Community Strength

Youth and Elders - Learning Together

Growing a green kid
WEB Reference, October 2006 (David Suzuki Foundation) - Sing it with me: I believe that children are the future/teach them well and let them lead the way…! Even if you’re not a parent, you might be a grandparent or an aunt or uncle or a teacher with children in your life. Little people have a habit of being lovable. And as adults we do our best to protect them. But are we doing enough to safeguard their health from environmental toxins? There are lots of small things we can do to educate our size smalls about the environment and protect their health. Read on and find out! http://www.davidsuzuki.org/NatureChallenge/newsletters/GreenKids_oct06/

Questioning Consumption / Local Living Economies

Buy Nothing Christmas
WEB Reference (Adbusters) - Buy Nothing Day is only one day. Our earth, our minds, our communities deserve more than that. So this year, let's take the fun, passion and message of BND and spin it to inspire a whole shop-free season! Gather family and friends, let's rise above the consumer binge and celebrate a Buy Nothing Christmas. But wait. Without the plastic gifts, how will you show you care? There are many creative ways… http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/bnd_xmas/

Social Enterprise and Innovation

The Steady Rise of The ‘Citizen Sector’
WEB Reference, March 1, 2006 (Clare Goff, Financial Times) - Whenever Bill Drayton spoke about “social enterprise” in the early 1980s his comments met with blank looks. “The smart ones would call it an oxymoron,” he recalls. Today the phrase he coined to describe ideas that combine business acumen with social reform is often on the lips of politicians of all hues. The concept has attracted both interest and money from billionaire financiers, including Warren Buffett. It has also generated a platform at the World Economic Forum at Davos, and is a standard option at many business schools. Mr Drayton - who says he has been a social entrepreneur since the age of 12 - is specific about its meaning. “At some deep intuitive level a social entrepreneur knows they have to change the whole of society,” says Mr. Drayton. “They are married to a vision.” http://www.ashoka.org/files/FinancialTimeMar06Ltr.pdf

Local Living Communities

Chicago Measure would let Neighborhoods Ban Formula Businesses
CHICAGO, USA, Oct. 11, 2006 (Hometown Advantage News) - Some neighborhood business districts in Chicago would be allowed to ban formula businesses under an ordinance drafted by city officials. The measure would establish a process by which residents could apply to have all formula businesses prohibited in their neighborhoods. Formula businesses are defined in the ordinance as retail stores or restaurants that share similar merchandise, décor, signage, and a trademark with five or more other establishments. http://www.newrules.org/retail/news_slug.php?slugid=344

Local Living Economies

The Economics of Life in Balance
HAWAII, November 22, 2006 (Regina Gregory, YES Magazine) - Pacific Island cultures thrived for millennia on an economy that is nothing like Adam Smith's free-market, self-interest-first model. But "aren't you interested in unemployment?" Smith asks Vinaka, a typical islander, in an imaginary interview. "We're not eager to work hard all day, every day. We are content to earn what is needed...you need a concept of enoughness." Let your students role-play the pro's and con's of our consumer-driven culture by learning a different approach to economics—"Pononomics"—from the Hawaiian word "pono" meaning "good." http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=1579

Empowerment for Social Change / Personal Sustainability

InterChange: Inner Change Igniting World Change
EDMONTON, November 2006 - Explore your potential and connect with your passion in this innovative group designed to support people working (or thinking about working) towards global change. Call 492-3746 for more information.
When: Wednesday evenings
Where: University of Alberta, Education Clinic

Local Living Communities

Community Weaving: A New Solution for a New Century
WEB Reference - Community Weaving is a social change methodology that incorporates the use of web-based technology to weave the human and tangible resources of the grassroots with the knowledge and skills of formal systems. The approach raises social consciousness and awakens the human spirit to its purpose by engaging people to take responsibility for what they care about to create a more caring, just and civil society. The theories and practices underpinning Community Weaving create village effects, unfettered by bureaucracy, politics, religious doctrine, racism, or socioeconomic status, that transcend cultures. This transformative community building approach weaves a multi-cultural community tapestry of connections within communities, across organizations and around the world. http://www.communityweaving.org/overview.htm

