Village Vancouver Newsletter December 2014


Welcome to the

Village Vancouver Newsletter 

December 2014





Become a Society Member Today!

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

December marks the end of another vibrant, dynamic, and very full year for Village Vancouver.  As metropolitan Vancouver’s Transition Hub and one of the largest and most active Transition Town Initiatives in the world, 2014 once again saw us engaging in over 300 activities, events, projects, and workshops, and collaborating with dozens of other community groups, as well as local government.

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.

In short, we like to connect neighbours and help communities be more sustainable and self-sufficient, and have fun and celebrate while we’re doing it.  We do this mostly through people power, operating on a very small budget (though we’re certainly not adverse to accepting donations). One nice outcome of helping neighbours meet is that we also help reduce social isolation.

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 held our 5th Neighbour Savour at Heritage Hall in October. Nearly 200 people attended this zero- waste community potluck celebration which featured live music, community tables, children’s activities, and more. Village was a Community Sponsor for the 6th Parks Board organized Sustenance Festival. This years theme was Making Connections, Building Relationships and we offered over a dozen events.

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.

We joined Co-Development Canada and Amnesty International in organizing and sponsoring the 13th Just Film Festival (formerly the World Community Film Festival), the largest environmental and social justice film festival in B.C., at Langara College in late February.

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).

FOOD & PERMACULTURE
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.

We engaged in many ongoing Gardening, Urban Agriculture, and Permaculture projects, including the Kits Village Collaborative Garden at the Billy Bishop Legion Hall, Woodlawn Community Garden (sponsored by VV), permaculture activities at Cottonwood Community Garden, McBride Fieldhouse, and two front lawns in Kits, two Green Spaces, and helped start the new collaborative garden at Kits Community Centre. We offered many food and growing-related workshops, and our Placemaking course contained many growing and permaculture elements.


Committed to promoting Seed Saving and getting seeds for growing food and stimulating pollination  into the hands of as many people as possible, we tabled our Seed Libraries about 50 times in 2014 at street festivals, workshops and elsewhere. We built several new seed libraries, and our partnership with the Emily Carr ecoTank design studio in the Fall resulted in an additional seven (quite creatively designed) seed libraries being built for us, with an eye towards placing them at several new locations, including libraries, community centres, and Neighbourhood Houses. Our Seed Bank project helps protect and maintain seed diversity, and we helped support the FarmFolkCityFolk’s BC Seeds Gathering again in November.

We held dozens of Community Meals, including Drop-in Spaghetti Nights, Dinner Groups, monthly Community Potlucks, Neighbour Savour, and Slow Food, Slow Everything Day. Several Drop-in Spaghetti Nights connected neighbours who live within two or three blocks of one another, but who may not have known one another, while demonstrating how we can produce, consume and recycle food ‘waste’ within our local neighbourhoods. Half of the vegetables used at our 2014 spaghetti nights were grown at Village Vancouver gardens (primarily the Kits Village Collaborative Garden).
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.


NEIGHBOURHOOD VILLAGES & OTHER NEIGHBOURHOOD ACTIVITIES

We held activities in 16 Vancouver Neighbourhoods. Examples of Neighbourhood Village activities included monthly Grandview Woodland Village potlucks and workshops (in collaboration with Permaculture Vancouver), and Kits Transition Village organizing 2 dinner groups,  2 permaculture yards, the Kits Village Collaborative Garden at the Billy Bishop Legion Hall, monthly potlucks, a monthly recycling depot, 3 seed Libraries, the Kits Village Thanksgiving Dinner, several activities at McBride Park Fieldhouse, including Swap Till You Drop, and several Drop-in Spaghetti Nights. Main St. Village held monthly workshops and potlucks, maintained a seed library, engaged in neighbbourhood asset mapping, and collaborated with/helped guide the new Little Mountain-Riley Park Food Network.
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.
Despite an early torrential downpour which threatened the day’s activities, our 5th annual Demo Sustainable Neighbourhood Transition Village (now there’s a mouthful) at Main St. Car Free Day was, by all accounts, a big success.  Besides Village, participants filling the 30 tents and open space at and surrounding 13th and Main included Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks, MODO, SPUD, The HUB, SPEC, Cottonwood Community Garden, Homesteader’s Emporium, a backyard chicken or two, and many others, along with approximately 70 volunteers who helped make it all happen.

