{"id":213,"date":"2018-10-11T11:31:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T18:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/experience\/?p=213"},"modified":"2019-11-18T19:29:25","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T02:29:25","slug":"213","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/experience\/2018\/10\/11\/213\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Tech Cafe, Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part 4 of 4. Collecting the Threads<\/em><\/h3>\n

By Robyn Taylor-Neu<\/p>\n

In the wealthiest of North American and European cities, there are some who are said to have \u201cfallen through the cracks.\u201d Having fallen, however, they dwell in those gaps, inhabit them, make homes, and form relationships. For these \u201cfallen,\u201d the so-called social safety net has proven less-than sound. Here, in the gaps, faith in government assistance is riddled with the grit of reality. At the same time, \u201cthe market\u201d seems unlikely to come to the rescue; Adam Smith\u2019s invisible hand is otherwise occupied, stroking corporate egos and stoking the fires of high finance. The rhetoric, in this context, has turned towards \u201cpartnerships\u201d\u2014and partnerships between universities and community organizations hold promise. To understand the nature of this potential, though, we must push past facile stories of \u201ceducational outreach\u201d and \u201csocial responsibility.\u201d Community-university partnerships can\u00a0<\/i>be something special. They do <\/i>have unique potential. But the narrative needs to be complicated.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no magic formula for community partnerships\u2014it depends on the right people, with the right sensibilities, at the right time, with the right institutional support. In the previous three posts, we have traced the development of the Tech Caf\u00e9, teasing out the features that undergird its success. While recognizing that the Tech Caf\u00e9\u2019s solutions cannot simply be replicated, we now ask how they might be effectively adapted to different contexts\u2014how might the Tech Caf\u00e9 offer insight into the conditions, constraints, and potentials of community-university partnerships?<\/p>\n

For starters, the Tech Caf\u00e9\u2019s success illustrates what happens when the right people come together. Although other factors contribute, the project ultimately rests on strong interpersonal relationships. It\u2019s necessary to develop organizational relationships, Dionne observes, but \u201cyou need the individual to make anything happen.\u201d Nodding in agreement, William notes that individual personalities and experience are key factors in forming partnerships. He and Dionne gravitate towards individuals and groups that are like-minded and are engaged in similar sorts of work. \u201cWe naturally go towards people that fit,\u201d Dionne confirms.<\/p>\n

The \u201cright people,\u201d then, often means people with the right sensibilities. As we noticed in part 1, attentiveness is crucial. By being attentive, William and Dionne were first able to identify a gap in social services provision in the Downtown Eastside and create an app to address it. Then, by remaining attentive, they noticed an even larger gap: technology training programs that would \u201cmeet people where they\u2019re at.\u201d At every step of the program development, William, Dionne, and their collaborators attended to the community\u2019s responses and requests, never presuming to know in advance what would be required. As we observed in part 2, William and Dionne also established the Tech Caf\u00e9 around principles of reciprocity, flexibility, and commitment to ongoing relationships\u2014alongside attentiveness, these comprise the sensibility required for effective community-university work. \u201cAll of our programs\u2026are meant to be reciprocal<\/i>. So they come from the community, a need identified from the community, whether it’s a community organization or a community member,\u201d Dionne explains. She elaborates:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you work with community you have to be flexible and adaptable\u2026I always remember I had an old boss who would explain community work and she would say it’s like having a garden\u2014every once in a while you have to go in and weed it, and sometimes you need to move these plants over here because they’ll thrive better over here, and sometimes you just need to pull them up and say, \u2018this isn’t going to work in my garden.\u2019 And so [with] community work, often you have to go in and kind of look at what’s working. Is it not working over here because it’s not the right environment or is it not working because it’s a bad idea? And then if it’s just not in the right environment, can we try it over here? Would this be a better environment?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"=garden
Working with community requires flexibility and adaptability <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the Tech Caf\u00e9s, she and William have been especially flexible in terms of timing and venue: \u201cWe\u2019re not saying let’s meet between this time and this time\u2014it’s like \u2018what time would work for you?\u2019 And as long as we don’t have another Tech Caf\u00e9 going on that at that time we\u2019re like \u2018okay, we can do it.\u2019 So that’s why we have some that are at night, because it might work better that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having the right people, with the right sensibilities is not enough, however, unless the timing is also right. Sometimes it\u2019s just not the right moment to pursue a particular partnership: \u201cif they\u2019re pretty sure [it\u2019s not going to work], it means to me that they’re not ready to do it\u2026maybe we need to come back in a year, maybe we need to come back in six months,\u201d Dionne remarks. Similarly, sometimes it\u2019s not the right moment to tap a particular funding stream. With amusement, William recounts a situation in the early days of the Tech Caf\u00e9: \u201cWe did a brilliant\u00a0<\/i>proposal and I got a call back from them saying you’ve identified a very real need of the community, you’ve done find a really innovative way to approach it\u2026but we’re not going to give you any money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, even with all the right people, the right sensibilities, and the right timing, a budding project can wither without the right institutional support. In the case of the Tech Caf\u00e9, the UBC Learning Exchange and Carnegie Community Center were key supports, while the DTES Literacy Roundtable took the lead on the LinkVan and Tech Caf\u00e9 projects. As institutional supports, both the Learning Exchange and Carnegie offered stable funding and a degree of autonomy (unlike many of the non-profits in the neighbourhood that are dependent on short term, rigidly prescribed funding). From our perspective, this support meant that William and Dionne were able to develop innovative community projects\u2014i.e., the app and the caf\u00e9s\u2014while building upon a wealth of experiences, community connections, and established, trust-bound relationships. As university-affiliated researchers, we were especially intrigued by UBC\u2019s role in these projects, which represents a stark departure from the stock narrative of the predatory researcher engaging in the academic equivalent of a drive-by shooting. Rather, the story of the Tech Caf\u00e9 reveals the power of the university, if leveraged in a specific way and towards specific ends, can have far-reaching benefits. This allows a different kind of university-community story to emerge.<\/p>\n

THE END<\/p>\n

******<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"=Robyn\"
Written by Robyn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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