Q: How are you projecting change?

I am working with an amazing volunteer team on the start-up of a new non-profit called Peace Geeks. We help strengthen the technological and professional capabilities of non-profit organizations working on peace, accountability and human rights initiatives by remotely connecting them to skilled volunteers. Our client organizations gain the benefit of skilled volunteers, while our volunteers (over 100 and counting) can stay at home and have the opportunity to make an impact globally. We also have a secondary objective of raising public awareness about the important work done by individuals and organizations working on these issues around the world. We don’t hear their stories often enough through traditional media channels and we want to help change that.

We want to work on projects that advance the strategic objectives of our client organizations so what that looks like will vary from one organization to another, but projects can include: developing organizational web sites to disseminate important information with relevant audiences; setting up data collection or crowd sourcing tools to assist with research, programming and policy advocacy efforts; implementing mobile phone applications to assist with early warning tools or to support awareness-raising campaigns; creating training programs for social media strategy, web site management, etc. We also work on the development of strategic management and planning skills, including team coaching, marketing strategy, human resources management, program strategy, etc. We will also explore developing new tools or integrating several existing tools if and when we see that it addresses a broad need.

Q: Do you feel film has power to create social change?

Yes, absolutely. In fact, this team initially came together after 14 individuals who didn’t really know each other met up watch the documentary film ‘Pray the Devil Back to Hell’ at the Amnesty International Film Festival this past November. This movie tells the amazing story of the Liberian women’s movement, which played a pivotal role in helping to end the 14-year civil war in that country. When the screening ended, the energy was palpable. Many of us wanted to do something to support the amazing work of organizations such as Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), featured in the film. I have since toured this film across the country for different audiences, and no matter where I show it, people are inspired by the courage and fiery determination of the Liberian women.

Q: Tell me about the inspiration behind your newly founded NGO…

Apart from the screening, the idea for Peace Geeks culminated from my experience in the private sector where I worked on IT projects for eight years, and later in the non-profit sector and with the UN where I worked on peace and security issues. I came to realize that many of the organizations working in this space lacked the basic tools, systems and skills they needed to be most effective with their limited resources. Sometimes cost is the most significant barrier to accessing these tools, but more often than not, it is lack of awareness about the options available or limited access to the skills needed to get them. Some non-profits also may have limited strategic management capabilities and in some cases we may have a role to play in supporting the development these skills.

Another important piece of the puzzle was that I could see that many people with professional backgrounds wanted to contribute their skills and time to support such organizations, but just didn’t know where to get started. We help make these connections and harness this potential. We recognize that while the core work on these issues happens on the ground in the countries where our clients operate, we can nevertheless play an important support role in building their technological and management capabilities so they can be most effective with their resources and make the greatest impact in their communities.

Interested in finding out more about Peace Geeks? Checkout the website at www.peacegeeks.org .

Want to get involved? Send an email to volunteer@peacegeeks.org or register as a volunteer at www.peacegeeks.org/pg/volunteer_registration.php

- Rebecca @rebeccaapeel

In particular, this year’s festival showcased three films that our panel of organizers felt had a significant impact on our audiences. As tradition calls for, we award three major awards at the end of each year’s festival, and this year’s candidates did not disappoint.

Home-grown The Clean Bin Project, a feature film about an everyday couple and their journey to answer the question “is it possible to live completely waste free?” picked up this year’s Best Canadian Documentary Award: “The film depicts a year’s journey as partners Jen and Grant go head-to-head in a competition to see who can swear off consumerism and produce the least landfill garbage in an entire year. This film presents the serious topic of waste reduction with optimism, humour, and inspiration for individual action.”

The award for Best Documentary went to Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson. This film was a crowd pleaser, igniting a sold-out house. It tells the story of a man on a mission to save the planet and its oceans: “The film follows “professional radical ecologist” Paul Watson as he repeatedly flouts the law so that he may apprehend what he sees as the more serious law-breakers: the illegal poachers of the world.”

The Projecting Change Award goes to the film that we feel truly encompasses the philosophy behind our festival. Director Susan Edwards’ Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000 was this year’s award recipient: “The film details the parallel journey of two characters: one, a young woman discouraged at her future as a suburban housewife, the other, a river – once beautiful and teeming with wildlife – now a hopeless, toxic sludge pit. The basis of this documentary lies in the fact that acclaimed environmental pioneer Stoddart took on and singlehandedly accomplished a huge goal – cleaning up the Nasua River.”