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
Our monthly Kits Village Plastic Recycling Depot collected plastics the City doesn’t take. 

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

Click here for the most up-to-date calendar of upcoming events!




Enjoy!
Your December newsletter team,
Bonita Jo Magee and Ross Moster, 
with thanks to Jordan Bober and Rhiannon Johnson

Village Vancouver May 2014 Newsletter and Upcoming Events


Village Vancouver 

Newsletter and Upcoming Events 

May 2014


Welcome to the May 2014 edition of the Village Vancouver monthly newsletter and Upcoming Events.



This is an exciting time for Vancouver!  The year-long Placemaking course that started in February is percolating city-changing projects and many other initiatives throughout the city are buzzing with energy.  
 
Also, Village Vancouver is proud to be a community partner for 100-in-1 Day, a global festival celebrating citizen-driven action that encourages citizens to do little things to realize their dream city.  It's coming to Vancouver on June 7!  Started by a group of students in Bogota, Columbia in 2012, the idea was to inspire 100 projects or actions that capture the spirit of citizen creativity, ownership, and action to occur on one day.  The idea expanded to other Colombian cities and has grown internationally to cities such as Copenhagen, Cape Town and Montreal and now grows in Canada with Toronto, Halifax, and Vancouver this year! 


With a goal of 100 events, Simon Bergkjaer, one of the people who started the idea explained why the number of projects and their duration are just the tip of the iceberg,  “The tangible impact is very important, but it’s also what kind of mindset changes and society changes these kinds of interventions can lead to and can carry with them,” Bergkjaer said. “It’s a realization that you can take ownership and do something different where you live.” 

Ranging from street art to community gardens and bike lanes, the sky is the limit with creative ideas such as a silent ipod open-air disco in Montreal or the woman who put a table and some chairs in a busy public place with a sign that said, "Take time".  The result of that project and others was that people stopped and chatted and real connections and inspirations happened that day.  As identified in a number of recent studies, the number one issue in Vancouver is social isolation, and these citizen-led projects, called 'interventions' help us break out of our mold, out of our routine to do something different, something inspiring, something expressive with others who share the same yearnings.

To make getting involved easy, a number of workshops have been organized over the next few weeks to help people determine what they want to do for the June 7 day and to connect others with their project.  The first step to trying this out is to attend a workshop or if you're already organized, to be counted in the 100+ projects the organizers anticipated, add your intervention here!



June 7 will be an exciting day in Vancouver.  Who knows what will appear, from the mere ideas and actions of us, the citizens of Vancouver!  In the meantime, May is packed with other Village Vancouver events to get you involved!



In This Newsletter
 

  • The HELLO Project Community VV Potluck
  • 19th Annual Stone Soup Festival
  • West End Village and Food Network Activities
  • Kits Village Activities
  • 100-in-1 Day in Vancouver on June 7!
  • Mark Lakeman brings placemaking spirit to Southwestern BC
  • Village Vancouver 100-in-1 Day Intervention: Kits Permaculture Blitz
  • 100 in 1 Day Village Vancouver Workshop
  • Swap Till You Drop
  • VV 5th Annual Demo Sustainable Transition Village at Main St. Car Free Day
  • Saturday Permaculture Workparties with Vancouver Ecovillage every Saturday
  • Strathcona Community Kitchen Open House
  • Vancouver's Tiny House Movement Survey
  • Tenth Annual Sunflower Seedling Fundraiser
  • Vancouver's Sole Food Street Farms Crowdfunding Launch Party
  • Community Garden Coalition Events - Can You Dig It 2014
  • Workshop on Community‐Based Responses to a Globalist Agenda
  • Vancouver Storytellers Grand Finale of the Season
  • South Vancouver Food Security Festival

Enjoy!
Your May newsletter team,
Rhiannon, Jordan and Ross




Become a Member Today!

Join the Village Vancouver community by joining our website! We hope you'll also become a member of the Village Vancouver Transition Society.  Your annual membership will make our movement even stronger! It's easy to join - just click here!