Mainstream Wake-Up

When a Cheap House Isn’t a Bargain
USA - October, 2006 (Jan Metzger, Next American City) - For most American households, wealth is perceived as the value of the family home. But it turns out that a relatively inexpensive home with a three-car garage in a remote suburban subdivision is not the same “deal” as a similarly priced home in a more urban area when one factors in transportation costs. Many people moving to distant suburbs for cheap housing may not in the end save money or build as much wealth. http://info.cnt.org/~annette/CNT%20Update/H+T_NAC_06.pdf

Social Enterprise and Innovation

Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses
WEB Reference, September 28, 2006 (ILSR) - In less than two decades, large retail chains have become the most powerful corporations in America. In this deft and revealing book, Stacy Mitchell illustrates how mega-retailers are fueling many of our most pressing problems, from the shrinking middle class to rising pollution and diminished civic engagement—and she shows how a growing number of communities and independent businesses are effectively fighting back. http://www.bigboxswindle.com/index.php

Community Ownership / Commons

Speak Up! Public Spaces and Democracy
VANCOUVER, BC, October 17, 2006, (Vancouver Public Library) - Join us as Speak Up explores the nature of our public spaces and their relationship to democracy. Are our public spaces increasing or decreasing? What are the important public spaces in Vancouver? Are the private spaces of shopping malls now our most popular gathering spaces? Do public spaces always have to be public squares? What are the trends in public space development in Vancouver and world-wide? What is the impact of "naming opportunities" for our public spaces? What is the relationship between public spaces and democracy? http://www.vpl.ca/speakup/public-space.html

Sustainable Micro-Enterprise

Micro-credit Projects win Nobel Peace Prize
Oslo, October 16, 2006, (Associated Press) - Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for pioneering the use of seemingly insignificant loans — microcredit — to lift millions out of poverty. Through Yunus's efforts and those of the bank he founded, poor people around the world, especially women, have been able to buy cows, a few chickens or the cellphone they desperately needed to get ahead. "Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty," the Nobel Committee said in its citation. "Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights."
http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2006/10/banker_to_the_p.html

Non-Profit Resources

Guide: Best Practices in Volunteer Management
WEB Resource, October 2006 (Sustainability Network) - This action-planning guide was created through the Canada Volunteerism Initiative to help strengthen volunteer management practices within small and rural nonprofit organizations. It is organized into ten sections based on the ten best practices of the Canadian Code for Volunteer Involvement’s Organization Standards. Created by the Yukon Volunteer Bureau, the guide will help organizations create a framework for ongoing work with volunteers. The assessment questions allow organizations to determine their priorities and ensure the best approach for their specific group.
http://sustain.web.ca/Nexus/Alberta/10-06.htm#6

Elders and Youth

Activists For Community
WEB Reference, Summer 2001 (Bob Glotzbach And Gena Van Camp, Community Journal) - We Are An Elder Couple In Our mid-70s, who have been together for 14 years, living and working as community activists for the last 12 in the small town of Glen Ellen, California. Both of us have had a long history of experiences in established intentional communities, in ones that were forming, and in groups and associations in mainstream towns and neighborhoods. Working cooperatively with others, finding a sense of place wherever we’ve lived, these experiences seem to have built on themselves and give direction to our lives. It is through personal experiences that we have learned to be more effective activists. http://www.communitysolution.org/pdfs/archive/2001_07_.PDF

Leadership Education and Training / NFP Resources

Tips for Running Effective Self-Facilitated Meetings
WEB Reference, September 20, 2006, (Hollyhock) - The Agenda Ideas for the Self-Facilitated Meeting prepared by Hollyhock Leadership Institute trainer, Julian Griggs, provides a grab-bag of ideas for structuring the agenda for a self-facilitated meeting. The various agenda items listed need not, in fact probably should not, all be used in any single meeting. Remember that process should support good discussion, not get in the way! http://www.hollyhockleadership.org/resources/sharpeningyourskills/selffacil

Local Living Economies

BigBoxToolKit.com Launched to Help Grassroots Groups Counter Big-Box Stores
MINNEAPOLIS, MN, September 25, 2006 (Stacy Mitchell, ILSR) – The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which has helped grassroots groups in dozens of communities block the spread of Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers, has launched a new online resource center to bolster these local campaigns. www.BigBoxToolKit.com provides a variety of tools to help citizens both beat the big boxes and chart a new course for economic development in their communities. The site includes an interactive map showing the more than 200 cities and towns where grassroots groups are currently fighting big-box proposals, working to pass local laws that limit large-scale retail development, forming independent business alliances, and similar initiatives. http://www.ilsr.org/columns/2006/092506.html

