intervention and Microaggressions will involve a comprehensive explanation of modern day formations racism that can exist within our UBC community as well as tangible actions which we may use to subvert explicit and inexplicit forms of racism that may manifest in our everyday life. This canvas course will be a pilot project for future equity related personal development modules in the future provided by the AMS for all students.
For more information please contact: equity@ams.ubc.ca