Welcome to the
Village Vancouver Newsletter
December 2014
Become a Society Member Today!
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Join the Village Vancouver Transition Society! The membership fee is based on a sliding scale (suggested dues are $25) and it helps us develop this Village and its community. Your annual membership will make our movement even stronger! It's easy to join - just click here!
The Year in Review:
2014
The recent
climate talks in Lima, Peru serve as a reminder of how much still remains to be
done in response to climate disruption, and how slow governments can be to
react in tangible ways. Transition Towns are solution-oriented grassroots
initiatives which seek to build community resilience in the face of climate
change, peaking resources, and economic insecurity. VV’s Mission is to
coordinate, organize and facilitate individuals, neighbourhoods and
organizations to collaborate in taking actions which build sustainable and
resilient communities, cities and bioregions.
We envision Vancouver as a vibrant city at the leading edge of
sustainability, where residents know their neighbours and participate in
collective actions to minimize their ecological footprint.
We’ve continued to focus on three key areas: Projects, Villages, and Education, with an emphasis on building our
internal capacity to support these activities, and a goal of engaging more
members and neighbours -- i.e. all of you! It’s really amazing how a few folks
can make a big difference.
Some of this year’s highlights follow below. More information and details can be found
in our Annual Report 2014.
2015 promises to
be another exciting and impactful year for Village Vancouver as we continue to
build capacity, engage more members and enter into new group collaborations,
cultivate and expand our neighbourhood
villages, and scale up current projects and launch new projects. More details will follow in the January
Newsletter.
Ross Moster, Executive
Director, Village Vancouver
ARTS & CELEBRATIONS
We gathered
together earlier this month for our 6th Slow Food, Slow Everything Day in celebration of International Terra
Madre Day. Harvesting a variety of root vegetables, greens and more from the
Kits Village Collaborative Garden, we made fritatas and tacos, and enjoyed all
sorts of good food and conversation throughout the day and evening.
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Parks Board Aberthau
artist-in-residence LocoMotoArt graciously gave us access to the McBride Park Field House, where we
engaged in over 20 arts-related and other activities.
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
Partnering with
concerned individuals, the Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program,
Residents and Business Improvement Associations, Emergency Social Services
(City of Vancouver), and Neighbourhood Emergency Assistance Teams (Vancouver
Fire Department), VV is developing a framework for community-based planning
and preparation.
ENERGY
An ongoing VV and
Vancouver Food Policy Council project (with cooperation from the Museum of
Vancouver), our Food Energy Descent
Action Plan (FED-AP) sets out to articulate a vision for, and practical
steps toward, a “powered-down, resilient, re-localized future”. Two reports were produced in 2014: Key Urban Agricultural Trends in 2040
(in collaboration with UBC GEO 419) and Self-Reliance
and the Challenge of Climate Change (in collaboration with UBC ENVR 400).
Focusing on cultivating community food resilience and sustainable food systems, demonstrating possibilities for local food cycles, and supporting the development of Neighbourhood Food Networks, this has been our most extensive area of engagement.Neighbourhood Villages engaged in many activities relating to food, functioning as Neighbourhood Food Networks. Village is one of 13 members (including Marpole Neighbourhood Food Network, which we sponsor) of the Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks, and has helped start several networks. NFN’s concentrate on issues like food justice, sustainable food systems, and community food resilience.
Other Food activities included helping organize and sponsor the Gordon
Neighbourhood House-led West End Food
Festival in September, our large,
online Beekeeping and Backyard Chicken groups,
workshops, and activities related to the Sustenance and Just Film Festivals,
FED-AP, Emergency Prep, Placemaking and elsewhere.
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
We ran over 50 Workshops in 10 or so neighbourhoods
around the city. Most had to do with food skills (gardening, canning,
sprouting, fermenting, seed saving, etc.), including Native Edible workshops in 7 different neighbourhoods. We co-hosted
a 100 in 1 Day project design workshop,
and hosted the Ontario-based Transition Emerging Study 2-day Central and Western Canada Transition
Regional Workshop at Langara College. 
Over 45 community
leaders participated in the 9-month 2014 Vancouver
Placemaking Course, a new initiative organized by VV, City Commons, and
Living the New Economy Vancouver, anchored and guided by Portland’s placemaking
guru, Mark Lakeman, together with local teachers and facilitators.