To spice up this year’s festival we ran a contest through social media where we asked our friends and followers to submit a 60 second video documenting how they project change in their everyday lives. We received some inspiring entries – everything from locals creating international movements to one little boy who projects change through being a positive and loving human being in his daily life. The winner of our contest, who also received a $1000 cash prize and the premiere of their video at our closing gala film screening, was the brilliant and hilarious Fair Trade Gangsta Rap video created by the SFU chapter of Fair Trade Vancouver.

Congratulations to the minds behind all of these amazing films! To our audience, we hope you enjoyed each and every one, and if you haven’t gotten the chance to check them out, we highly encourage you to do so. Each film we handpicked for this year’s festival is a beacon for change and hope, and we hope it will inspire a passion within you to fulfill your own goals of projecting change in this world.

– Marisa Woodham (@MarisaWoodham)

I (Bryce Tarling) was asked to put together a brief interview with the company to learn more about what the company does to promote sustainability. Check out the interview with Richard below!

Q: Tell us a bit about Hemlock Printers..

Hemlock is a family-owned print communications company employing 160 staff who mostly work at our head office and manufacturing plant in Burnaby. We also operate 3 sales offices in Victoria, Seattle and San Francisco. We take great pride in the final printed products that leave our doors each day, as we have for the past 43 years. Our clients range from designers, artists, photographers, publishers, corporate clients as well as the public sector – basically anyone that may need print services.

The constant evolution of our print and media services shows that meeting change is part of our DNA. Digital printing and web-development are two of our emerging services that have quickly become key to our business as we adapt to the changing needs of our customers. Thanks to ongoing input from our dedicated staff, we’ve also incorporated sustainability initiatives throughout our business with tangible results that we’ve formally reported on for the past 3 years. Our environmental practices have led to Hemlock being recognized as Canada’s Most Environmentally Progressive Printer for the past 5 years and in 2008 we were also awarded Most Sustainable Printing Company by Heidelberg, the worlds largest press manufacturer.

Q: What goes into making Hemlock Printers a carbon neutral company?

Our efforts to make our plant and offices more energy efficient on an ongoing basis and our commitment to purchase annual clean energy technology offsets equal to our operationally controlled emissions are the foundation to our Carbon Neutral statement. We find the total operational greenhouse gas impact that sets our offset purchase amount by annually inventorying our emissions from direct fuel use (scope 1), electricity consumption (scope 2), and all the necessary third party services that go into producing our finished product (scope 3).

Q: How did you get involved with Projecting Change?

We are close collaborators with our design friend, Brady Dahmer and we’ve been aware of the festival through the local sustainability networks for several years, and have been excited to see it growing to what it is today. The rest is history.

Q: Tell us a bit about why you think an event like the Projecting Change Film Festival is important.

It’s important for everyone to understand sustainability and not to feel intimidated by it. Film is a great medium for entertaining audiences while also showing them the changes that others like them have made, the ways that their actions affect the world around them, and the systems that make and prevent sustainability, all without cracking a textbook. Film festivals are also gatherings, perfect to get people talking and thinking together.

Q: What can individuals do to work towards sustainability or to help project change?

First, people should start looking for options to help reduce their environmental and social impacts. They will soon find others interested in these topics as they adopt new habits, and will naturally become examples for making sustainable changes in their communities. Even if all they do at first is to invite a friend to Projecting Change, life is about how we project the change we want to see.

Find out a little bit more about Hemlock…

Trailer For Hemlock Printers The Movie (We Joke)

Issue 04 from Inventory Magazine on Vimeo.

Have you spotted a Projecting Change 2011 flyer or poster around town? Grab a happy snap (picture) and upload it to our facebook wall – bonus points for sneaky/humorous locations! Catch you at the festival.

- Bryce @BryceTarling

Q: Tell me about your work at the wilderness comittee?

The Wilderness Committee (the WC) is a really interesting place to work. The WC just turned 30 which means I am only 3 years older than it is. That whole time the WC has been doing grassroots organizing working in communities to help protect Canadian wilderness and wildlife. In the last decade or so that work has expanded to include more urban environmental issues like toxins and climate change. I am lucky enough to now be responsible for the Healthy Communities campaigns at the WC which includes climate change, toxins and transportation issues. We are trying to apply the lessons learned from on the ground community based campaigns to newer environmental issues like climate change. In practical terms this means working to stop the causes of climate change at their source. Fighting crude oil exports, coal mines and bad highway projects is “where rubber hits the road” in the fight against climate change in BC.