Local Living Economies / Sustainable MicroEnterprise

Ashoka Launches New Website
EList, September 20, 2006, (Anamaria Schindler, Ashoka/Changemakers) - I would like to personally welcome you to Ashoka's new website http://www.ashoka.org. As you may know, this year Ashoka has reached a milestone - 25 years of developing social entrepreneurship worldwide. In celebration of our achievements and as an investment in our future, our new website reflects and reinforces our culture of innovation. The new website features information on Ashoka programs, interactive maps to locate country information, a pressroom with the latest Ashoka news highlights and archives, and a comprehensive resource center on social entrepreneurship.

Local Living Economies

Building Community Wealth
WEB Reference, September 2006, (Centre for Community Enterprise) - If your nonprofit or charitable organization is thinking about social enterprise as a way to achieve its mission, this is the manual for you. What does "ready" look like? How do we get there? What should we do now, next year, and the year after that? It's packed with information, it's extensively field-tested, and it's free! http://www.cedworks.com/customer/product.php?productid=4738&cat=&page=1

Local Living Communities

Making Waves: “Growing Hope” Special Edition
WEB Reference, September 2006, (Centre for Community Enterprise) - Hungry for some real food - food that is plentiful, nutritious, sustainable, remunerative to farmers, yet affordable? The Summer 2006 edition of making waves magazine is dedicated to scaling up community-based alternatives to our ailing food system. Politically, this is a strategic moment for communities to make themselves heard - if practitioners can get organized http://www.cedworks.com/waves.html.

Cool Projects / Fun in Activism

Are you Green? Pull up a Chair…
WEB Reference - Every month in cities across the world, a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business meet up for a beer at informal sessions known as Green Drinks. A simple "are you green?" gets you in, and with everyone inviting someone else along, Green Drinks is an organic, self-organising network. These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity. Now active in 139 cities worldwide, Canada is a 2005 entrant to the world of Green Drinks, getting off to a fine start with Vancouver, BC with other cities quickly following http://www.greendrinks.org/.

Science and Technology / Empowerment for Social Change

Appropriating Technology
WEB Reference, August 2006, (Ron Eglash, Public Sphere Project) - We usually think of technology as that which is designed by elite groups -- mostly male, mostly white, mostly upper class, etc. But the lay public can also be thought of as producers of technology and science. The "smiley face" emoticons we use in email, for example, were not designed by experts; it was ordinary people taking advantage of a flexibility in the system. Technology appropriation can be profound: Latino "street mechanics" for example created the Low Rider car which revolutionized their culture. Black teenagers created the "scratch" sound of rap by appropriating the turntable. Appropriated technology can help the disenfrachised gain social power http://diac.cpsr.org/cgi-bin/diac02/pattern.cgi/public?pattern_id=495.

Local Living Communities / Empowerment for Social Change

Slum Residents Become the Architects of Their Own Fate
INDIA, July 2006, (Arundhati Ray, Changemakers) – About 75 percent of the world's one billion poor people live in urban slums without decent shelter or basic sanitation, health, and other city services. But three citizen organizations in India have joined forces to turn this scenario upside down. They are helping slum residents organize themselves to gain the skills they need to be powerful advocates for their own interests.
http://www.changemakers.net/journal/300606/ray.cfm

Hybrid Models / Sustainable Microenterprise

Ecotourism Offers Hope for Chinese Ecosystems & the People Who Live in Them
YUNNAN Province, China, September 5, 2006 (Lila Buckley) - Laojun Mountain has long been considered sacred to the Chinese minority groups who call it home. Flanking the foothills of the Himalaya in northwestern Yunnan province, the region contains more than 100 species of wild rhododendron, nearly 100 known mammal species, and over 150 distinct bird species. Many of these plants and animals are highly endangered, including two species of the Yunnan Golden Monkey, of which less than 1,500 exist in the wild. Yet despite these ecological riches, the region’s human residents remain poor and marginalized, left behind in the rapid economic development occurring around them. The story is all too typical in global conservation efforts: marginalized humans living on marginal land, destroying critical habitat and diversity as they struggle to survive in a global economy that undervalues or ignores them. Future development of the area promises some flow of cash, but with it more roads and pollution. It is a dizzying cycle of humans versus nature, where neither is the winner. For the past decade or so, proponents of ecotourism have boldly proposed a way out of this cycle. Ecotourism, in its purest form, aims to be low-impact for both local communities and the environment, offering a sustained source of income while encouraging visitors to “leave only footprints.” http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4501