Village Vancouver / 
The HELLO Project Community Potluck

Sun, May 4, noon - 2pm
Strathcona Community Centre, 601 Keefer St.


Register here or through Strathcona Community Centre (604.713.1838 or in person)
For more information, email info@villagevancouver.ca

Village Vancouver helps neighbours connect in fun and sustainable ways. The HELLO Project aims to make a simple logo so well known it becomes a recognized, legitimized ice-breaker among strangers when displayed in coffee shops and other suitable locations. Just us for a tasty and informative potluck! Everyone welcome!

We'll have a Village Vancouver seed library present and you can get some free seeds for your garden or swap or donate some seeds.

Part of Village Vancouver's Spring 2014 Cultivating Food, Cultivating Community series.

Other Series events:
Tuesday, May 13 Traditional Sauerkraut Making Workshop with Alyssa Kohlman

19th Annual 
Stone Soup Festival

Sat May 10, 12 - 5 pm
Brittania Community Centre (1661 Napier St.) and Napier Greenway

Join us to celebrate with a food market, artists, community groups, music, garden info, workshops, author talks, free soup and more!

West End Village and Food Network Activities
Upcoming Workshops and Potlucks
Wed, May 14, 6:30 - 8:30 pm 
100-in-1-Day Workshop (Free)
Hosted by WENFN and Village Vancouver

100 in 1 Day Vancouver takes place on Saturday, June 7. This workshop is an opportunity for you to come in with an idea or simply an open mind and a hunger for change. We'll help you work that into an action plan and meet likeminded people who might want to participate. Gordon Neighbourhood House. More info/Register on Event Brite.

Tues, May 27
WE Village Vancouver May Community Potluck 6:30-7:30 pm
Balcony and Container Gardening Workshop 7:30-9:30 pm

Want to grow food but you live in an apartment? In this course we will cover the techniques and challenges specific to gardening indoors and on balconies in containers. We'll look at soil, fertilizing organically, watering, types of containers, different sun orientations and of course, what to grow. $25. Bidwell Room, WE Community Centre. Register: 604.257.8333 or vancouver.ca/westendrec
A seed library will be present at the potlucks and gardening workshop – you can get some free seeds for your garden or swap or donate some seeds.

Upcoming:
June 12 – WENFN Potluck and VV Pest Management & Plant Health Workshop
June 15 – WENFN/VV Booth @ West End Car Free Day

Ongoing: Food Scrap Drop Spots – every Tues (6-7:30 pm) & Sat (10 am-noon, thru May 24) @ Gordon Neighbourhood House and every Sat (10-noon) @WECC

For further information, please contact Ross Moster at ross@villagevancouver.ca or ross.wenfn@gmail.com

WENFN is sponsored by Gordon Neighbourhood House




Kits Village Activities

Lots of fun stuff going on this month in Kits Transition Village!
Kits Village was formed several years ago in the early days of Village Vancouver to help cultivate community resilience  and sustainability in our neighbourhood in fun, tangible  and connecting ways. With over 175 members, we’re extremely active, typically holding over a dozen activities a month – many related to food and/or the sharing economy - and we also host other Village Vancouver activities as well. Almost all of our activities are open to folks from outside of Kitsilano.

Some of our May highlights include:
  • Swap Till You Drop! Community Swap Meet and more! Saturday, May 31, noon - 5 pm. Volunteers welcome!