Q: Whats going on with the crude oil tankers on the cost?

In 2007 a decision was made very quietly to allow larger oil tankers pass through the Burrard Inlet for the purpose of exporting oil to Asia. This decision was made with no public consultation or even public awareness. For decades refined fuels have been exported up and down the coast but the export of raw bitumen from the tar sands is a new thing. Its only been the last years that Vancouver has been transformed into a tar sands shipping port. This makes Vancouver a very important choke point in the fight against the expansion of the tar sands. Not only is our coast now at risk of an oil spill but if we are going to play a responsible role in the world in the era of climate change this means phasing out the tar sands not expanding it.

The other significant threat to the BC coast is the proposed enbridge pipeline that would carry 700,000 barrels a day of petroleum products. This proposed pipeline would connect with much bigger tankers than the ones that can pass through the Burrard Inlet and would be over a days travel closer to Asia in each direction.

Q: How can people in Vancouver take action to protect our coast?

We are hosting weekly public meeting in the Wilderness Committee office starting in June on Wednesday nights. There are many ways to get involved doing anything from research to tanker tracking kayaking tours. The number one thing can do is help spread the word. Still most people don’t even know what is going on. Talk to your friends and neighbours. Send our info page to folks you think might be interested. Http://WildernessCommittee.org/tankers. You can join our grassroots distribution team if you would like to help circulate our publications. Contact our office for more information and to volunteer at 604 683 8220.

Q: How do you think an event like the projecting change film festival has the power to invoke and inspire social change?

Film is a powerful medium. We learn from stories and a picture tells athousand words. Also screenings bring people together. New relationships are formed that can make a real difference

One of the Projecting Change Film Festival 2011 films I am most excited for is The Pipe. I’m sure you can guess what it’s about… Join us for the Canadian premier this Saturday http://projectingchange.ca/schedule/the-pipe.

- Rebecca @rebeccaapeel

Last Wednesday, Yuri sat down and talked with Neal LaMontagne. Neal is a senior planner with the City of Vancouver, responsible for city-wide and regional planning. This means he’s part of the team responsible for the planning of the entire city. His division focuses on initiative like the Regional Growth strategy, eco-density, and the industrial land strategy.

Recently, Neal joined a team responsible for Vancouver’s Transportation Plan update. This team is made up of representatives from both the planning and engineering departments. This is in recognition that transportation is a city-building activity as much as it is a traffic-moving one.

Here is an overview of their discussion:

You’ve talked about the City’s Transportation Plan Update. Can you tell me a bit more about it?

Good transportation systems rely on strategic long-term planning. Vancouver’s Transportation Plan outlines an overall transportation strategy for the city. It sets out a direction consistent both with the regional transportation policy and the principles of the broader city plan. As Vancouver grows and changes, it is important that our transportation planning keeps up.

The existing Vancouver Transportation Plan was adopted in 1997. This plan put transit, pedestrians and cycling at the top of the city’s priorities. Overall, the plan have been successful. Both population and employment in Vancouver grew steadily between 1996 and 2006. This led to a 23% increase in trips to Vancouver. However, because of the re-prioritization, the number of vehicles entering and leaving the city has actually decreased by 10% over the same period! New trips have been by transit, cycling and walking.

We have completed almost all the 76 invitees outlined in the 1997 plan. In addition, we have met or exceeded most of the targets the 1997 plan set—many years ahead of schedule. As such, it is time to update the plan and look towards 2040.

Transportation 2040 is a two-phase consultation process:

1. The first phase runs from now until mid-July. We’re focusing on gathering ideas for Vancouver residents and commuters. This will offer a high-level view including our transportation successes and challenges to date, best practices and proposed goals. These consultations will form the basis of the draft 2040 Transportation Plan.
2. The second phase will be from January to March 2012. Then, residents can give feedback on the draft Transportation Plan.

To many residents, transportation planning seems dry and boring. Why should we care?

We all share the streets as commuters, residents and businesses. As such, transportation is something that effects everybody on a daily basis. Whether we are commuting to and from work, or school, going shopping, meeting friends or taking kids to hockey practice we are moving through the city. As a ‘complete city,’ Vancouver wants this movement to occur in a sustainable way.

In addition to impacting people on an individual basis (“am I stuck in traffic?”), transportation also impacts us on a city-wide level:

• It is central to our economy. The ability to move goods and services; and connect people to share ideas is central to our economy growth.
• It is closely linked to sustainability. If Vancouver is to be the greenest city by 2020, we are going to have to make some movement on how we move.
• It has a big impact on our public health, especially in areas like air quality, accidents and obesity.
• It matters in terms of community. Not only by connecting people within community, but ensuring that we keep public space for social interaction and celebrations.