EcoJobs / Not for Profit

TREC Survey: Making a Living, Having a Life
WEB reference, June 2006, (TREC) – Training Resources for the Environmental Community (TREC) just released its second report based on a recent salary and benefits survey. This new report, entitled 'Making a Living, Having a Life' focuses on lay-offs, fringe benefits and quality of life at over 100 environmental organizations in the United States and Canada (13% of survey respondents were Canadian ENGOs). TREC's new report, entitled Making a Living, Having a Life, focuses on lay-offs, fringe benefits and quality of life at over 100 environmental organizations. The full report can be downloaded from http://www.trecnw.org/.

Not for Profit / Funding

RSS Grants Channels Survey
EList, July 2006 (Gilbert Centre) – There is a need for the use of a simple standard format for the near-real time publishing of grant awards by foundations. Slowly, a few grantmakers have started to offer public news feeds of grants made and more than one organization is looking forward to the exciting potential for aggregating this information. By taking this 90 second survey, you can help this accountability and open access to grant information come alive. It doesn't matter whether you raise money, earn money, or grant money in the sector. http://news.gilbert.org/clickThru/redir/6096/rms

Cool Projects / PeaceBuilding

Palestinian and Israeli Youth to Collaborate at B.C. Film School
VANCOUVER, July 13th, 2006, (Creative Peace Network) – In the face of the current conflict and turmoil in Israel and the Gaza Strip, it is even more important than ever to hear hopeful news regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is particularly important to know that despite the severe situation, there are still people who are working hard towards reconciliation and peace, and their stories bring a ray of light and hope. One such story is happening this summer amongst the serene rainforests of the Gulf Islands in British Columbia: Thirty youth from Palestine, Israel and Canada will gather in the Gulf Islands Film and Television School on Galiano Island, and engage in creative conversations and filmmaking in a peaceful and safe environment of mutual respect and co-existence for 18 days. http://creativepeacenetwork.ca/media/press.htm

Hybrid Models and Organizational Structures

Corporate social responsibility keeps staff engaged
TORONTO, June 15, 2006, (Ryerson) – Employees form closer ties with their companies if their firms have strong social alliances with a non-profit organization, finds a study by university researchers. The researchers found that employees on both sides of the alliance were able to bring their social concerns into the workplace and feel good about what their company or non-profit organization was doing. http://www.ryerson.ca/news/media/General_Public/20060616_junenewsber.html

Business Ideas / PeaceBuilding

Local business, local peace: the peacebuilding potential of the domestic private sector
Web Reference, July 2006, (International Alert)A new publication highlights the domestic private sector's often overlooked peace building potential. Developed and researched with partner organisations and business people from conflict-affected countries around the world, it presents more than 20 case studies where private sector actors have taken proactive steps to address violent conflict in places as varied as Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Guatemala, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Somalia and the South Caucasus. http://www.international-alert.org/our_work/themes/LBLP.php#download

Empowerment for Social Change

Victoria Anarchist Book Fair and Free School September 8-10
EList, July, 2006 (Left Coast News) – A fundraiser for Food Not Bombs hosted by the Victoria Cool Aid Society in the Downtown Community Activity Center (755 Pandora). Book sellers, presentations and workshops, including: DeSchooling, Anarchist History, Being an Ethical Slut, Gender and Homophobia, Radical Cheerleading, Independent Media and Many More! The event will be FREE! Donations will be accepted, and the shows (music) will be charged at the door. If you are a vendor interested in selling merch or tabling at this event, or if you are interested in exhibiting art, or performing a presentation, hosting a workshop, or showing a short film, or if you are simply interested in donating or volunteering, and would like more information, please contact prideandunity@hotmail.com.
http://www.myspace.com/satanicanarchyandpeace

Community Models / Streets

Urban Street Design Standards
WEB reference, May 2, 2006 (Bellevue Transportation Dept., via SCARP) - The City of Bellevue uses a classification scheme for streets and blocks in the downtown that is oriented around the degree of pedestrian accommodation that each block must provide. Our "Design Guidelines: Building/Sidewalk Relationships" (http://www.cityofbellevue.org/bellcode/BldgsidewalkDG.pdf) specifies the classification scheme--with "A" category streets/blocks the most pedestrian oriented and "E" category the least--and assigns each street/block in downtown to a category in the hierarchy. For each category, there are specific requirements for the street/building interface. All new construction in downtown is affected by these required design guidelines.