We organized several Lectures, including talks by Richard Heinberg on fracking and Mark Lakeman on placemaking. VV ED Ross Moster made several presentations, including one at the SustainABLE Cities Conference, to attendees at the INSPIRE 2014 International Neighbourhood House and Settlement Conference, the Caring for All Creation Series, the BC Seeds Gathering, the Vancouver Urban Farming Forum, and UBC, Emily Carr, Capilano University, and Groundswell classes, on various topics such as Transition Towns, cultivating healthy communities and neighbourhoods, moving from extractivism to a sharing economy, urban resilience, food systems and food justice, seed libraries, food workshops, and how design can contribute to resilient communities.
Students from various classes at UBC, Emily Carr, and Groundswell
collaborated with us on multiple reports and projects.
Other Learning
Opportunites included
our 7th Annual Transition
School and our 3rd Earthwalks
series (both lower key affairs than usual due to longtime partners being unable
to participate this year), and Caring
for All Creation: Land, Water, and Caring for Our Communities, a six-part series
co-sponsored by Village.
Emerging neighbourhood
villages include False Creek South
Village (in collaboration with Re*Plan, a working group of the False Creek
South Neighbourhood Association) and Inner
City Village.
Village Vancouver
is the ‘parent organization’ of Village
Surrey. VS activities included the monthly ‘Community Shift’ series (which
expanded to include a workshop and movie screening), 2 two weekly contemplative groups, a community poetry group, a Skill Share Fair in
September, a Park(ing) Day event, an
Edible and Medicinal Plant walk, and The Friends of the Grove placemaking
project.
Lots of VV
members – at least 25 that we know and undoubtedly more – successfully applied
for Neighbourhood Small Grants, which
were very helpful in carrying out their neighbourhood projects.SHARING ECONOMY
We continue to
embody the principles and actions of a dynamic, cooperative, creative sharing
economy within a celebratory culture of connecting and collaborating. All of
our activities contributed to creating more vibrant sharing communities. More
details can be found in Life in Village Culture on our website.
TRANSITION REGIONAL GATHERING
In August, we
hosted the 1st BC Transition
Regional Gathering. Folks from 10 Transition Initiatives attended, and
we’ve volunteered to organize the next gathering.
ZERO WASTE
Since June 2012, over 50 tonnes of food scraps for composting have been collected from thousands of residents in the West End at Food Scraps Drop Spots organized three times a week by West End Neighbourhood Food Network, Recycling Alternative, and Village Vancouver at Gordon Neighbourhood House (2x/week) and the West End Community Centre. Vancouver Farmers Market Society was also a key participant most of the year.
OTHER PROJECTS, ACTIVITIES, & EVENTS
We organized,
sponsored, or partnered on a variety of other activities, including Salon d’Elan Vital, Just Say Hello,
Collaborative Consumption and the Sharing Economy, 100 in 1 Day, and the Feast
Worldwide (Vancouver).
Happy Holidays
and best wishes for a healthy, just, and resilient 2015.
Ross
Village Vancouver Newsletter - Team Members Needed
Our Newsletter is back and we're seeking 3 more Newsletter Team members! We are developing a team of four with rotating tasks each month. That will give us variety and allow each team member to learn all skills needed so if someone's unavailable one month, we can cover for each other! Interested? Email newsletter@villagevancouver.ca
From TransitionNetwork.org:
Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale.
What we are convinced of is this:
• if we wait for the governments, it'll be too little, too late• if we act as individuals, it'll be too little
• but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.
Less is More December's theme is 'Less is More'. In the newsletter we find out about the new Support Framework, we want to hear your starting out stories and your thoughts on Transition Culture. We offer several reflections on stuff and what happens when we don't have so much of it. Click here to read more.
Dec 27 - West End Food Scrap Drop Spots
Tuesdays and Saturdays Gordon Neighbourhood House & Saturdays West End Community Centre
Jan 3 - 31 - West End Food Scrap Drop Spots
Tuesdays and Saturdays Gordon Neighbourhood House & Saturdays West End Community Centre
Jan 6 - Main Street Village Potluck and Workshop
Little Mountain Neighbourhood House
Jan 15 - Sauerkraut - Commercial Drive Village Vancouver
Rising Star Co-op
Jan 17 - The Work That Reconnects
Surrey Nature Centre
Jan 17 - Kits Village Drop-in Spaghetti Night
Near 7th & Balsam
Jan 18 - Listen! Laugh! Enjoy! New Beginnings. Stories for you!
St. Mark's
Jan 24 - Deadline for February Newsletter
Jan 25 - West End Neighbourhood Food Network January Community Potluck
West End Community Centre
Jan 29 - Growing Your Own Sprouts and Grass Workshop
Strathcona Community Centre
Stay Updated on Upcoming Events
Enjoy!
Your December newsletter team,
Bonita Jo Magee and Ross Moster,
with thanks to Jordan Bober and Rhiannon Johnson