As a general strategy, the City of Vancouver does not plan to expand road capacity. It will need to absorb growth without building new roads. Thus, the city needs to find other ways to absorb the demands of increased people, jobs, and trips without increasing the amount of traffic on our streets. The 1997 plan was able to do just that. The challenge for Transportation 2040 is how can we keep up with the trends of more people walking, more people cycling, and more people taking transit.

Image from TalkVancouver.com

Projecting Change focuses on individual efforts. How can residents of Vancouver get involved in the process?

The City of Vancouver is encouraging all city residents, commuters, businesses,neighborhoods and industry groups to provide input during the Transportation 2040 consultation process. We want to hear people’s approaches, ideas, concerns and where they see opportunities for improvement. The more people involved, the better sense we will have of what Vancouverites want .  this will help us realize our collective goals.

We are at the beginning of this process. Public consultations sessions start this week. There will be one on May 25 at Marpole Community Centre (990 West 59th Avenue) from 7 to 8:30 pm. there will be another at the Kitsilano Community Centre (2690 Larch Street) on May 26 from 7 to 8:30pm. Hockey fans need not worry, we’ll keep participants updated on games. You can find other public meetings on the Transportation 2040 events calendar.

But you never know where great ideas will come from. So not only do we want a collective discussion, we also want collective brainstorming to come up with unexpected ideas. A great examples of an unexpected idea implemented because of public input was the Laneway Housing initiative that came out of the EcoDensity consultations.

A lot of the city’s transportation initiatives will be small-scale, incremental and at the neighborhood level. One existing example of this is the city’s Greenways program. This is a project that has really relied on local participation, including neighbors planning their roundabouts and boulevards.

On a larger scale, the more people thinking and talking about transportation—even completely outside of the city’s process—the better. Additionally, the city would like people to try the different ways of getting around the city. If you normally drive, try out one of our bike lanes. If you normally take the bus, try walking along Main St, 4th Ave or Commercial Drive. Ride a skateboard, paddle a kayak, use a scooter. Taking a step outside your normal routine is a great way to get you thinking about transportation in our city.

Image from TalkVancouver.com

Projecting Change is also about embracing new technologies. How is Vancouver embracing social media?

The home base for public engagement is our interactive website, TalkVancouver.com. We will also be setting up a Twitter account, hosting discussion forums and a Facebook pilot project. Our social media strategy will be dynamic and adapt over time. We are really interests to see how people respond, communicate and interact. We learned a lot from Greenest City and hope to build on that.

For the less technologically inclined, we are still conducting public meetings and getting out to hear from people face to face.

“If you can get 15 people in a room together we’ll come out and have a meeting with you.”

Image from TalkVancouver.com

What role does an event like the Projecting Change Film Festival play in the City’s efforts?

We need people talking among themselves. An event such as the Projecting Change Film Festival is phenomenal for getting people talking and for people representing their ideas to each other. The more you are talking, the more you are thinking. The more you are thinking the more you’re being creative and coming up with really interesting and provocative ways for us to move the discussion forward. That is a phenomenal benefit.

“Even if were are no in the room, we want people talking transportation. And then we want people talking transportation with us.”

A big part of what the city does is communicate with the public; listening and telling our stores and ideas. We also want to facilitate a broader city-wide discussion. We want people talking not just about transportation, but about transportation in the context of the type of city we want to live in.

More Information

For more information on the public consultation efforts for the Transportation 2040 update, check out this video below or visit TalkVancouver.com.

Yuri -@YuriArtibise

I’ve seen Andrea speak at a number of different events from The Great Turning Unconference to a recent encounter at Epic The Vancouver Sun Sustainable Living Expo – she has been a continual force and inspiration driving Vancouvers Green initiatives.

If you didn’t know that as a Vancouverite you can boast that you live in the city with the smallest carbon footprint in North America, or that we (Vancouverites) are considered leaders in green building planning and technology than you should definitely check out some more info on the Greenest City 2020. Vancouver is heading towards green greatness with a goal to be the greenest city in the world by 2020.

Once again, incredibly proud to be a Vancouverite!