Local Living Economies

Towards Basic Principles of a Bioregional Economy
VERMONT, May 20, 2006, (Vermont Commons, Kirkpatrick Sale) – It comes down to an issue of Economics of Scale vs. the Scale of Economics. There are only two essentials to consider in coming at the problem of the optimum scale for an economy to produce and distribute goods and services: the natural ecosystem and the human community. Take the economic scale that is optimum for the earth’s systems. It would be based on conservation, stability, sustainability, recycling, harmony. That means, for starters, an economy at a bioregional scale—that of a watershed or river valley, or a mountain system, or a lakeshore—for it more or less dictates the economy appropriate to it: an economy based on a watershed, for example, automatically considers downriver populations as well as headwater ones. The human constructs would adapt to the environment rather than be imposed, and human uses would be confined to those the bioregion allowed. http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/newsletters/06May20.html

Sustainable Future Views

Fort McMurray votes to put brakes on oil sands
FORT MCMURRAY, AB, June 14, 2006. (Canadian Press, Larissa Liepens) — The mayor and council in this booming northern Alberta city voted unanimously Tuesday to try and put the brakes on all future oil sands development until something is done to improve the area's infrastructure. Specifically, Mayor Melissa Blake and the council for the Municipality of Wood Buffalo agreed to apply for intervener status when oil sands giant Suncor goes to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board on July 5 to apply for an expansion of its operations. However, they also decided to take the same action for any future application by any other oil sands company. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060614.woilsands0614/BNStory/National/home

Sustainable Neighbourhoods

Car Free Society Begins with a Party
VANCOUVER, BC, June 16, 2006 (Georgia Straight, Pieta Woolley) – A number of downtown festivals this summer could herald a more permanent series of auto-free zones within the city. Representatives of several business-improvement associations, including Gastown’s BIA, told the Straight they’ve thought about reducing or eliminating cars in their area. Even though no one was ready to say they’re pursuing the idea, it’s not a new thought. “Ideally, it’s what all of us are working towards,” says Clint McKenzie, president of the Business Improvement Area of British Columbia. Kelowna’s city council recently decided to reduce car traffic along the new Abbott Street recreational corridor and in other places in the city’s core. Calgary has shut a section of its downtown to all traffic except transit and delivery and Toronto’s Kensington Market has gone car-free part-time. http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=11017

Community Mapping / Conference Announcement

Participatory GIS and Conference Announced
VANCOUVER, BC, July 9, 2006 (URISA) - URISA is pleased to announce that its 5th Annual Public Participation GIS Conference (PPGIS) will be held in conjunction with the URISA Annual Conference on September 27-28 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The theme is PPGIS: Engagement & Empowerment. The program will focus on the use of GIS technology as an important tool for empowering citizen organizations and revitalizing communities.
The PPGIS Conference invites participants with a diversity of experiences including citizens and citizens' groups, public officials, planners, technicians, librarians, policy scientists, and researchers. Presentation topics will focus on indigenous people, non-profits, sustaining public engagement, and methods and tools that facilitate public participation. http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/9328/

Social Enterprise and Innovation

The Company They Keep
WEB Reference, September 24, 2004 (TV Guide, by Ken Fox) - After years of reporting and inspiring the antiglobalization movement, No Logo author Naomi Klein and her husband, TV producer/journalist Avi Lewis, tackle a question often posed by their critics: What do you have to offer in the way of economic alternatives? Hearing about a new grassroots economic movement taking root in economically devastated Argentina, Klein and Lewis headed to Buenos Aires and found what you'd think could only be imagined by the most idealistic Marxist: Unemployed workers were returning to their bankrupted and abandoned workplaces, restarting the machines and running things themselves. http://www.onf.ca/webextension/thetake/flash/viewPress.php?id=52.

