Category Archives: Village Vancouver

Connections.

Our universe is made consists of many connections that exists between the tiniest particles to the largest ones. Every day life itself is filled with connections between ourselves, other people, and even the earth we stand on. These connections form our relationships, and our values. Utilization of these connections can be a truly empowering process in which true balance can occur between different things, peace can be achieved. Group 11 and their community partner, Village Vancouver’s FED-AP, understand the power of these connections as they work together to bring communities of Vancouver together to encourage a more food resilient society.

Group 11 helped with Village Vancouver’s FED-AP and their action plan which intends to bring Vancouver from a high energy usage state to a low energy usage state. The did this in part by volunteering at a Village Vancouver event called Neighbour Savour. Neighbour Savour is an event that encourages the community to share foods and recipes together in a potluck type format, and tin support of local artists, seed saving, composting, and waste-free meals. The potluck was designed for any Vancouver resident and each attendee was encouraged to bring something to share at the special dinner. Village Vancouver rented a hall and provided entertainment in variety of forms as well as beer. Group 11 recalls helping at this event “very rewarding” as they were able to assist to make this event a huge success with over 300 people attending! This event is sure to be remembered and have long lasting impacts in the form of community awareness and participation.

In reflection, group 11 recognizes that the exposure to LFS 250 and 350 have opened their eyes on the benefits and impacts of community involvement, particularly the effectiveness of CBL methodology. CBL gave them first hand experience and made the experience truly unique for them, personally. In communicating with group 11, they commented how much they appreciated the time spent volunteering at the Community Potluck Dinner hosted by FED-AP. Setting up and cleaning up allowed group 11 to be present throughout the entire event and watch people interact with each other. Group 11 comments on how the potluck facilitated a sense of community and allowed people to mingle and meet each other. As the night went on, people volunteered to get on stage and play music while some even gave salsa dancing lessons on the side. In a closing remark group 11 says “It felt good to have contributed to something that allowed people to connect with and appreciate each other. I hope strengthening community ties will significantly contribute to sustainability and reduce our energy intake as a society”. Indeed, the power of connections.

`rtang
EDIT: Great news from the group, photos from their affiliate groups will be posted soon.

November 26, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Group 9: Village Vancouver Transition Society

As it is my job to bring the various projects in LFS together and create that network and sense of connectivity, it is also group 9’s job to connect the various projects in Village Vancouver. Village Vancouver is part of a global movement called Transition Town aimed to reducing foil fuels, so everything is as local as it could get. These projects are situated in Kitsilano. Anybody is welcome to join these initiatives because anyone can make a difference. As witnessed by group 9, everyone seems to have different expertise in different things but they are all pieces of a greater puzzle that pieces together. “A lot of the people seemed really talented, which is amazing” as one of the members expressed to me their admiration for the interactions amongst the individuals that are involved.

Some of these individual projects and initiatives include community gardens, farmers markets and community pot locks. The involvement within these projects is extremely diversified; people of all ages, all ethnicities and demographics are involved.

But group 9 did face some unforeseen limitations that they believe may have hindered the effectiveness of their project. Some members felt that they were not given enough time to connect to the community, to feel a part of the community. And others felt that the community partners needed to be committed to working with the groups. Many groups faced communication difficulties and hopefully that will be improved for all LFS 350 projects next year.

-H

November 19, 2012Permalink Leave a comment

Village Vancouver Transition Society

Group 10

Project Goal:

Identifying the existing food assets in the Marpole community by looking at food related organizations in the community. They aim to create connections, list the food assets and map them for their community partner. They want to start a food network by connecting Village Vancouver to the Marpole food community to allow for Village Vancouver to make the food assests more resilient and provide aid.

The Journey:

Group 10 has had many ups and downs. They started out working with Village Vancouver however their research project didn’t initially have any research involved in it and was therefore rejected after they presented their CBEL proposal. The group really liked their original project and was disappointed when it fell apart however they began working with Eduardo instead. The transition was a difficult one. Fate stepped in and reintroduced their community partner into their lives when a few group members ran into him at the Vancouver Food Policy meeting. He wasn’t aware that they weren’t going to be working with him anymore so the group members felt extremely awkward and were furiously whispering to each other during the meeting trying to figure out if they should just quietly leave. Eventually they made contact with him and informed him that their original project was about to be sacked because it lacked a research aspect. They were able to work out a new project with him after discussing things for half an hour and were back on track to working with Village Vancouver! They are now on their way to achieving their research goals.

Group Dynamic:

This group consists of a collection of strong personalities, different work styles, and has had to deal with lots of compromise due to busy school schedules. Many of the members are interested in furthering their studies with Village Vancouver through directed studies. Their biggest challenge has been communicating with their community partner and deciding on the boundaries of their project to ensure tangible results. They have had lots of help from their TA and their break out room peers! They’ve had a rough start but feel like they are on the road to accomplishing their goals and have used the hardships to become even better at working together and feel more equipped to dealing with similar problems in real life situations.

November 18, 2012Permalink Leave a comment