The Latest from BC Healthy Communities | December 2015

The BCHC team and Board of Directors took time to celebrate our tenth anniversary at a recent board meeting. It has been our great honour to work with communities across BC over the past decade. We look forward to continuing to build capacity for healthier communities in 2016 and beyond! BC Healthy Communities Society would like to wish you and your families a healthy and joyful holiday season.

Pictured above: Christine Callihoo, Jodi Mucha, Mikiko Mori, Trevor Hancock, Jennifer Nichols, Scott Graham,  Sarah Graham, Michelle Sandsmark, Judy Brownoff, Sue McKinnon, Celeste Zimmer, Gagan Leekha, Claudia de Haan, Stacy Barter Not pictured: Erica Crawford, Deirdre Goudriaan, Ali Grant, Kerri Klein, Paul Pallan.

BCHC Transitions

BCHC Facilitator and Program Manager, Kerri Klein, is about to welcome a new member to her family and has left for a maternity leave returning in 2016. Please join us in sending Kerri our congratulations to her expanding family. Find out who to contact about the PlanH program here.

Food Forward

How sustainable is our food environment and culture? Are there better ways our food industry partners can work together? These questions and more were explored at the 2015 Check Up - Food Forward Forum; an event aiming to bridge the gap in the local food systems network. More about the event here.

Innoweave Implementation Funding

Innoweave Implementation Funding helps organizations build a social innovation implementation plan with a coach of their choice. Organizations that have attended a workshop across any of Innoweave's nine modules are welcome to apply for Implementation Funding. More here.
 

Your Happiness Counts! 

Laura Hannant wears many hats – from small-scale market gardener, to community organizer, to Development Services Facilitator with Kootenay Employment Services… oh, and she’s also often referred to as “the happiness lady". More about Laura and the Happiness Index here.

Increasing Our Ability to Evaluate Complexity

In this article, Milton Friesen responds to a report and webinar ‘Evaluating Complexity" by suggesting two more key considerations in the 'Questions and Skills Supplement' outlined in the report. He suggests we also need orienting questions and skills required. Read the full article here.

Is your Community An Energy Leader? 

Deadline: December 15, 2015
The Community Energy Leadership Program has launched a Call for Applications for round two funding available for projects in 2016/17. The Call is available to all local governments and First Nation communities. Find out more.

Apply to be the Next BC Rural Summit Host!

Deadline: Februrary 1, 2016 | all day
The BC Rural Summit brings together concerned rural citizens from across the province to discuss issues affecting rural communities. Interested in hosting the 9th BC Rural Communities Summit in the spring of 2016? Download the RFP.

Nothing About Us Without Us:  Practices and Tools to Build Community Engagement and Participation

Date: Februrary 4, 2016 | 1:30-3:30 PST
Save the Date for the next Citizen Series Webinar. These sessions invite dialogue from northern communities on topics that improve health outcomes.

Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back

What causes one system to break down and another to rebound? In this book, the authors show how resilience is a powerful lens through which we can assess major issues afresh: from business planning to social develop­ment, from urban planning to national energy security. Get the first chapter here.