Success Story Examples / Local Curriencies

The Politics of Money
WEB Reference, Jan. 2006 (Hazel Henderson) – Quote from The Politics of Money - My bookshelf on alternative economics, barter, credit and currency system continues to grow, and includes Ralph A. Mitchell and Neil Shafer's indispensable, eye-opening self-published "Standard Catalog of Depression Scrip of the United States in the 1930s" (Krause Publications, Iola, WI) (1984). It contains thousands of pictures of alternative scrip currencies issued in almost every US state and city and many in Canada and Mexico after the Great Crash of 1929 and the bank failures that followed. During the 1980's in all my talks across North America advocating local self-reliance and alternatives to fiat money, I carried this heavy volume along to show how local inventiveness helped overcome the failures of national banking and finance. People would raise their hands in recognition as I would show on overheads the scrip used in their state. "I remember these in my Dad's bureau!" "My Mom used that to buy our groceries!" http://www.hazelhenderson.com/editorials/politics_of_money.html.

Local Living Economies / Local Curriencies

New Frontier of Money
GREAT BARRINGTON, MA, Apr. 4, 2006 (E. F. Schumacher Society) Dear Friends, It is nearly two years since the E. F. Schumacher Society convened the conference "Local Currencies in the 21st Century." The event drew 300 participants from thirteen countries to Bard College on the Hudson River. It is widely agreed that the conference was a landmark event. Read more.

Organizational Structures / Community Models

Campus Farms and Gardens: Growing a Community of Interdependence and Hope
GALT, CA, Apr. 17, 2006 (CIP, by Carol Ann Brodie) - Institutions of higher education are producing more than stellar students these days. We can count as their products broccoli, carrots, peaches and lettuce. How can this be? On campus farms and gardens! Read more.

NGOs / NFPs / Resources

DevArt
WEB Referemce, Mar. 2006 (DevArt) - DevArt is the website for development-related art. If you need illustrations for a development-oriented publication, poster or website, but you can't draw, this site is for you. Clip art is copyright-free artwork you can use in documents, websites or extension manuals. http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cove/1003.

Youth / Leadership

Youth Philanthropists: Getting a jump start on doing good
VANCOUVER, BC, Mar. 13, 2006 (Charity Village, By Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf) - Meet the founders of some Canadian organizations that are tackling complex issues: ending child labour, feeding the homeless, caring for foster kids, bringing light to impoverished villages. Just imagine what they'll do once they finish high school! Find out more in this week's cover story at: http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/archive/acov/acov06/acov0608.html.

Local Living Economies

Buy Local VI Market Test
NANAIMO, BC, Mar. 31, 2006 (CIP) – The Community Assets Project is on the look out for up to 20 Nanaimo offices locations, who have 6 – 10 people each, willing to help market test a new Buy Local Shopping Service business. Mock orders will be created each week to see if the local products and services in demand can be located on time and easily enough for the real thing. Once the test is working properly, the full Buy Local Program will kick into gear, giving discounts and bonus recognition all year long, to those who signed up to test the process. Marketplace orders will then start being delivered on Fridays, saving up to 200 tired workers from having to spend their beloved days off in malls and grocery line-ups. Local owners of local and eco-businesses are also asked to contact the Community Assets Project if they wish to see their companies listed in the partnering CIP Quick Check Referral Service of the new Vancouver Island Buy Local Data Base. For more information, please call Community Involvement Project at 250-753-5605 or email: Communityassets@telus.net.

Events / Sustainable Community – Denver, CO – Oct. 19 - 21

Place Matters: Creative Planning Collaborative for Sustainable Communities
DENVER, CO, Mar. 28, 2006 (Orton Family Foundation) - PLACEMATTERS is a living laboratory where a national network of practitioners come together to learn, share, inspire and seed innovation in place, collectively elevating the art and science of planning for vibrant and sustainable communities. On October 19-21, 2006, PLACEMATTERS06 will touch down in Denver, Colorado, heart of the Rocky Mountain region, bringing a variety of the best tools, processes and people to bear on some of the most critical land use challenges of our times. Click & scroll - http://www.orton.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=504&parentID=500&nodeID=1.

Local Living Economies / Buy Local

Local First Community Education Campaigns
WEB Reference, Mar. 30, 2006 (BALLE) - In communities across North America, BALLE networks are launching Local First Campaigns. These marketing campaigns are seen as a critical piece of a community's economic development strategy, helping to promote economic stability, job growth, and entrepreneurial vigor through nurturing and promoting a wide diversity of locally owned businesses. http://www.livingeconomies.org/localfirst.

