From Classroom to Community: How the BREATHE Project Redefined My Path in Research
This is the impact story of Genevieve Cheng, a Master’s student in Communication who joined the 312 Main Research Shop and the BREATH Project expecting to support communications—but ended up rebranding the initiative, managing outreach, and helping communities build DIY air filters to improve indoor air quality. Through hands-on collaboration with researchers, health partners, and residents, Genevieve discovered the powerful role communication plays in advancing public health and climate resilience.
Entering my last semester of my undergraduate program at SFU in early 2023, I hadn’t felt like I was done learning yet–but I also had never seen a clear pathway forward in academia.
When I came across the newly launched Communication Research for Social Change Master of Arts program at SFU’s School of Communication I knew that this condensed graduate program would give me the opportunity to pursue an even more hands-on approach to furthering my education. While I have loved getting to spend more time around like-minded peers and continue working on my capstone project–a media literacy-knowledge translation social media content campaign–I’m also incredibly glad I joined this program as it made my work with CERi and The BREATHE Project possible.
The BREATHE Project (Building Resilience to Emerging Airborne Threats and Heat Events) is a community-based initiative that teaches community leaders and citizens how to build DIY air cleaners to improve their indoor air quality. The Project is focused on helping at-risk populations mitigate the urgent impacts of climate change like wildfire smoke and increase public knowledge on the health risks of being exposed to wildfire smoke and extreme heat.
Over the summer 2024 season, local film students helped produce this short documentary on The BREATHE Project that features interviews with the team that makes it all possible and clips from workshops across the lower mainland to demonstrate what the project is all about.
You can watch the short 3 minute documentary to get a better feel of the Project.
Starting in May and continuing to this day, I’ve helped expand The BREATHE Project from an unnamed “DIY Air Cleaner” project to the well-funded and supported project it is today.
Using the Communication skills I could bring to the team made up of health sciences faculty and students, The “BREATHE” Project’s identity was formed, social media channels launched, and print assets for workshops like DIY air cleaner instructions and safety considerations documents were streamlined and updated. This cohesive brand identity is critical to the continued growth of the project as it continues to appear at research conferences across and beyond Canada, received funding from government bodies, and earn media coverage from local and national media outlets.
Unlike with previous work and volunteer opportunities throughout my time at SFU, I had the opportunity to do hands-on community-engaged research helping facilitate BREATHE workshops all around the lower mainland from the Downtown Eastside out to New Westminster, even getting to travel to Kelowna to assist with busy workshops in the midst of the Okanagan summer heat.
Working with the BREATHE team, the Research Shop, and the BC Lung Foundation has allowed me to build upon a skillset in digital and print media in completely new environments–making meaningful connections with students and faculty in the Faculty of Health Sciences despite being from a different research background and experiencing first-hand how community-engaged research can help the at-risk communities confront real issues.
The BREATHE Project can be found @sfu_breathe on , , and , as well as on our and SFU Faculty of Health Sciences webpage.