AM Session — Community Partnerships & Engagement at U of T Scarborough invites you to a dynamic, interactive session on U of T Scarborough’s Partnership & Engagement Frameworkâa grounding model that demonstrates how we build relationships with internal and external partners across the tri-campus community and beyond.
The Framework envisions partnerships as fluid, reciprocal, and evolving, offering a lens through which we can enhance our collective access partnerships. This session is a shared exploration of how partnerships take shape, shift, and strengthen over time.
Through a series of interactive elements, we will invite you to:
- Position your partnership along the Framework’s continuum by exploring various stages of partnerships that resonate with your experiences and insights.
- Learn how setting a good foundation in relationship-building can help address barriers to access, strengthen the lens through which we see access, and foster belonging for all partners.
- Engage in a collaborative activity with your peers that highlights the role of trust, transparency and communication in building sustainable partnerships.
Join us as we co-create a space for learning, dialogue, and meaningful connection, strengthening the foundation for transformative partnerships.
Room J125
AM Breakout Session: 10:40 – 11:50am
Presenters:
Thevya Balendran is an Eelam Tamil community worker and facilitator. Arriving and settling in Scarborough with her family in the mid-90s as refugees, she recognizes the importance of community and storytelling in the preservation of oral histories, cultures, and memory. She has engaged in advocacy and knowledge-mobilization work, coordinated the documentation of migration histories, and organized civic engagement initiatives throughout Toronto. Currently, Thevya works as the Program Design and Integration Coordinator with the Department of Community Partnerships and Engagement at the University of Toronto Scarborough where she works to strengthen partnerships with the university and its internal community stakeholders. She holds a BA in Sociology and Minor in Politics from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly known as Ryerson) and a graduate certificate in International Development, and passionately combines her education with her commitment to decolonization and community care. Her work is rooted in exploring a range of themes including displacement, identity, memory, and survival in diasporic and racialized communities.
Thevya coordinates values and asset-based community-university partnerships within the UTSC internal community and linking internal ideas to community priorities and aligning them with local community health and wealth building strategies.
Celeste Ceres is a community mobilizer and multimedia artist with a deep commitment to Scarborough and its communities. She is the co-founder of Sacraspice, a charity that empowers youth to develop culinary skills, lead a nutritional lifestyle, and build connections across cultures and generations through the art of cooking. Her work over the last decade has bridged food, culture, and communityâfrom sharing the joy of urban agriculture at TMU Urban Farm, to helping shape next steps for Torontoâs Black Food Sovereignty Plan through community-led consultation and policy advocacy at Black Food Sovereignty Alliance.
Celeste studied Business Management at Toronto Metropolitan University, majoring in Marketing and minoring in Finance, as well as Culinary Arts at George Brown College. A self-taught photographer and videographer, her lens has captured cultural figures like Common, Drake, Barack Obama, H.E.R., and Snoh Aalegra. As the former Editorial Assistant at SHIFTER Magazine, Celeste helped amplify Canadian voices and highlighted community stories that often go untold. Celeste now serves as Community Partnerships & Engagement Communications Officer at the University of Toronto Scarborough, where she continues to build bridges between the campus and community through storytelling.