Rebecca – @rebeccaapeel

Last Tuesday’s Projecting Change Through Social Media was an incredible event. A partnership between by SMCYVR and the Projecting Change School Media team, it was held at the soon-to-be finished HiVE Vancouver.  The HiVE is a 9,000 square foot collaborative workspace for sustainability and creativity focused people located at 128 West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver.

65_RedRoses

The evening kicked of with a welcome from Rebecca Peel, our social media director. Rebecca introduced the first plenary speakers, Nimisha Mukerji and Kat Dodds who talked about the experience with the 65_RedRoses project. Nimisha is the co-Director, of 65 Red Roses a documentary film. Kat is the founder of Hello Cool World, a communicate agency specializing grass roots campaigns for non-profits and independent films.

65_RedRoses is a documentary film on the lives of Eva Markvoort and her two online friends who all battled Cystic Fibrosis (CF). CF is a fatal genetic disease affecting the lungs and digestive system. The name “65 Roses” comes from what children with cystic fibrosis (CF) call their disease as the words are easier for them to pronounce.

Without fully realizing it, Eva Markvoort started a global campaign for organ donation by writing about her experiences with cystic fibrosis on her Live Journal site. Sadly, on March 27, 2010, while waiting for a second transplant, her breath ran out. She was 25. The documentary, website and campaign site is her legacy. 65_RedRoses aims to leave viewers with a new appreciation of life and the digital world. To keep up to date on the latest developments, search for #4Eva on Twitter.

With Glowing Hearts

Next up was Jon Ornery, the producer of With Glowing Hearts, and social media guru Kemp Edmonds, who spearheaded the social media efforts to raise funds and promote the film. With Glowing Hearts tells the story of the 2010 Winter Games’ effect on Vancouver from the perspective of people directly impacted by the Olympics: downtown eastside residents, bloggers, photographers, activists, proponents and opponents.

In order to complete the film, Jon, Kemp, and director Andrew Lavinge created the “Tweet and Toonie Torch Relay.” This is a crowd-sourced social media campaign to promote the film’s message and help raise the $10,000 needed to complete the film, $2 at a time. Special props were given to east-side resident and citizen journalist, April Smith.  April is still drawing attention to the film through her social media activism in the DTES.

HiVE Vancouver

The last plenary speaker was Jeremy Murphy, the man behind HiVE Vancouver, our hosts for the night. The HiVE is an up and coming sustainability and creativity co-working space in downtown Vancouver. It will be home to non-profit organizations, small businesses, social entrepreneurs and independent contractors all working in creative and sustainable industries.

The HiVE will provide co-workers with a great work space, awesome networking opportunities, and access to the knowledge, capital and resources that will help them project change. Check out Rebecca’s interview with Jeremy for more information on him and HiVE Vancouver.

You can’t project change without the right tools!

The second half of the evening was dedicated to workshops. There were two sessions of there concurrent workshops. Since I wasn’t alble to be three places at once. I’ll rely on some notes from my friend, Tracy Bains and the twitosphere. Here are some key takeaways from each workshop:

Being Strategic Using Twitter

Stephanie Michelle Scott of Wildfire Effect and Monica Hamburg led back to back workshops on Twitter basiscs. Their discussion was truly old school as Stephanie and Monica illustrated their points with stand up board twitter signs! Through their workshops, Stephanie and Monica created a few new social media converts, who will now go out and project their own change through social media!

Photograph by @masalapuri on TwicPic

Inside HootSuite

Kemp Edmonds led another set of back to back sessions on how to maximize what Hootsuite, a Twitter dashboard has to offer. Kemp offered his insider expertise on how to use Hootsuite to help even most the most advanced twitter user improve theri ability to project change Some of his most useful tips included how to use Hootsuite analytics tools, the geo-location search function and how to mass schedule tweets. You can find out more about these subjects and more at http://learn.hootsuite.com.

Transforming the dialogue: How questions & media can create change

Camille Jensen from Axiom News led this workshop. Axiom News is and organization “committed to sharing stories about movements making a difference.” Camille illustrated how the questions we ask will create thr stories we tel. She refered to Peter Block, a writer and consultant, who noted that: “If you want to change the world – or the culture – all you have to do is change the conversation.”

Camille also talked about generative journalism: telling positive stories to support positive change.

Photograph from @check_your_head on TwicPic

Taking offline community organizing online

Ajay Masala Puri led this session that was based on the question: What is the purpose of engaging on social media unless you can make a difference? His main take aways were to avoid the temptation of “over-institutionalising” your message and instead take complex issues and make them simple for your friends and followers to digest. Doing so will allow many more friend and followers to connect with your message.

