Munch! Meet Ups on Social Research and Urban Planning

Join the biweekly Munch! event series taking place every second Thursday starting September 25th - from 5:30pm - 7:30pm at our Voor Urban Labs offices.

The team at Voor Urban Labs is opening it's doors to support knowledge sharing and professional development and networking amongst community members, academic community members and professionals in areas such as urban research, policy development and analysis, and decolonizing city planning.

As a private community planning and research company, with decades of experience working in these spaces, we seek the opportunity to promote critical urbanism amongst our peers and host difficult planning questions. Munch! also allows relationship building through our speaker series, networking, and platforming participants' ideas.

These events are scheduled every second Thursday after work hours from our Chinatown studio at 475 Main Street (above Pizza Coming Soon). Munch! starts with food and beverages before a conversation starter by our invited guests. The key theme is critical urbanism, and examples include decolonial and redress practices, community engagement, urban Indigenous policy, food security, settler / First Nations protocols, active transportation, social inclusion, and women's leadership in cities.

Munch! is ideal for planning students to meet other peers and professional colleagues from various disciplines and sectors and share food, beverages and conversations as we share what 'critical urbanism' is and how to centre this in our collective work and our professional careers. This is a space where you can share knowledge with others, share your research and hear from others. We welcome all voices, community members, academic professionals, junior and senior professionals from all walks of life looking to continue learning and expanding their social circle with like-minded folks.

The values and protocols of these events are based on reciprocity, respect of diverse opinions and voices, and mutual respect is the objective. Come in as you are, be respectful of others and enjoy the company. Your participation is free and voluntary.

• September 25, 5:30pm - Bold active transportation planning with Tony Valente, Councillor, City of North Vancouver. With introductory words from Isabela Ortiz and the Voor team on Advancing Women's Civic Leadership.

• October 9, 5:30pm - "Women Changing Cities: Global stories of urban transformation" Dialogue and Book Launch event at SFU Harbour Centre. Tickets can be purchased at this link. Voor Urban Labs is co-producing this event as part of A Week of Learning with the Bruntletts event series.

• October 16, 5:30pm - "Relating to Place: Decolonizing pedagogy through place-based plant knowledge". This event is about Indigenous perspectives on public gardens with Chelsey Schmidtke (Landscape Designer), Cease Wyss (Ethnobotanist), Malcolm Key (Vancouver School Board). The event is produced as part of the Sustenance Festival.

More dates to come!

Host or Publisher Voor Urban Labs