Tara Fernando shares her thoughts on amenity spaces and the importance of knowledge translation

How did you make your way to the Hey Neighbour Collective?

When I was accepted into the Master of Public Health (MPH) program at SFU, I found a job post for a communications lead at Aging In the Right Place and I was lucky to work there for the duration of my MPH. From there I worked with the Balanced Supply of Housing Research Cluster at UBC doing similar work. Somehow, I’ve found my way into the housing sector and in a knowledge translation role. I’m excited to be joining Hey Neighbour to help with knowledge mobilization. 

I love that the Hey Neighbour Collective has such a big public health aspect to it because that is what I studied during my Master’s. Housing is so relevant to public health! It’s one of the primary social determinants of health.

There is also so much overlap between what Hey Neighbour does and the work being done at Aging In the Right Place: how and where we age matters and how our housing can foster or prevent social connection. We all age, we all need a home, and we all grapple with connection.

Where did your interest in knowledge translation come from?

I’ve always loved translating information before I even knew it had a name! It started with me trying to explain to my parents what I was studying as an undergraduate. I don’t think health sciences or population health are topics that my parents or grandparents knew anything about or understood, so while I was learning, I’d translate my studies for them, and then I just kept doing that. 

COVID really emphasized to me the significance of how we communicate important information. I found myself explaining to my grandparents what was what, trying to rebuke misinformation and provide helpful context. In a world of social media, but also intense English, being able to speak in words they understood was so helpful for all of us to learn together. Slowly, I realized that being able to communicate something to someone else was what I loved to do. I consider having an education to be such a privilege and I feel a responsibility to use it to help others. When more people understand important research, we can affect meaningful change.

My parents are so supportive of my career path. It feels a bit niche, different from that of a lawyer or doctor. But they tell me, “This is where you belong.”

You speak Singhalese in addition to English, where is that language from?

It’s a language only spoken in one country, Sri Lanka! I was born and raised there, although I left when I was five to move to the USA, where I lived in New York and Colorado. We went back to Sri Lanka for another year and a half and I eventually moved to Alberta and then finally landed in BC, where I live now. 

I went back to Sri Lanka for the first time in six years in April 2024, for two weeks, and it was amazing. It was also a bit jarring to see how much has changed and to realize I wasn’t there to witness it. My parents’ hometown is quite touristy and built up: areas that used to be sand are now storefronts.

What are some visceral memories you have from your home country?

The driving is the most chaotic thing you’ll ever see, there are no road rules. People go at different speeds and there are so many different types of vehicles all intertwined. It’s quite scary, especially compared to Vancouver where road rules are so strict: you can’t just drive on sidewalks! But it’s also organized chaos there, and I think it has to do with how focused you have to be while driving. Here in Canada, because things are more ordered, you can clock out and not remember how you got home. But in Sri Lanka, you’re forced to pay attention.

Sri Lanka is also a very small island nation: to put it into perspective, Vancouver Island is about half the size of Sri Lanka.  It has some of the best fruits, beautiful beaches, and a lot of tea (it’s the world’s biggest exporter). One of my favourite experiences in Sri Lanka to this day is hiking up a prehistoric rock fortress that was built thousands of years ago, known as Sigiriya or “Lions Rock.”

I’ve been fortunate enough to do a bit of travelling, and Sri Lanka is still my favourite country!

What are some examples of the fruit available in Sri Lanka?

Mangosteen is my favourite, I love it! There are so many varieties of mangos too, and coconuts. There are bananas too, but ten or twelve different varieties instead of just one, which is wild! Much of the fruit grows freely off the sides of roads or on public land, so you can pick what you’d like as you walk. My grandparents were surprised when they first came to Canada and learned that it wasn’t like that here, that you couldn’t go out and pick fruit off just any tree.

Do you live in a multi-family building?

I live in a 50-storey high-rise, it’s huge! And, perhaps unsurprisingly, I don’t even know what my neighbours look like. It’s a very odd feeling! With the number of lifts in the building, it is very easy to never see my neighbours. And the soundproofing is so good that I can’t hear people next door. There are very few chances for interactions.