Ajay suggests creating your ideas offline, take them online to gain momentum, then back offline for execution. He talked about how, by following thrice strategy he was able to leverage just 15 of his Facebook friends to attract thousands of people to an event.

Final Reflections

All in all this was an incredible event that taught something to everyone who attened, regardless of their level of social media knowledge. It was great to see people completely unfamiliar with social media, not only being invited to attend an event, but being welcomed and guided. It is always cool to see somebody learn what a # is for the first time.

Photograph from @smcyvr on YFrog

—Yuri @yuriartibise

Being a new writer/photographer in the social development scene, when Rebecca asked me to write a post on the event, I jumped at the chance.

I’ve been working a lot with Fair Trade Vancouver recently – an incredible organization. Fair Trade Vancouver will be responsible for putting on one of the largest pavilions at Epic Expo. Each year, Fair Trade steals the show with their ever-growing network of support. Be sure to check them out at the Vancouver Fair Trade Pavilion, which will feature some of the best business and organizations in the community. You’ll be able to see me there Saturday and Sunday where I’ll be providing information on Fair Trade and snapping photos of all the wonderful people and activities. Check out some of the photos from the Epic Expo and Fair Trade Vancouver mothers day event we hosted yesterday.

Check out all the pics from Fair Trade Vancouver’s “Epic” Mothers Day

While I’m at the Expo, you can be sure that I’ll stop by the Projecting Change booth where I’ll kick back and enjoy some of the new films that are screening for the 2011 Projecting Change Film Festival, AND I’ll also be sure to get a snapshot done in the projecting change photo booth. In addition to setting up a minnie movie theater Projecting Change will have a photo booth set up with old school movie props & a fun dress up bin – can’t wait to see the pictures!

At the event, there will be over 300 exhibitors ideas, entertainment, and shopping from the leading names in sustainable development. Discover which companies are leading the change in sustainable consumer goods and producing earth-friendly products without compromising style or function. Learn how to make sound choices when shopping for products and services that are better for the environment. Buy directly from the producers of these sustainable products and services and learn what makes them different. Hear leading experts on the EPIC Main Stage and learn how simple choices in your day-to-day life can make a big impact on the environment, your community and your health. See Vancouver’s top chefs create local, sustainable cuisine and sample some of the best foods and beverages in the world.

Also, make sure to see the event’s featured speakers , which include: George Stroumboulopoulos – Canadian journalism icon and host of the hit current events show “The Hour” (recently renamed ‘George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight’), which has earned 9 Gemini awards. Richard Louv – Author of the smash success book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Richard will launch the Canadian tour of his brand new book The Nature Principle: Human Restoration and The End of Nature-Deficit Disorder at EPIC.

EPIC will be held in the NEW Vancouver Convention Centre West building.
1055 Canada Place
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Phone: 604.689.8232
Toll-free: 1.866.785.8232 (North America only)
Fax: 604.647.7232
Email: info@epicexpo.com
Friday May 13 1pm – 8pm
Saturday May 14 11am – 7pm
Sunday May 15 11am – 5pm

Buy tickets online https://tickets.epicexpo.com/ and save $3!

Hope to see you down there!

-Bryce @BryceTarling

Almost full roster of the speakers at the Great Turning

The day opened with the charismatic Maureen Jack-LaCroix asking us to “meet at the confluence.” They were fitting words for the day’s events, and a reminder to approach each other with respect and awareness as we navigated topics ranging from emergency preparedness to oil tankers to living sans plastic. After welcoming the delegates, she asked the community leaders to introduce themselves and to describe their topic area in fewer than three words alongside a gesture or sound effect of our choosing. A creative bunch like us guaranteed some creative – amusing – gestures. Charming movement builder Ajay Masala Puri of RangiChangi Roots who I’d met at an event just two days prior graciously agreed to introducing me and my topic area of seed saving and seed sovereignty as I stood smiling awkwardly at a crowd of engaged and engaging delegates. The energy in the room was palpable and after a few snaps of our group, we were well on our way to listening to the day’s first brilliant speaker, Tyee Bridge.

Action: Tyee Bridge and the Wild Salmon Circle

“You are brilliant – and the Earth is hiring.”

