Celebrating Innovation for a Sustainable Global Community

VIU stages Global Citizens Week to showcase employee, student and community Innovation in Action for a better world.

Vancouver Island University (VIU) is opening its doors to the local community to take part in Global Citizens Week activities showcasing the many initiatives faculty, students and community members are involved in to build a better world.

Innovation in Action is the theme of this year’s event at VIU to coincide with International Development Week activities being staged across Canada.   

“We have the ideas, the knowledge and the motivation to solve deep-rooted problems such as homelessness, inequality, environmental destruction and climate change,” says Darrell Harvey, VIU’s Coordinator of International Projects and Internationalization. “We are not letting the challenges of solving these problems become barriers to action. There are many people in the university community and among our partners who are putting new ideas into action.” 

From February 3 – 7, the campus will be alive with exhibits, visiting speakers, a film festival and music exploring issues of global development at home and abroad. Last year, more than 2,500 people took part in activities staged throughout the Nanaimo and Cowichan campuses. 

The week-long festivities begin on Monday at 11:30 am in the Upper Cafeteria in Building 300 with the Global VIU Showcase, featuring exhibits from faculty and staff who are charting a new way forward and can speak to the innovative projects they are involved with at the local and global level. 

Premier events include the Engaged Citizens Speaker Series: Conversations for a One Planet Region. Visiting guest speaker Dr. Trevor Hancock presents on the need to engage citizens on understanding the massive and rapid human-induced global ecological changes that are occurring, and how to develop local actions. 

Panel discussions and presentations occurring throughout the week will cover a variety of topics such as Indigenous involvement in sustainable watershed management; how tourism experiences are integrating truth and reconciliation; and the Arts and Humanities Colloquium Series will reflect on refugee experiences through the eyes of a comic artist. The Colloquium Series event will be followed by a special screening of Sadika’s Garden, a moving story about a Canadian family, once refugees themselves and the family from war-torn Raqqa in Syria they sponsored to come to Canada. 

Rounding out the extensive list of activities is the 3rd annual All Nations Reggae Symposium featuring well-known solo artist Caleb Hart, a mainstay of the BC reggae scene, 2016 Nova Writes competition winner Abena Beloved Green, Jamaican-born Ameal “Stainless” Hanson, and Sergio “Cheko” Soto of the reggae band Skanky Roots.   

“VIU’s vision is shaped by the ideals of a just, equitable and sustainable global community,” adds Harvey. “Events like Global Citizens Week remind us there is a connection between the local issues and the bigger global problems. I encourage everyone to come to VIU to witness the work that is being done to tackle these issues, engage in conversation and be inspired to get involved.”

All Global Citizens Week events are free. For a full schedule please visit https://international.viu.ca/gcw.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Annette Lucas, Communications Officer, Vancouver Island University

O: 250.741.2020 | C: 250.618.7296 | E: Communications@viu.ca