## [Our Values and Strategic Plan](/vision) **Our vision:**Knowledge in Action - Planning in Partnership - What we commit - A word from our Director ##### What we commit ## Our Mission SCARP’s mission statement commits us, through education and research, to generating and transforming knowledge into action by planning in partnership to improve lives and communities and the quality of built and natural environments. ## Our Values ![Picture of student presenting project to man in suit, captioned, "Integrity, care, and respect in how we behave"](/sites/default/files/styles/max_325x325/public/2025-10/value-tile-01.png.webp?itok=OnUDxPJe) ![Picture of student presenting at lectern in front of Musqueam art, captioned, "Curiosity, excellence, and courage in what we do"](/sites/default/files/styles/max_325x325/public/2025-10/value-tile-02.png.webp?itok=SNMz2HMT) ![Picture of several diverse people of all ages arm in arm, captioned, "Inclusion, reciprocity, and responsibility in how we do it"](/sites/default/files/styles/max_325x325/public/2025-10/value-tile-03.png.webp?itok=3og_DBmJ) ## Our priorities Actions in service of each priority Knowledge generation- To further develop our international reputation in engaged scholarship, by nurturing innovation and challenging research conventions, thereby generating knowledge that is insightful, meaningful and transformative. - To explore innovations in partnership working between disciplines and professions, and with communities and policy-makers, through our teaching and research. Knowledge sharing- To inspire future generations of planning scholars, students and practitioners, at all career stages, through the quality of our teaching and commitment to learning based on intellectual rigour and action-oriented education and scholarship. - To provide future planning professionals with the knowledge, skills, capacities and applied experiences to be the facilitators and leaders of positive change.To continue to advance research and teaching in Indigenous community planning and reconciliation. - To project and promote the work of the School, including through new models of engagement and dialogue. School culture- To cultivate an openness to different perspectives, dialogue about those differences and a willingness to learn. - To offer a lively, inclusive, creative and supportive working environment for faculty, early career scholars, staff and students, based on respect and a sense of shared endeavour. - To attract and support highly talented students, staff and faculty, reflective of diversity within Canada. - To be an organisationally effective and financially robust planning school. ##### A word from our Director ![Woman in blue cardigan and bronze broach among trees](/sites/default/files/styles/square_200/public/2024-10/heather_campbell_-_2024_outside.jpg.webp?itok=LEnnxLl0) My name is Heather Campbell, the Director of the School of Community and Regional Planning, a School focused on advancing planning education and research. Its identity is strongly informed by its location and in a culture that values social inclusion and environmental stewardship. SCARP learns, works, and congregates on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. Our land acknowledgement is only the starting point for the important work of progressing reconciliation and more, and its meaningfulness is demonstrated in what we do. We continue to learn from our Musqueam partners, and honour their sovereignty, rights, perspectives and culture. SCARP shares a unique and invaluable partnership with the Musqueam First Nation, and through that partnership they teach us that humility and an openness to learning makes our planning better. At SCARP we teach how to be an agent of this change. If you read historical accounts and speeches, a recurrent phrase is that conditions now are more challenging than they’ve been in generations. However, right now does feel like such a point in history, heavy with challenges from the pandemic, the energy crisis, deep social inequalities and intolerance, increasing climatic variability, and several others. It is not hard to feel downcast by current circumstances, and yet it is the darkest moments in history that have opened up space for innovation and change. But that change isn't automatic. It is the way of planners that we believe a better future can always be created. We are concerned with action and change, and the partnerships that make change work for all populations. But plans that sit on shelves or are stagnant to changing contexts are useless. The real question for each of us is to understand institutional processes and how to make change happen. That is why this journey begins with curiosity as well as the relaying of knowledge between generations of planners, with the understanding that each new generation will surpass the last, discovering something new, creating a transformational framework, or forge a renewed partnership with a community for a more equitable way forward. Post-secondary School is a precious moment, where independent self-motivated learners and emerging professionals push intellectual boundaries and develop new capabilities. Listening to others, most especially to experiences outside our own, allowing ourselves to be surprised and to understand the world in new ways, is what education is about. SCARP is a community of students, alumni, community partners, faculty, and staff. Each represent and are SCARP, and I hope to welcome you now. - [Read our full strategic plan](/sites/default/files/2024-01/SCARP%20Strategic%20Plan.pdf) ## Our mission ties in with other strategic plans developed at UBC: ### [UBC’s vision](https://www.ubc.ca/about/vision-values.html) “...inspiring people, ideas and action for a better world” ### [UBC Indigenous Strategic Plan](https://indigenous.ubc.ca/indigenous-engagement/indigenous-strategic-plan/) "...UBC as a leading university globally in implementation of Indigenous peoples’ human rights” ### [UBC APSC Strategic Plan priority areas](https://strategicplan.apsc.ubc.ca/priorities/) “University for the Future”, “Future of Work”, “Inclusive Leadership & Respectful Engagements”, “Solutions for People”, “Thriving Cities & Communities”, and “Planetary Health” ### [UBC Student Strategic Plan](https://studentplan.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/student-strategic-plan-2026-full.pdf) "Working together to advance and foster an equitable environment that supports holistic personal growth, inspires purposeful contribution, and removes barriers to full participation"