Tyee Bridge, a Vancouver-based writer, introduced us to the concept of the study-action circle and spoke of citizen engagement as a missing part of the social change ecosystem. He stated the need for a way to deal with the structural apathy that has in effect steadily eroded activism since the 1970s and noted that the open, creative, and sharing nature of action circles could very well fulfill people’s needs to express and act on their concerns. This was the hook I’d been hoping for and I immediately took to the idea of how better to create both sustained dialogue and action. He described tongue-in-cheek his struggle with his personal “exploding head syndrome” and how out of a meeting with three others he had met at the Great Turning Unconference in 2009 (all of them, including himself, “non-activist types”) emerged the Wild Salmon Circle, an action circle which organized five rallies around the common thread and concern for salmon. Throughout Tyee’s presentation, I was pleased to hear him mention Joanna Macy, a renowned eco-philosopher and activist, author, and scholar on general systems theory, deep ecology, and Buddhism. The Great Turning initiative, essentially a shift from industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization, can be attributed to her and her work.

Tyee’s talk made for the perfect segway into the Dialogue Circles. Before reflecting on Tyee’s words, however, we were introduced to the “Community Agreements” which people seemed to embrace whole-heartedly throughout the day: (1) Listen to understand, (2) Be authentic, (3) Step up, step back, (4) Be concise, (5) Enjoy ourselves. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that that was especially true of the last point.

Turning Talks

After our brief but lively Dialogue Circle came the Turning Talks which afforded us the opportunity to hear from three to four community leaders. I was reacquainted with my colleague Ross Moster of Village Vancouver (VV) whose topic on “Neighbourhood Food Networks” was just as engaging this time as the last six or so times I’d listened to it. Ross has a way of engendering interest in everything that he’s passionate about and it was a treat to hear him speak on VV’s grassroots approach to negotiating the reality of peak oil with that of our communities – to not only adapt to the increasingly complex world we live in but to create resilient and cohesive communities as well. VV is a part of the Transition Town Network and works as a hub for bridging interests and working towards sustainable and thriving bioregions and communities through inspired action and shared leadership. Food is but one focus of VV’s extensive network and happens to be the most active one currently as members are, not surprisingly, aware of its relationship to health, economy, and all aspects of life itself.

Turning Talks in full force at the Great Turning

Our table also met with Jeff Chiu of BC Hydro whose topic on “Community Energy Conservation” harkened back to Ross’ talk: the community’s needs must inform the development of new projects, the improvement on existing ones, and the reimagining of systems and structures themselves. During the last portion of our Table Talks session, we were graced by Miriam Palacios’ presence, passion, and knowledge around women and global food justice. Miriam is the Policy and Outreach Officer for Oxfam Canada who I’d met several years ago when documenting Oxfam’s inaugural Music4Change fundraising event. To her mind, as well as mine, food justice is having the right to food. She described a global food system that is fundamentally broken as over one billion people remain malnourished. Key to the massive reform of this system, Miriam surmises, is the role of women as critical social actors; in Africa, for instance, women are responsible for 80% of food produced.

Before we could really digest all the new tidbits of information gathered from the Turning Talks, we were asked to reassemble for the morning’s Table Dialogue session. Not having yet been able to attend one of the Vancouver Food Policy Council meetings (members meet once a month) despite Ross Moster’s insistence – encouragement – I decided to meet with Joanne Bays who engaged us in discussion around local food in institutions.

After a fantastic vegetarian lunch and Buckman Coe serenading us with the line, “the apocalypse is not guaranteed,” the afternoon portion of the day was led by none other than Vancouver Deputy Mayor Andrea Reimer. Along with commentary on Vancouver as the “City of Destiny” (her favourite image of Vancouver) and community knitting together over food like marshmallow salad, chop suey, and Red Rose tea (all at the same potluck), during her lively presentation Andrea posited three questions to participants: (1) When you’re fighting against something, what is it that you’re fighting for? (2) Who is it that you’re fighting for? Are they standing next to you, especially as leaders? (3) What future is it that you’re fighting for? The only thing we know is that the future is inevitable. I thought that her expertise and insights into community resilience resonated very much with Village Vancouver’s work and it was heartening to receive confirmation of food as a means of connection.

Andrea Reimer and her favourite photo of Vancouver: Vancouver as City of Destiny

My afternoon Table Dialogue with Ajay Masala Puri of RangiChangi Roots paralleled Andrea Reimer’s talk in that it was chock full of enthusiasm, intrigue, and colour. RangiChangi Roots is an organization that aims to build bridges between the environmental movement and cultural communities in the belief that transformation to solve climate issues will not happen unless inclusivity is realized. Ajay believes that not only should connections be intercultural, but intergenerational as well as interdisciplinary. A common thread I’d been noticing all day was the idea of celebration and dialogue through food. One of the ideas that Ajay wishes to pursue with RangiChangi this year is the nomination of what he calls, “eco-champions”; he doesn’t simply want to include tried and true environmental activists, scholars and the like – he also wants to identify and celebrate those individuals whose actions can be described as sustainable, without necessarily intending to be so.

