Township of Esquimalt Recruiting Members For Vacancies On Commissions & Committees
The Township is looking for enthusiastic individuals interested in serving the community as a member of the Advisory Planning Commission, Design Review Committee, Environmental Advisory Committee, or Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee are encouraged to apply.... Read more
Helping Those in Need
The City of Victoria’s Business Hub staff have compiled a comprehensive list of resources for businesses at victoria.ca/bizresources. Donate to Boxes of Hope. Every $10 donated provides a warm, healthy meal to someone in need and supports the local restaurant... Read more
Online Educational Resources To Connect Kids With Nature
Take a breather and connect with nature! Check out the Sierra Club’s Google Classroom (code XULWFC2) and website for tons of fun nature-based activities for the whole family! These new resources are not only helpful for parents, but for caregivers and educators... Read more
Breathing Possibilities
Here is a poem I wrote some time ago which I hope will inspire you during these times: You can talk about yesterday or talk about tomorrow You can talk about the falling dollar, talk about your sorrow You can talk about chemicals and how they’re poisoning the earth... Read more
Change & Creativity: Creating Possibilities out of Chaos & Uncertainty
In this article I share some tools and strategies to support you to embrace change during times of chaos and uncertainty that are underpinned by the belief that “embracing change is a creative process that opens us up to new possibilities”.
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Resilience Means Bouncing Forward, Not Back to the Way We Were Before
This concern with the need to protect and restore the economy plays into a narrative about resilience, usually framed as the ability of people and communities to recover, to bounce back to where they were before the event ever happened.
Read moreA Message From Robert Bateman
In these times of social distancing, the Bateman Foundation is working hard to adapt and continue our mission of connecting people to nature using art and offers an ever-expanding digital resource at https://batemanfoundation.org/online/ that includes virtual tours of... Read more
Essential Services in BC during COVID-19 Crisis
The Government of BC has confirmed a list of essential services, and some non profits are included in this list. “Essential services are those daily services essential to preserving life, health, public safety and basic societal functioning. They are the... Read more
Volunteers Needed to Help Feed Community Members Most in Need
We are reaching out in hopes that you can help us. We are trying to identify community partners to help us coordinate meal distribution sites to feed our community members most in need. The Downtown Victoria Business Association (DVBA) is working with the Coalition to... Read more
A Poem by Richard Hendrick: Lockdown
This poem is titled Lockdown, written by Brother Richard Hendrick from Ireland. Yes there is fear. Yes there is isolation. Yes there is panic buying. Yes there is sickness.Yes there is even death. But, They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise You can hear... Read moreSocial Change Requires an Open Mind
This is a video I created out of a PowerPoint presentation created by a social change movement that I’m part of. I invite you to take the time to watch it. I hope it sheds light on my state of agitation, and why you too might be frustrated with the widespread inertia... Read more
Neighbourhood Markets Open During Pandemic!
The coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, and while many despair and are living in fear, we attempt to ease their burden by bringing a little hope and peace in providing free produce and groceries.
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Laid Off and Looking For Work? Chamber Job Board Lists Employers Looking For Workers
After mandated restaurant closures today (now take out and delivery only) we know there will be more people looking for work. Pharmacies, grocery stores, island health and others are hiring right now. At time of this writing there are 37 jobs listed on the Jobs Board... Read more
Spread Compassion – Stop Diseases
This short report describes the special problems that contagious diseases such as COVID-19 present to people experiencing homelessness, and the organizations that serve them. Homeless people tend to be vulnerable to infections due to a combination daily stress, poor... Read more
50 Ways to Stay SANE During the Coronavirus Pandemic
How can we stay strong during this crisis? With love, careful planning, and care for others – and total lockdown. When we emerge, huge numbers of people will hopefully want a more caring, cooperative approach to life, and a new kind of economy, based less on greed, selfishness and the destruction of Nature, and more on the economics of kindness.