  • Drop in Spaghetti Nights resume at the end of the month (through November). New hosts welcome.
  • Permaculture Blitzes We’ll be holding a series of permaculture work parties at various locations over the next few months and we’d love to have you join us! (No experience necessary – we teach you.) Stay tuned for details.
Ongoing Activties:
  • Monthly Potlucks   Usually on the 2nd Sundays of the month.  A good place  to find out what’s going on in Kits Village and Village Vancouver. Everyone welcome! May potluck: Sunday, May 12  from 6:30-8:30 pm.
  • Weekly KV Collaborative Garden Work Parties Usually on Saturdays or Sundays from 3-6 pm. New volunteers always welcome.
  • Monthly Dinner Groups Share a meal with neighbours. Currently 2 groups and a 3rd group may be forming. Interested?
  • Seed Savers/Seed Library We table the seed library at a bunch of events and meet occasionally.  New members welcome.
  • Monthly Plastic Recycling Depot   For plastics the city doesn’t take.  Held on the Thursday evening before  the 3rd Friday of the month. Various locations, including the Westside Community Food Market in July, August, and September. Next Depot: Thursday, May 15. Help always welcome.
  • Salon d’Elan Vital Discussions and Potluck Held several times a year, sometimes outside of Kits.  Everyone welcome! Next Salon: Sunday, June 1 from 1-3 pm.
Just Around the Corner:
  • Can You Dig it Community Garden Coalition Series: Self-managed Gardens Thursday, June 5 from 7-9 pm.
  • VV/KV 100-in-1 Day Projects We’ll be holding Permaculture Blitzes (“barn raisings”) at different locations around Kits. Saturday, June 7 – Join us!
  • KV Booth at VV Demo Sustainable Village at Main St. Car Free Day Volunteers needed! Sunday, June 15
New Projects:
  • KVers are currently starting several new projects, including expanding a demonstration mini-food forest, restoring a herbal medicinal garden, holding  a food forest workshop series, creating permaculture in pots, organizing an introduction to fungi: food health, and bioremediation, building an herb spiral, planning and facilitating Car Free Day 2014 block parties, helping grow the sharing economy and shrinking waste, starting a tea lounge (a “tea-pee”), scheduling multi-cultural dinners in public spaces, establishing a teaching coop (as in backyard chickens), and more.
Help us make our neighbourhood a better place! More new projects and activities welcome and encouraged! 

Please contact Ross at ross@villagevancouver.ca for more info or to find out how you can get involved in Kits Village.

100-in-1 Day in Vancouver on June 7!

On June 7,  Vancouver will host 100-in-1 Day!
Create an intervention that will make Vancouver a better place!

What if hundreds of people united, each putting in place the changes they wish to see in their city, all on the same day?

This citizen-driven festival will unite people across the city to make Vancouver a better place by creating acts of urban change.

These acts, or interventions, have the potential to raise awareness of urban and social issues, inspire ideas, and motivate leaders to consider new approaches to old problems.

Click here to learn more.

Building up to 100 in 1 Day, people of all ages, backgrounds and locations across the city are invited to attend workshops to develop their interventions—from idea to execution.  This workshop process is meant to inspire generative, creative and reflective interventions, and for you to share your ideas for making your city a better place to live.  During the workshops, participants will be asked:
  • What is your dream?
  • What do you wish your community to be like?
  • What actions will improve the quality of life in your community, street and block?

Workshop schedule here.

Mark Lakeman spreads the placemaking spirit throughout Southwestern BC with Village Vancouver's City Commons Placemaking Course 

April was a terrific month on the placemaking front throughout Southwestern BC, with Village Vancouver and other regional Transition initiatives taking the lead. In mid-March, Village Vancouver's City Commons Placemaking Course brought City Repair founder and placemaking pioneer Mark Lakeman to BC for a whirlwind tour that left hundreds inspired in Vancouver, Maple Ridge, the Sunshine Coast, Victoria and O.U.R. Ecovillage at Shawnigan Lake, west of Victoria.



Mark Lakeman speaks to approximately 100 "community champions" in the Council Chambers of the District of Maple Ridge on April 16, 2014

Intersection Repair design charette at the City Commons Placemaking Course in Vancouver, April 18, 2014


Jacky Essombe shared stories, songs and dances remembered from her childhood growing un in a Cameroonian Village at the City Commons Placemaking Course is Vancouver, April 18, 2014 Mark Lakeman drew a crowd on the Sunshine Coast after a last-minute event was organised at Yoga by the Sea in Roberts Creek, April 17, 2014


Closing circle at Mark Lakeman's workshop at O.U.R. Ecovillage, Vancouver Island, April 19, 2014



April also saw a lot of media attention given to the topic of Placemaking and what Village Vancouver and other groups are doing locally:

Vancouver Sun: Placemaking comes to Vancouver
The grass-roots movement that creates inviting public spaces is a hit in Portland



Vancouver Sun: 'Placemaking' effort aims to reclaim "The Grove" near Surrey murder site
There's been some quirky activity in a forested area in Newton lately
- This is an effort being led by some of our friends at Village Surrey!