Our third and last keynote speaker of the day was Rex Weyler, co-founder of Greenpeace International and Hollyhock Education Centre on Cortes Island. As the “Consciousness” keynote speaker, Rex asked us to consider the idea of the Shambhala Warrior as relevant to the present. In short, the Shambhala teachings were founded on the premise that there exists a basic human wisdom that can help to solve the world’s problems and that the intersections of fearlessness with gentleness and of mindfulness with action cannot be ignored. Like Tyee Bridge, Rex touched on the work of Joanna Macy who surmised that compassion which would move us to act on behalf of other beings and insight which would allow us to see the interconnectedness of all things would have to be considered wholly necessary. In acting with conviction but not aggression, Rex ended his talk by encouraging us to help our culture understand what it does not want to understand but not as individuals because we must realize that we aren’t individuals and I couldn’t agree more on the importance of this.

Action Circles

Finally, just as my voice started to return, I joined up with Chanel Ly and Peggy Lam (fellow community leaders whose talk centered around Windermere Secondary’s School Garden) in an Action Circle discussion on how to bridge intercultural and intergenerational gaps with the environment – sound familiar? Apparently Ajay and his colleagues haven’t been the only ones to ponder this conundrum and events like these speak to the importance of not only creating the dialogue necessary to move forward various issues and causes but to connect with those who may very well share your concerns. Chanel and Peggy’s Action Circle seemingly gathered all the “youth” in the room – all 10 of us. An exaggeration of course, but the group was indeed mostly composed of the youngest in the room. In the short time we were able to dialogue with each other, we shared our various challenges and experiences in trying to navigate the question of how to encourage thinking around the environment with our peers, our parents, and our communities. Thankfully, with the help of Metta, one of the key Be the Change Earth Alliance facilitators, we organized a contacts list for connecting again in the near future.

By this time (perhaps a few hours prior to the unconference’s end, actually), I was feeling completely knackered and ready for some bed rest. Having a voice would have been ideal for an event such as this, but I don’t and can’t regret my only option of listening and quickly chiming in via words scribbled on to note cards. It was incredibly valuable to have been a delegate at the Great Turning and I have such gratitude to Maureen and her fantastic team for having been invited to speak and participate. Given the sheer number of community leaders, delegates, topics, and talks, I thought the unconference was incredibly well-organized and well-executed, and what’s more, despite not being able to communicate verbally, I was able to make some important connections. Rarely has an event left me feeling refreshed and encouraged to do and be more, these sentiments still resonating with me as I write this.

Won’t you meet me at the confluence?

Amy (@amyyyyyt)
(Photo Credits: Paula Poortinga)

We innovate because operating as we have is no longer an option. More so than ever, we innovate because the problems we face today require immediate action and change – not just to create and evolve as a species – but for our survival at large. Surrey-White Rock MLA Gordon Hogg is an innovator.

Gordon’s extensive work in creating social change spans from little league coach, to Parliamentary Secretary for Non-profit Partnerships, to his current PhD research focused on how public policy can positively impact the subjective sense of well being. When I sat down to discuss social innovation with Gordon Hogg I was inspired. When I reflected on what he said post-interview I was beyond inspired. I was excited for Vancouver and our future as a leading city of innovation.

Gordon is the only MLA in Canada to have been designated a Parliamentary Secretary for Social Innovation and in February of this year he interviewed and selected a 16-member advisory council of leading innovators in this field. Vancouver is on the verge of major cultural shift even being referenced as “Canada’s Silicon Valley” by Tim Draimin executive director of Social Innovation Generation (SiG) in Toronto.

I asked Gordon a few questions about why Vancouver is a leading city for social innovation, what social innovation really means, how his PhD research will impact Vancouver, as well as where he views the future of social innovation within the nonprofit sector? I hope you enjoyed his answers as much as I did.

Social innovation, in its most simple form, as described by Gordon Hogg, is “using the power of the market place to address social needs.” Through the creation of new government policy which remove the current impediments holding nonprofits in unsustainable funding models we can allow great innovations within the field.

Proud to be an innovator and a Vancouverite – I hope you are too!

Rebecca @rebeccaapeel