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Nature in the Heart of the City Map
Here’s a fun cartoon colouring map that brings the outside in with a scavenger hunt for locating and learning about the nature found in the heart of downtown Victoria. Created in collaboration with the Robert Bateman Centre, this map features the talents of... Read more
The Vibrating Matrix
There is current that flows beneath all form. It moves imperceptibly. It is the flow of Spirit, that which creates, sustains, dissolves, learns from and informs all things. It is called by many names: The Divine Matrix, Indra’s net, the Unifying Field, God, the... Read more
And the People Stayed Home – A Poem
This poem is written by Kitty O’Meara. And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed. And... Read moreMountain Mover
Forty three years ago now I felt called to take a month off in the summer where I could be alone and write. What happened almost instantly was that I began seeing for the first time visions on paper and as soon as each vision came there was a poem to accompany it. By... Read moreBeauty During Madness
Hi everyone! I am writing you today in the hopes to bring you some comfort during this time of madness. My love of gardening brought me to watching a lot of rural Chinese people (on YouTube). Their vast knowledge of gardening and the wild veggies/fruits/herbs around... Read more
Artist Spotlight: Diego Narvaez
I work from the experience of place in a specific time to paint natural and urban landscapes. From Antarctica to Mexico City, Iceland to the West Coast of North America, I am interested in experiencing places that are in continuous transformation.
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Standing Up to Help Secure Our Children’s Futures
With respect to poverty, the commission states: “The evidence is clear: early investments in children’s health, education and development have benefits that compound throughout the child’s lifetime.” But they note that many children live in poverty and there is a gap between what we know children need and what they get.
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Sensorial Becomings: Climate Pedagogies With Children
As more than mere representations of ‘humanity’s future’, children are active participants in everyday constructions of now and future worlds. Created by children, educators and pedagogists at UVic Child Care Services, Sensorial Becomings emerges out of our... Read more
Extinction Project
Being a bridge between 2 cultures I feel the most important thing I can do is, bring awareness to our climate crisis not just environmentally but also through indigenous cultures. The world needs to come together in this time of need and the avenue Is art.
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The Power of One Voice – Artist Poulami Banerjee Spotlight
Painting is a form of language which helps me to voice my outlook towards certain issues that stir me emotionally. I feel that I have expressed myself to the viewer aptly through my art only when it moves the audience or evokes an emotional response in them.
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Saanich Endorses One Planet Island Declaration Motion
Thanks to the District of Saanich Mayor and Council for unamimously passing a resolution to the Association of Vancouver Island Coastal Communities to “encourage municipal governments to take steps to engage their citizens in reducing their ecological footprint by... Read more
Skaana Podcast: David Suzuki on Our Past, Present & Future
Dr. David Suzuki (@DavidSuzuki) is Canada’s most iconic environmentalist and even in his eighties, he’s still fighting for our future. Skaana celebrates the end of the decade by recycling our premiere episode where we talked about fake facts, toxic whales and taking... Read more
Garry Oak Comic Strip
A love of Garry Oaks and their Ecosystem compelled me to find a simple way to show my appreciation. Maybe through shared laughter it may bring more awareness.
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Wet’Suwet’en Overview
On December 31, 2019, BC Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church extended Coastal GasLink’s injunction order from an interim injunction to an interlocutory injunction. Members of the Wet’suwet’en nation have been stewarding and protecting their traditional territories... Read more
Faith in a Sustainable Future is Vital
I recently touched on the interest among local faith communities in the challenge of becoming a One Planet region. But that local interest is part of a wider national and global movement across many faiths that links concern with ecological change — especially but not... Read more
We’re Spending Our Children’s Inheritance
Photo: Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, says the world is on track for a temperature increase as much as 3 to 5 C. Photograph By TWITTER Courtesy of the Times Colonist No doubt you have seen — perhaps you even have — a... Read more
There are three reasons why cell phones should be banned from our schools
Parents have been robbed of their right to protect their children from the mandatory exposure to microwave radiation in our schools.
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How to Make Studying Interesting to Kids
Making studying and learning as much fun as possible isn’t an easy task, but it’s absolutely necessary if you want to help your kids. Not everything will go smoothly and there are bound to be obstacles along the way, but you need to be persistent.
