Buddy Up! began as a student project formed through the CityStudio urban innovation partnership between UBC, SFU, and the City of Vancouver. It emerged from the recognition that we need more free and accessible platforms which bring Vancouverites together through learning and sharing skills. The objective of Buddy Up! is to create a tool that highlights the skills and resources that already exist within communities, creates connections between people, and encourages a local sharing economy – all for the purpose of building resilience and autonomy in communities. Each of us is either an immigrant or the child of immigrants to Metro Vancouver, and without CityStudio we would have not met. Through Buddy Up! we want to connect people who would otherwise not meet, and guide them in the process of turning from strangers to friends. Buddy Up! re-emphasizes the importance of communal skill and story-sharing as a catalyst for building resilient communities, and the power of non-monetary interactions.
OUR STORY
Sarah is in her last year of International Studies at SFU. She loves learning new languages to communicate with the vulnerable people she tries to serve. Sarah enjoys learning skills like emergency response, team management, and public speaking to utilize in her work with non-profit organizations. To her, Buddy Up! represents a promising concept to be implemented throughout Vancouver to counter our neoliberal and disconnected culture.
SARAH HEIM
Iva Jankovic is a fourth year student in the Global Resource Systems program at UBC. She has a passion for people, plants, and places which drives her interests in community building, agriculture, and urban planning. She believes that buddy systems encourage people to build deeper connections with one another and can help build stronger, more engaged, and self-reliant communities.
IVA JANKOVIC
Amy Han is a 4th year student of Simon Fraser University majoring in the field of Communication. Amy is bilingual and fluent in both English and Mandarin. What drew Amy to the Semester in Dialogue was its unique, non-traditional learning environment. Her passion for bringing people together was instrumental to Buddy Up!’s purpose.
AMY HAN
MEET THE TEAM
PARTNERSHIPS
CityStudio is an innovation and experimentation hub for the City of Vancouver in collaboration with seven of Vancouver’s post-secondary institutions (BCIT, ECUAD, Langara, SFU, UBC, VCC and NEC). Since 2011, CityStudio has contributed more than 100,000 hours of experiments, projects and skills training to support City goals and strategies like the Greenest City Action Plan and Healthy City for All Strategy. Learn more at:
Our project would not have been possible without the support and guidance of many Staff at the City of Vancouver. Their input and enthusiasm helped shape Buddy Up! into what it is today. In particular, we wish to thank Paul Krueger, Senior Public Space Planner at Viva Vancouver who enabled our outdoor showcase event on November 24th, 2017.
On December 1st, 2017, Buddy Up! was given the opportunity to present at CityStudio's semi-annual project showcase: "Hubbub" at City Hall. We received lots of interest from City Staff, Parks Board Staff, and some of Vancouver's top leaders in urbanism and innovation. Our project created so much excitement that we won first prize among 30 other student projects and got to have dinner with the Mayor of Vancouver, Mr. Gregor Robertson to speak about our project. With the continued support of the City of Vancouver, we hope to expand Buddy Up! across the entire city!
OUR DREAM
When we saw how powerful a single Buddy Board could be, we made it our goal to bring Buddy Up! to every Community Center, office, apartment building, and gathering space in Vancouver. Our city is full of incredible people with amazing skills and there is no limit to the things we can do together if we just reach out and connect with each other. Sharing skills and learning from each other is a fun and easy step towards greater resiliency on a city-wide scale. Over time, we hope that Buddy Up! can encourage a small-scale, local, DIY, sharing economy and build a culture of free, horizontal knowledge exchange.
Saadiyah is in her last year of her Sociology degree at SFU. Through Sociology she has found a love for activism, theory, and multicultural community building. She finds joy through writing about experiences in the world around her. Buddy Up!, to Saadiyah, is a great opportunity for Vancouverites to learn about one another through stories as well as bringing community back into Vancouver.
SAADIYAH DAUD
