Salvation Army university adds urban issues program
Four-year interdisciplinary program will help students and cities
a new program at Booth University College in Winnipeg is training students to help make cities better.
The Community and Urban Transformation program launches this fall at the Salvation Army-affiliated school. The four-year interdisciplinary undergraduate program draws on fields including sociology and urban planning.
“We’re not just trying to understand communities in urban spaces,” explains Aaron Klassen, program director and sociology professor at Booth. “We’re hoping to contribute to the transformation of the challenges affecting people living in those urban spaces.”
Students will work with local organizations to analyze these experiences. “It’s very practical,” says Klassen. It can prepare students for careers in social work, policy development or policing, or for professional degrees like law or education, he says.
Booth’s downtown Winnipeg location is ideally suited to study urban spaces, says Klassen. Indigenous-settler relations define the city’s history, and many people still move to the city from northern Indigenous communities. The city also has a robust international immigrant community. By studying downtown, students see both the city’s business centre and the realities of homelessness.
“It’s a pretty dynamic mix,” Klassen says. “It’s got everything from the hope of possibilities of living downtown in the urban inner core, but also some of the big challenges that come with that area.”
In the future the school plans to offer free university courses to people experiencing homelessness, says Klassen. This initiative would be part of the Community and Urban Transformation program and build on the Salvation Army’s tradition of addressing urban social problems.
“I’m moved by the power of grace to look beyond someone’s present circumstances to see potential for transformation and to see oneself as God sees them through Christ’s sacrifice,” Klassen says.