Urban Systems: Designing and making choices as a community — that’s placemaking
Placemaking advocate Mark Lakeman says citizen-driven design of public space a growing trend

Village Vancouver 100-in-1 Day Intervention: 
Kits Permaculture Blitz
Sat, June 7, 9 am - 4 pm
Location TBD                                                                                                          

Join us on 100 in 1 Day for a Permaculture Blitz Day - a KitsBlitz "barnraising" work party where we transform a space using Permaculture design principles. Up to 25 people at a time have participated in past Village Vancouver garden blitzes.

We're currently considering a few spaces to which we have access.  Join us for all or part of the day. No experience necessary - we'll teach you and share a meal together mid-day.  Stay tuned for more details.

RSVP here or to ross@villagevancouver.ca.  See you all on May 31st!

100 in 1 Day Vancouver Workshop
Hosted by Village Vancouver and West End Neighbourhood Food Network
Wed, May 14, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Gordon Neighbourhood House, 1019 Broughton St.

Building up to 100 in 1 Day, people of all ages, backgrounds and locations across the city are invited to attend workshops to develop their interventions—from idea to execution. Village and West End Neighbourhood Food Network are hosting a workshop at Gordon Neighbourhood House.

The workshop process is meant to inspire generative, creative and reflective interventions, and for you to share your ideas for making your city a better place to live.

During the workshop, participants will be asked:
  • What is your dream?
  • What do you wish your community to be like?
  • What actions will improve the quality of life in your community, street and block?

The workshop will be a source of inspiration and resources to guide successful interventions across the city.

Register today here!

Special thanks to Gordon Neighbourhood House for providing the space.





Swap Till You Drop

Sat, May 31, 12 - 5 pm
Location TBD

Swap Till You Drop is a unique event, happening in Kits!  It aims to offer us a taste of a "sharing economy" where we encourage and embrace other currencies outside of our current money system.  During this afternoon event we'll offer a space for Kits and other Vancouver residents to exchange and share household items, clothing, tools, knowledge, expertise and even stories in a family friendly atmosphere. All ages are welcome.
So, come one come all.  Bring what you no longer need and take with you what you could use and might need.  Come join us in experiencing how rich we really are without having to spend or exchange one cent!


VV 5th Annual Demo Sustainable Transition Village at Main St. Car Free Day
Imagining Your Ideal Neighbourhood: Cultivating Community Resilience
Sun, June 15

Callout for organizers, volunteers, tents, participants!

Our 25-35 tent and open space Demo Sustainable Transition Village at 13th and Main will highlight what Village is up to, and (as always) we're inviting several other community groups to join us.

Want to help plan and organize the Demo Village? Team leaders needed for Transportation, Setup, Breakdown, and Info Booths.  We will have a planning meeting on May 9, 10 am - noon and on June 2, 10 am - noon.  Please contact demovillageplanningteam@villagevancouver.ca. 

Want to volunteer? We need 40-50 volunteers on the day of and a few more before and after.  If you'd like to help us with setup (10 am - noon), at a Village info table during the day (between noon and 7 pm), or with breakdown, please contact volunteer@villagevancouver.ca.

If you have have tables, chairs or tents we can borrow (we're currently looking for 15 more tents), please contact carfreedaystuffweneed@villagevancouver.ca.

If you're a group or individual who would like to promote/display a community project, group, or activity you're involved in, please contact ross@villagevancouver.ca.

General info here.

Saturday Permaculture Workparties 
with Vancouver Ecovillage
Every Sat 2 - 6 pm
Near Canada Way/Burris (Phone 778 288 0824 for Directions)

There is more in your garden than plants and soil - the opportunity for renewed mental and physical health grows there, too. Gardening is Therapy which promotes Health and Wellness. Vancouver Ecovillage is starting a small Permaculture Project in Burnaby on a private property. What better Therapy than to Nurture Nature, Grow Flowers and your own ORGANIC FOOD and make New Friends?   We welcome your creativity whether it is Vertical Building, Growing Mushrooms on Straw/Coffee Grinds or Crafting Gardening Ideas.