Why Buy Local First?
http://www.livingeconomies.org/localfirst/whylocalfirst.

Local Living Economies

Defining Community-based Economics
WEB Reference, Mar. 30, 2006 (Wikipedia) - Community-based economics or just community economics encourages local substitution and a rejection of outside energy subsidy and coercion. It is most familiar from the lifeways of those practicing voluntary simplicity, including traditional Mennonite, Amish, and modern eco-village communities. However, it is also increasingly a priority in urban economics, where moral purchasing and local purchasing are increasingly cogent concerns. Various specific programs for community economics and local currency, e.g. Ithaca Hours, are often promoted in green politics. Notably, the Ten Key Values of the Green Party include them as fundamental parts of a green program. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community-based_economics.

Empowerment for Social Change / Women

Venezuela Leads the Way: Welfare Mothers and Grassroots Women are the Workers for Social Change
WEB Reference, Mar. 6, 2006 (Upside Down World) - There is screaming, hugging, chanting, and many shhhs; the group takes a momentary pause in their celebration to hear the news. A delegation of 70 women from all over the world, including, India, Uganda, Guyana, the UK, and the US stand together in the community of La Padera, Venezuela, awaiting the details. http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/209/1/.

Cool Projects / Climate Change Solutions

Taking Action on Climate Change
WEB Reference, Apr. 10, 2006 (http://www.ecoperth.on.ca/ ) - Making real headway with an issue as big as climate change is not easy. The issues are global in scale, and impacts are time-delayed and difficult to measure. Here are but three GREAT programs on a long quick-to-read list of programs from EcoPerth, involving community directly in combating our worst behaviors responsible for climate change. http://www.ecoperth.on.ca/done.html.

Local Flavour Businesses
EcoPerth has networked a group of local businesses that use and support local produce, keeping your money within the community. http://www.ecoperth.on.ca/Projects/green/current/localflav.html.

GreenLink
A project aimed at bridging the access gap to green products and services, including renewable energy to interested individuals. http://www.ecoperth.on.ca/Projects/communication/current/greenlink.html.

Neighbourhood EcoPerth
An approach that helps encourage neighbourhoods and groups to get together and run green projects through cost sharing and joint problem solving. http://www.ecoperth.on.ca/Projects/communication/current/neighbourhood.html.

Global Village / Water Rights

Community Priorities for Water Rights
ELIST, Apr. 10, 2006 (id21RuralNews, Number 5) - Water is becoming a scarce resource in many places. As access is threatened, communities seek to protect their rights to water. Water rights are negotiated within communities. However, they can also be negotiated between communities and others sharing water in river basins. Email request: GET http://www.id21.org/getweb/n6bb1g1.html (see end of message for full instruction on how to receive full research highlights by email) From: http://www.id21.org/nr/n6bb1g1.html.

Conferences to Follow / Women in Sustainability – 100 Mile House, BC - Apr. 5 - 7

Women of Resource Communities Conference
ELIST, Mar. 2006, (BC Food Democracy) - Thanks to Ellie Parks, BC CED Network - The Hill's Ranch, 100 Mile House, BC. The second annual Women of Resource Communities Conference will forge a stronger link between British Columbia's tourism and industry stakeholders, organizers say, this year's conference will also focus on sustainability and the leadership role of women in resource communities. Delegates will hear from speakers including Lois McNabb, Director, Economics and Trade Branch, BC Ministry of Forests and Range; Sylvia Waterer, Co-owner of Chilcotin Holidays Guest Ranch and Vice-President of the Wilderness Tourism Association; and Teresa Ryan, representative of the Tsimshian First Nation and past-President of Oceans Industry BC. More information, including details on registration and early bird specials, can be found at the conference web site: www.womenofbcresourcecommunities.org.

Exemplary Resources / Rural Development

Rural Communities Issues & News
ELIST, Mar. 10, 2006 (BC Food Democracy) - Hello all, some of you may not be aware of the work of id21 (http://www.id21.org/). They "communicates international development research to policymakers and practitioners worldwide on: health, education, global issues, urban development, rural development, natural resources". They send out periodic notices of recent research (subscription info is at the bottom of the email). While much of it is focused on the so-called "developing world" many of the issues also affect our (rural) communities in British Columbia. The most recent posting from id21 is below - you will notice that it focuses on women. Happy reading, Abra, BC Food Democracy.