SFU Public policy

The SFU Public Square in partnership with the Vancouver Foundation is presenting the 2012 Community Summit – Alone Together: Connecting in the City.

The goals of the summit are to increase the level of understanding and dialogue on the issues of isolation and disconnection in our urban environment, and foster individual, organizational and civic connectedness.

SFU Public Square was officially launched in June of 2012, and originated from the university’s yearlong consultation process, which produced SFU’s strategic vision as “The Engaged University.”  SFU Public Square is designed to put SFU’s physical, intellectual and virtual capacities to work to support public engagement and deliberation on issues of public concern.

Alone Together – Connecting in the City
September 18 – 23rd, 2012

In recent reports by the Vancouver Foundation, people living in urban Vancouver have a “powerful yearning for stronger connections in and between our communities.“ They identified feeling a sense of “belonging” in one’s community and trusting one’s neighbour as the biggest contributing factor to happiness and an impression of having a good quality of life.  As stated in A Better Connection, “The issue people said concerned them the most was isolation and disconnection; the feeling that we increasingly live in silos, separated by race, language, income, age, and even geography.

The intent of this community event is to bridge some of that gap, invite people from all walks of life – youth, students, family, seniors, new comers to Canada – to join the conversation.

As part of Vancity’s ongoing strategic partnership work leading and advocating for progressive social change, we’re pleased to be working closely and collaboratively with SFU on this amazing 6-day, thought-provoking public initiative.

For more information on SFU Public Square and Alone Together: Connecting in the City, please visit:
http://www.sfu.ca/publicsquare