At the start of this reocurring Saturday workparty, we'll be weeding, preparing garden beds, cleaning and organizing the greenhouse.  We welcome donations and are badly in need of gravel or pebbles for our garden beds, large pots, driftwood, a large compost bin and any vegetable/ flowering plants or seeds.
Bring a water bottle, hat, gloves, and your smiles!

If you’d like to implement your own project like planting string-beans, please bring whatever is needed such as sticks and perhaps some tools because we may not have everything you need. There is also a swimming-pool needing a few minor repairs and cleaning if you’re interested in a glorious afternoon swim!

Strathcona Community Kitchen Open House

Wed, May 7, drop-in between 10:30 am - 1 pm
Strathcona Community Centre, Preschool Room (2nd floor)

Are you interested in cooking with others in your community, sharing and learning new skills and getting to know your neighbours better?  Please join us at the Strathcona Community Centre’s Community Kitchen Open House where you can:
  • Discover a variety of community kitchens and other food-related activities in the neighbourhood.  
  • Give your input into future community kitchens at the community centre and enter a draw to win 4 weekly deliveries of bread, milk, eggs and butter.  
  • Taste foods prepared by current community kitchen participants.
All are welcome!
Join Vancouver's Tiny House Movement

This summer Zee Kesler is organizing a tiny house building workshop in association with Camera Buildings and we need your input!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1kuLHbPjGra4G1SyaXsxXtNsVADxmFoGlmt4T1fTSNNg/viewformThe workshop will start in June and run 2 days a week for approx 3 hours a day until the end of August. In order for our instructors to offer the best course possible, we have created a survey to learn more about your thoughts, wants, needs, and interests related to learning about and building tiny houses.

Please fill out the Survey if you are personally interested in participating, or pass on to anyone you think would be!

Access the survey here.
More information here.
Tenth Annual Sunflower Seedling Fundraiser
Sat May 10, 10 am - 3 pm
2133 East 7th Ave


It's time to mark your calendars for our TENTH ANNUAL grassroots HIV fundraiser for the Stephen Lewis Foundation!  Who can believe it's been ten years since we started this little fundraiser in East Van, growing and selling sunflower seedlings to support HIV programs in sub Saharan Africa! We've raised over $52,000 and are in full gear to have another GREAT fundraiser this year.

So please do join us and forward this announcement widely. Thanks!  Over 25 varieties of sunflower seedlings are for sale by donation and 100% of proceeds to support HIV programs in sub Saharan Africa, plus lots of live entertainment, line up TBA.

For more info, see www.turntothesun.org, facebook.com/Turn2theSun, or call (604) 251-4065.
Vancouver's Sole Food Street Farms is 
Launching a major crowdfunding campaign
Launch Party
Wed, May 14, 6 - 10 pm, $15
Make Studio, 257 E. 7th Ave

We're trying to raise $100,000 in 18 days. That sounds like a daunting task, so we thought we would loosen up by throwing a party.


Come help us celebrate the Help Sole Food Grow campaign launch and the overwhelming support we've received from the Vancouver local food, business, and social enterprise community.

Register at: helpsolefoodgrow.eventbrite.ca
All proceeds go to Help Sole Food Grow campaign.

Feel free to pass this invite along to anyone who you think should attend!

Community Garden Coalition Events
Can You Dig It 2014

Connect, Learn and Share!
Can You Dig It supports communities to create welcoming and inclusive foodgrowing gardens where everyone belongs. Currently in our 5th growing season, CYDI has been engaged in the creation of 36 gardens throughout the Lower Mainland.  Can You Dig It invites you, community garden members and lovers, to participate in a series of events to connect, learn and share best practices.



