University of Toronto Staff Events & Workshops

Working in Good Ways: Moving from Intention to Action with Indigenous Community Engagement 

Date: Thursday March 20, 2025 
Time: 1 – 3 p.m.  
Location: Virtual (Zoom) 

Looking to move from intention to action when it comes to partnering with Indigenous communities in your community-engaged learning work? Join facilitators Anny Chen and Gerardo Villagrán Becerra, two of the co-authors of University of Manitoba’s Working in Good Ways Framework, for an interactive workshop for U of T staff on how you can use this framework to guide your work with Indigenous communities and organizations. 

Facilitators will share an overview of the framework, and support participants to get grounded in its key principles through storytelling and interactive discussion. You will also get a chance to brainstorm and talk through some of the barriers in your personal context that may be blocking your path to really starting this work in a good way. 

This workshop is for U of T staff who support community-engaged learning (CEL) and/or community-partnered experiential learning (EL) in their work. 

You will walk away from this workshop with: 
– A stronger understanding of the key principles of the Working in Good Ways framework, and how to begin the work of Indigenous engagement in CEL  
– A greater awareness of the barriers in your personal context that may be getting in the way of working meaningfully with Indigenous communities and how to begin addressing them 
– A stronger connection to your staff colleagues here at U of T who are pursuing similar work 

After the workshop, keep the momentum going and join our virtual “So What / Now What” debrief on Thursday March 27 from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. Join CEL Staff Network members for a “So What / Now What” debrief of the workshop, focused on applying workshop content to your context and planning follow-up actions related to building partnerships with Indigenous communities in your work. You can indicate your interest in this debrief when you register for the workshop. 

Facilitators:
Anny Chen: Anny is a second-generation Chinese-Canadian community educator, strongly shaped by her upbringing as a child of refugees from Southeast Asia. Anny’s love for experiential learning and community engagement started during her work with Katimavik and was nurtured by a Master of Education in adult education and community development, her work in the settlement sector as an EAL teacher, and organizing with various communities in Winnipeg. 
Gerardo Villagrán: Gera is an educational developer in the Office of Experiential Learning at University of Manitoba, where he supports faculty and instructors in connecting course content to the real world. Prior to this role, Gera coordinated Community Engaged Learning programs for students, which focused on learning from Indigenous and activist communities in Latin America—where he was born and raised.