Are You Interested in a Cowichan Repair Café?

You’ve heard of the 3R’s…..Reduce, Re-use, Recycle. Are interested in adding Repair to this mantra?

Are you a fixer?    Do you have items you would rather learn to fix than throw “away”?

RC-logo-smToss it away? No way!

Repair cafés enlist volunteer fixers to help community members fix broken household items and teach them basic repair skills.
They help shift us from a throw-away to fix-it society! (I know many of you have been hungry for this type of solution.)

Most of the fixers are hobbyists who enjoy helping others and want to keep items out of the landfill.  Fixers can repair computers, toasters, lamps, chairs, clothes, jewelry, books and more!

Let us know if you are interested in being a fixer, helping to organize a Repair Café day or interested in getting help with fixing something – Reply to info@transitioncowichan.org if a Cowichan Repair Café interests you!

 

Do We Have the Wisdom to Survive? Film & Discussion – Thurs, Feb 11th, 7pm Cowichan Estuary Nature Centre, Hecate Park, Cowichan Bay

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Winter Open House 4:30 – 6pm Thurs, Dec 17th

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Cowichan Climate March – Nov 29th 3pm, Duncan City Square

The start time for the march has been changed to 3pm for more light and hopefully warmth. Join us at Duncan  City Square.

Join us on Sunday November 29th at 4pm in Duncan City Square as we gather to set our collective intentions for Mother Earth's well-being as global climate negotiations begin in Paris. We will send out our peaceful intentions and loving prayers to all who are being adversely affected by Climate Change here & around the world that we may act together, locally and globally, to protect them from harm's way. Let's come together and join hands & hearts in solidarity to create a world committed to addressing climate change and filled with compassion and caring for each other!!

Join us on Sunday November 29th at 3pm in Duncan City Square as we gather to set our collective intentions for Mother Earth’s well-being as global climate negotiations begin in Paris. We will send out our peaceful intentions and loving prayers to all who are being adversely affected by Climate Change here & around the world that we may act together, locally and globally, to protect them from harm’s way. Let’s come together and join hands & hearts in solidarity to create a world committed to addressing climate change and filled with compassion and caring for each other!!

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‘This Changes Everything’ Film & Discussion

Film and Discussion Sunday, November 8th 2pm at Island Savings  Centre in Duncan

Join us for Avi Lewis’ film “This Changes Everything’ based on Naomi Klein’s book of the same name, followed by small group discussions this Sunday, November 8th at 2pm in Heritage Hall at Island Savings Centre in Duncan. Admission by Donation.

Climate Change Film & Discussion: Thurs, Sept 24th, 7pm, Sylvan United Church Hall, Mill Bay (next to Frances Kelsey High School)

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One Cowichan Solar Tour

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Cowichan Valley Residents Challenged to Eat Local for 24 Hours on June 16th

EatLocalChallengeThis coming Tuesday, June 16th, Transition Cowichan and Cowichan Green Community invite Cowichan residents to take up the challenge to eat only local, Vancouver Island grown, raised or locally fished food for 24 hours as part of the Valley’s 4th Annual Eat Local Challenge. You can sign up at: www.facebook.com/events/1740883392805064/ or at the CGC store.

“Many Cowichan residents have been taking steps to eat more local food,” says Transition Cowichan’s Jane Kilthei.  “The Challenge is a chance to take the plunge and see whether we can source all that we eat for 24 hours as close to home as possible.  The ongoing drought in California is sobering,” Kilthei says. “It’s not just about rising food prices.  We’re learning that with a changing climate and dwindling aquifers we can’t count on California to continue supplying food to BC year round.”

“It comes down to taking control of our own food production again,” says Cowichan Green Community Executive Director Judy Stafford. “We can’t wait for any more of a crisis than this.  We’ve got great agricultural potential here in the Cowichan Valley and this is a great opportunity to think about how we’re going to scale up local production.  The 24-hour Eat Local Challenge is a wonderful way to put growers and eaters together and experience what’s possible.”

June is a great time to give eating local a try.  We’ve got the Saturday Farmers’ Market in Duncan, and a number of smaller farmers’ markets mid-week, lots of farm gate sales, shops and restaurants that feature local fare, and many of our own back yards producing food.

Transition Cowichan takes a leaf out of writer Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, who describes her family’s journey to eating locally.  As a part of the Challenge every family member is allowed to pick one small non-local item the family can eat for the day.  009Maybe you can’t imagine going 24 hours without a cup of coffee, so that can be your choice, and you can go for fair trade, locally roast beans. Perhaps you’ve got a favorite oil and vinegar dressing that you can made with local herbs and vinegar, but the olive oil comes from off island.  But, if you’re thinking salt,there’s actually great Vancouver Island salt available locally (see packet in the photo).  The idea is to experience the wide variety of tasty, healthy food that can be sourced locally without the carbon footprint associated with standard shipped-in supermarket fare, to support local producers, and imagine what we can all do to increase food security on Vancouver Island.

Cowichan residents can sign up for the “Eat Local Challenge” on the Transition Cowichan Facebook page or on paper at the Cowichan Green Community store. And if you’re already a local foodie, the challenge is to set yourself a stretch goal and see if you can source everything you eat on June 16th from right here in the Cowichan Valley.  It is doable!

To celebrate the day everyone is invited to bring a local dish to an all-local potluck dinner as a part of Cowichan Green Community’s AGM on the evening of June 16th from 4:30 – 7:30pm at the Christian Reform Church in Duncan. Ann-Gord-Baird-photoThis year’s guest speakers with be Anne and Gord Baird who walk the talk of local growing and eating and overall sustainable living at their home, Eco-Sense – which has been called the “World’s Greenest Modern House”.  Admission is by donation. Hope you’ll join us!

Collaboration for Greater Impact: Tools and Approaches to Address Complex Community Issues

Transition Cowichan is a part of an evolving local collaboration among diverse stakeholders looking at the complex problem of how to strengthen social cohesion & our responses to climate change in the Cowichan Region.  Here’s the issue as we see it:

image005Our community will experience increasing stress from the increasing impacts of climate destabilization. Vulnerable citizens, such as children, poor and frail seniors, the homeless and low income families with fewer resources and less mobility, will be especially challenged to respond and adapt. To develop adaptive solutions that meet the needs of everyone in the Cowichan, we need to work together, strengthening our ability to co-operate within & between sectors & among neighbors, collaborating across local governments, First Nations, social benefit and environmental non-profits, business, faith groups & others.” Collective Impact is the approach we are working with in approaching this complex issue.  Check out the Collaboration’s  Facebook Page.

Related to this initiative on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 , there was a public presentation and discussion on Collective Impact – an Approach to Addressing Complex Problems, at Island Savings Centre.  And on November 3, 2015 there was a public lecture “A Conversation on Climate Change: The Inconvenient Truths of Our Time & How to Talk About Them” and discussion with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Climate Justice Director Marc Lee and communications specialist Cara Pike at at VIU Cowichan Campus lecture theatre.

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4th Annual Cowichan Eat Local Challenge & Potluck

Eat Local Challenge poster 2015