SJPS student helps low-income tenants

Even as Andrea Smith, a fourth-year student, works on her studies in Social Justice & Peace Studies (SJPS) and Politics & International Relations (PIR), she is already taking advantage of opportunities available to King’s students to make a difference in the London community.

When Smith took Community-Based Learning, SJPS's experiential learning course, last year, she chose LIFE*SPIN as her community partner. The organization’s overall goal is to provide a hand-up to people with low income, or facing other hardships through community building and providing resources and knowledge sharing.

“LIFE*SPIN has made a tremendous impact on the London community by continuously advocating for better policy that has the potential to improve lives. Their work in the community and the anticipated project being the tenant support fair excited me and I felt I could contribute to their work,” Smith says.

Last March, she helped to organize and run LIFE*SPIN’s tenant support fair. More than 100 low-income tenants met with more than a dozen organizations, including social service, legal and protection services, to try to get help to battle pests and disrepair in their homes. The tenant support fair gave people a chance to get answers and find support to navigate the system.

In addition to working to organize the tenant support fair, Smith has worked on a report outlining the impact that LIFE*SPIN has made on the London community. She presented the report to the members of the Community and Protective Services Committee on Tenant Rights and Property Standards By-law on October 21.

Smith says coming to King’s has allowed her to build relationships with her professors who have supported her and her desire for positive social change. She says these relationships and the experiential learning opportunity made it possible for her to become a part of LIFE*SPIN and their work.

Smith will join Shawna Lewkowitz for a presentation, "Engaging Local Communities for Social Change - Faculty, Student and Community Collaborations," as part of the King's Faculty Research Seminar Series. This presentation will explore how collaboration among faculty, students, and community partners in the Social Justice and Peace Studies course, Engaging Local Communities, leads to meaningful changes in policies and social issues within the London community and how it challenges and deepens students' understanding of social justice concepts and theories.

Join Smith and Lewkowitz via Zoom or in Dante Lenardon Room 112 on November 6, 2024, from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m.  For more information, visit the event page.