"Let the needs of the community direct what you learn in your degree. They don’t have the same access to academia that you do, and it will help you communicate to a general audience."
William Canero
- Degree:
- Master of Community and Regional Planning
- Grad year: 2022
- Program:
William currently serves as a Board of Director for the Kathara Pilipino Indigenous Arts Collective Society and the South East Asian Heritage Society. During his time at UBC, William served as Councillor for the Graduate Student Society, the Planning Students Association, and the Planning Equity Coalition. William has had the privilege of facilitating consultations with the Pilipinx community, lead non-profits through strategic and long-term planning, and has recently worked with Burnaby’s Planning Department on ethnic business and farmer protections, arts and culture within Official Community Plans, and Indigenous co-management research. He has since moved on to start his own consulting firm, Malaya Planning and Engagement, which works with non-profits around planning issues within their local communities.
What has made your time at UBC memorable?
While working with Nora Angeles for the National Pilipino Canadian Cultural Centre, I was pulled into a local divisive issue around the potential displacement of Filipino small businesses on Joyce St. A rezoning application at 5163-5187 Joyce St, threatened the community’s access to food and culture and was the epicentre of growing qualms of the community around a lack of:
1) affordable housing;
2) arts and cultural space;
3) ethnic food; and
4) consultation specific to the Filipino Community.
The town hall that was organized by the community garnered hundreds of attendees from the local community, and a new organization was created, working with Collingwood Neighbourhood House that consisted of various representatives across non-profit organizations and community members that were concerned for the site and wanted more say in the planning of Joyce St. The new local imagination of the Filipino community was one I hadn’t anticipated, and I continue to build on this work.
You can’t do community work without community.
What are your future plans to make a difference in our world?
Since completing my degree, I have started a job as the Systems Change Coordinator at Collingwood Neighbourhood House and have started a planning firm helping non-profits with planning and engagement work. This work aims to empower communities to plan on their own. I believe planning is not reserved for those with the means or the tools. I instead, work within communities and provide knowledge, research, and expertise so that local equity-seeking communities can be better prepared for the evolving nature of injustice. Non-profits in our community have direct mandates to help the public, and I am committed to seeing the visions they have for themselves.
I work within communities and provide knowledge, research, and expertise so that local equity-seeking communities can be better prepared for the evolving nature of injustice.