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The Nature Fix – Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams
“I’m no tree hugger but The Nature Fix made me want to run outside and embrace the nearest Oak. Not for the tree’s sake, but mine.” – Eric Weiner
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Creative Climate Messaging
Waste Land aptly describes the experience I had of visiting an incredibly metaphor rich exhibition space in a house slated for demolition on Fifth Street in Victoria, BC. I didn’t know what to expect, but was in awe of the curation, effort and creativity expressed for... Read more
Waste Land: Climate Anxiety Haunted House Brings New Art Form to Victoria
This is brilliant. If you live in Victoria, seize the chance to visit before it closes on Sunday! – Guy Dauncey — This is the first time that a home slated for the wrecking ball has been used as an exhibition space in Victoria. Aryze Development has given... Read more
Working Together to Rethink Waste – The CRD Wants To Hear From You!
The Capital Regional District (CRD) is developing a new Solid Waste Management Plan—the plan that guides how the region will manage solid waste in the coming years, including recyclables, compostable material and garbage from homes, businesses, institutions, and... Read more
Esquimalt Park To Receive 450 New Trees & Shrubs
These native plants will add to the biodiversity in the park, as well as increase tree coverage in the region. There will be 23 species planted in total, including Garry oaks, Douglas fir…
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Affordable Meeting Spaces
The HUB – a free space on 829 Fort St. for booking community meetings, seats 25. Free, but subject to interruptions / walk-ins from the street. www.thehubvictoriabc.org or e-mail thehubvictoriabc@gmail.com. Greater Victoria Regional Library (public meeting rooms... Read more
Victoria, BC Climate Strike
Estimates are that about 20,000 people attended today’s climate action strike and march with parts of Government, Belleville, Douglas and Fort Street closed off to traffic as the group moved from the lawns of the Legislature up Douglas to Fort Street. People of... Read more
Climate Action Teach In and Rally
Despite heavy rain, about 300 people, mostly teachers, parents and youth, turned out Monday for the Climate Action Teach In and Rally at the Legislature. There was a definite buzz of energy with connections and conversations made and visits to a variety of exhibitors,... Read more
Global Guide on DRR, Children & Youth Released for Public Review
Child and youth are often negatively impacted by climate change—in ways that threaten their rights. Working with them as agents for change in their communities reduces risks and enables adaptation. Learn more in a new global guide: https://bit.ly/2mSv7CR.
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Can You Imagine? – A Poem By Mary Oliver
CAN YOU IMAGINE? by Mary Oliver For example, what the trees do not only in lightening storms or the watery dark of a summer’s night or under the white nets of winter but now, and now, and now – whenever we’re not looking. Surely you can’t imagine they don’t dance,... Read more
Care about the Colquitz? Elk/Beaver Lake are the head waters of the Colquitz
This event will provide an opportunity to learn more about water quality issues at Elk/Beaver Lake and how you can support the development of a watershed management plan. Tasty, light refreshments will be provided! Join the CRD and the community on Wednesday, July 31... Read more
One Planet Saanich
The Creatively United for the Planet Society has been involved since last year in the One Planet Saanich Initiative, with 12 local schools, businesses and other organizations. One planet living is a vision of the world in which people enjoy healthy, happy lives,... Read more
Putting Good Money To Work
Thank you to the incredible Vancity team for their support for CreativelyUnited.org, where local solutions for lighter living are shared 24/7. Vancity shares our common goals and values, as a result, we are creating more videos and a special limited edition magazine... Read more
Summer Markets Guide
We are so fortunate to have a plethora of wonderful fresh locally grown organic produce to choose from. Here’s a list of some of the most popular markets in the region, many of which, have wonderful live music and lots of local artisans to add to the flavour.
Read moreGreen New Deal a Pact for the Future
As of May 5, the pact is endorsed by 70 organizations from different sectors across Canada. There are nine in British Columbia, including the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, and many individuals, a high proportion of whom are leading musicians and actors.
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