Thurs, May 15, 7 - 9pm
Safe Gardens with Ladybug Community Gardens
The Hub, 251 East 11th Ave, Vancouver

Thurs, May 22, 7 - 9pm
Animated Gardens with Stride Community Gardens
Stride Community School, 7014 Stride Ave, Burnaby

Thurs, June 5, 7 - 9pm
Self-managed Gardens with Village Vancouver
McBride Fieldhouse, 3350 West 4th Ave, Vancouver

Thurs, June 12th, 7 - 9pm
Growing Gardens with Food For Thought
Alexandra Neighbourhood House, 2916 McBride Ave, Surrey

For more information or to register, please contact Cinthia at info@cydi.ca or at (604) 728-1725 or visit www.cydi.ca

Together, we can all plant a seed!
Workshop on Community‐Based Responses 
to a Globalist Agenda
Sat May 17, 1 ‐ 5 pm
Scottish Cultural Centre, 8886 Hudson St @ W 73rd Ave
Donation $5 to $20, whatever you can afford.

The purpose of the event is to educate and activate!


To educate you about:
1. a globalist agenda that threatens our rights and freedom, and
2. the community-based initiatives that are providing healthy responses
To activate you to support these community-based initiatives.

Program: Intro followed by three 75 minute presentations
  • Part 1:  Identifying the Globalist Agenda
  • Part 2:  Presenting Some Community-Based Responses
  • Part 3:  Supporting These Community-Based Initiatives
Speaking at the event are (more to come)
  • Myra Graham: Community Exchange System (CES)
  • John Theobold: German New Medicine (GNM)
  • Karen Neufeld: Conscious Parenting
Bring a water bottle, note‐taking material, business cards, and information about you and your group for the Building Community segment.
Please arrive early as there is only seating for the first 300 people.
More information here.


Listen! Laugh! Enjoy!   Stories for YOU!
Theme: Knock on Wood:  Grand Finale of the Season
Sun, May 18th, 7 pm, $6 includes tea (please bring treats to share)
1805 Larch at 2nd Ave


Vancouver Storytellers Mike Ewan and Mary Gavan; Teller and harpist Chen Ha, Master Storyteller Dunc Shields, and Guest Speaker Karen Magill, Vancouver Vagabond blogger and author including The Bond, a paranormal love story.

For more information, contact Mary Gavan at mary@marycelticstory.ca or 604-683-1575 or visit www.vancouverstorytellers.ca


South Vancouver Food Security Festival
May 21 & 22 Food Security Workshops
May 23 Food Fair and Market, 3:30 - 6 pm
South Vancouver Neighbourhood House, 6470 Victoria Dr. 

For more info, call (604) 324-6212 or here.  Register at the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House front desk.


Additional Village Events:

West End Food Scrap Drop Spots, Tuesday evenings from 6 - 7:30pm at Gordon Neighbourhood House and Saturday mornings from 10 am - noon at West End Community Centre and Gordon Neighbourhood House.

VV Permaculture Blitz in Strathcona, May 3, 11 am - 2 pm, VV Permaculture plot at Cottonwood Community Garden, located at the south side of Strathcona Park. Strathcona Park is in East Vancouver on Prior Street, between Clark Drive & Main Street.


Kits Village Collaborative Garden Weekly Work Parties, May 3, 11, 18, 25, 3 - 6 pm

Kits Village New Dinner Group, May 4, 6 - 8 pm

Kits Village May Potluck: Yummy Food and New Projects, May 11, 6 - 8 pm

Caring for All Creation: The Art of the Commonplace - A Celebration, May 13, 6 - 9 pm

VV Admin Working Group Work Party, May 14, 1 - 4 pm

May Plastic Recycling in Kits, May 15, 6 - 7 pm

Deadline for June Newsletter, May 24, email newsletter@villagevancouver.ca

VV booth at 12th Annual South Hill Festival -- coordinator(s) and volunteers needed!, May 24, noon - 4 pm

Kits Village Dinner Group, May 25, 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Kits Village Seed Savers/Seed Library May Meeting, May 27, 10 - 11:30 am

VV Admin Working Group Work Party, May 28, 1 - 4 pm

From Here to There - Brown Bag Resiliency Lunches, May 29, 1 - 3 pm

Drop in Spaghetti Nights are back!  Dates and details to be confirmed.

Salon d'Elan Vital Monthly Potluck and Discussion, June 1, 1 - 3 pm




Village Vancouver Upcoming Events

Click here for the full calendar of upcoming events!