Community initiatives

BIPOC Student Support Circle

The School of Social Work BIPOC Student Support Circle has been working together since 2020 as an online safe space for BIPOC undergraduate students to connect, build relationships, and discuss their experiences in the program. The Circle has been grounded in relational work that centers the sharing of stories, peer support, and a space in which students can discuss their unique experiences without repercussion. It has also been one that is flexible, low pressure, and that has shifted away from a structure that embodies colonial processes. Rather, there has been discussions of shared accountabilities and shared values that have helped guide circle activities and meeting times together.

Watch this video to learn about how we respectfully work together in designing, planning and implementing our circle work. We welcome you to join us!

The BIPOC Student Support Circle is one of student groups funded by the University of Victoria Students’ Society.

If you would like to connect with the circle, please email us.

Beyond Race Theory: Centering BIPOC Student Voices and Experiences in the Bachelor of Social Work Program at the University of Victoria

Our school has been organizing community events for UVic students as well for the public. For Social Work Week 2021, the school hosted this panel presentation on March 18^th, 2021. BSW students from UVic spoke about their experiences in the program and the importance of centering Indigenous, Black, and other racialized perspectives in academic spaces. This panel was hosted by the school’s staff/sessional instructor Ryan Khungay.

Panelists:

Joslyn Bains: Joslyn’s pronouns are she/hers and she is a 3rd year BSW student. She is currently living on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh nations as a non-white Punjabi settler.

Profile photo Chelsea Canuel: Chelsea Canuel lives in Williams Lake on the Unseeded traditional territory of the Secwepemc First Nation. Chelsea identifies as a queer, cisgender female of mixed European and Indigenous heritage and is in her final year of the Bachelor of Social Work Degree.

Aubrina Culp: Bri is situated in Vancouver on the traditional and ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, where she is grateful to live, work and play. Bri identifies as half African-American and half Chinese. Her father is from Memphis, Tennessee and grew up while Jim Crow laws and segregated schools were still in effect. This in turn has influenced the lens she sees the world through, and she believes that diversity of ethnicity and thought is key to a rich learning experience.

Noel Pio Roda: Noel is a 3rd Year BSW Student, He/Him/His, First-Generation Immigrant (born and raised in Burnaby, the ancestral and unceded home of the Musqueam, Skwxwu7mesh, Tsleil-Waututh, and Kwikwitlem First Nations), his parents arrived as uninvited settlers in the 90s from the Philippines.

Facilitator:

Ryan Khungay: Ryan is a visitor to the Lekwungen peoples traditional territory (Victoria) and previously has lived the majority of his life as a visitor on the Secwe̓pemc peoples traditional territory, also known as Kamloops, BC. Ryan is a Punjabi Sikh gay man who is the son of immigrant parents. Ryan is the BSW program manager and a sessional instructor in the School of Social Work at the University of Victoria.

In the past, we held the following events to promote decolonizing, anti-racism, and anti-oppressive work inside and outside UVic communities.