It’s interesting to think about my experience in the context of the work that Hey Neighbour is focused on: I’m more aware than ever of the power of building design and social connection! Knowing my neighbours would be helpful in so many ways. For instance, if I knew a neighbour, I would feel more comfortable asking for help with things like watering plants while I’m away.

But this has also made me observe the places where interactions are possible. We have a concierge service at the entrance to our building and whenever my partner and I walk by, we’re friendly to whoever is working that day. We see a lot of other residents in conversation with them all the time!  Maybe the concierge staff are the equivalent of our “neighbours”.

What do you think contributes to a lack of social connection in your building?

A couple of months ago, I sat in on a Hey Neighbour workshop where Georgina Blix spoke about the difference between the design of a building on paper and what property and building managers do with that design. A perfect example of this is the amenity space. In my building, we have an amenity space that’s gorgeous, and there is an outside space with a patio, but nobody uses it because residents have to pay a deposit and rental fees. It could be a perfect place for folks to congregate, have meetups, or co-work, but it’s rarely used. My apartment is small, so we can’t host large gatherings, but we’d definitely use the amenity space if it was easier and more accessible.

I think about staircases too and what happens when you design stairwells to have windows and exits in them. Those features make it easier to interact with your neighbours as you go up or down. In my building, we have a staircase for emergencies and each floor is locked, so you can only travel down and the chance of encountering someone there is slim.

Previously, I lived at a building called Kevington and the property managers were really focused on resident wellbeing. I’ve noticed the difference since being in this new building. The amenity spaces in that building were fully open and there would always be people there! The building would put on free events to build community, too. One summer, they gave away ice cream during hot days, and I hosted a mini party there with my family and friends after completing my Master’s. It was really nice to see how easy it was for residents to build connections with each other.

You love walking!

Yes! I take public transportation to get around Vancouver, but whenever I can, I like to walk places. I love going to Rocky Point in Port Moody, it’s a gorgeous shoreline trail. Sometimes, if I need a mid-week break (or if I’m craving Lee’s Donuts), I’ll get on the Sky Train to Main and walk to Granville Island.

Do you have a favourite food from Sri Lanka?

It’s called ‘appa’ and it looks like a bowl on the outside that is actually a very thin pastry of sorts. The inside is like a pancake, crispy and soft, and you eat it with curries. It is definitely my favourite Sri Lankan dish. 

There are not so many Sri Lankan restaurants in Vancouver, but there is a large community of Sri Lankans here. It’s not an external community but internally, they are a very tight-knit group. The community will have dinner parties, host small catered events at each other’s houses, and prepare rice packets on Sunday!

My parents live in Surrey and I go home regularly for rice, curry, and roti – my grandmother is an amazing cook. When I go home, I try to speak in Singhalese as much as possible to maintain my grasp of the language. On most weekends, my family is out and about with their friends – it makes me happy there is such a healthy Sri Lankan community here because it helps everyone feel more connected.

Your family lives intergenerationally, what is that like?

My parents, grandparents, and uncle live together! It’s quite lovely: I get to visit multiple generations when I go home for meals on weekends or for family outings. In Sri Lanka, they would have all had their own houses, but once you immigrate here, it makes sense to live together. I would say that generally, the Sri Lankan community here is like that, it’s very intergenerational. There are friends for everyone!

What are your favourite aspects of Vancouver?

Vancouver is ideal for my lifestyle and my interests. Being here allows me to be in tune with nature: seeing the ocean, mountains, and greenery all at once brings me so much joy. Having the options that a city like Vancouver provides is a privilege that I don’t take for granted: access to public transportation, nature, activities, and an incredible diversity of cultures, people, and foods. Whenever I leave Vancouver and come back, I have this sense that the food tastes authentic. My favourite restaurant ever is Do Chay, a vegan and vegetarian Vietnamese place (and I’m not even vegan or vegetarian!).

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