If you are interested in taking the course in 2010 contact Stef McLachlan at mclachla@cc.umanitoba.ca

In case you missed it, what have we been talking about on air?  In our first show we addressed the theme of food justice – what is it?  how can it be addressed in Manitoba?  what are the barriers that are preventing it from happening?  We were joined by Kreesta Doucette and Raquel Koenig of Food Matters Manitoba and by Kimlee Wong, an activist on indigenous issues, particularly regarding food and children.

Our second show took on the topic of environmental justice.  Our guests included Jeff Masuda (a professor at the University of Manitoba with extensive experience working in urban contexts in Vancouver and Toronto on environmental justice issues), Misty Potts-Sanderson (a PhD student from the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation in Alberta), and Colin Anderson (a PhD student from rural Manitoba, currently living and researching in Oregon).

The coming weeks include many exciting topics:  the northern fishery, hydro development, the Growing Local conference, and much more!  So take some time, give us a listen on air or online, and let us know what you think!  We’re always open to suggestions for new shows.

Instead, people from this “core” neighbourhood began meeting and organizing themselves. Our low-income community is full of human capital; rich in creativity, resourcefulness, resiliency and a variety of skills.  We held community wide safety meetings, completed a safety audit, began neighbourhood patrols, gave presentations at city hall and supported a local agency’s application for a safety officer position. Refusing to hide in fear in our homes, paranoid of each other, we decided to reclaim our community.  Recently, with assistance from the newly hired safety officer and a greening coordinator, residents organized a community celebration where our neighbour was stabbed a few years earlier.

On Sunday, October 18^th, 2009, families and business owners along a Maryland/Sherbrook back lane gathered together for the afternoon. Together we shared food, laughter, and stories.  We played, danced, made crafts, painted dumpsters, planted tulip and crocus bulbs, raspberry canes and a variety of greens.  A University of Manitoba professor supplied digital cameras and children toured the area with a professional photographer, taking pictures. Future plans include a kid’s photo show in the neighbourhood.  Single mothers from a housing co-op organized kids crafts and games. Local businesses donated food, services and items for sharing.  A DJ provided a musical backdrop for the occasion.

Approximately, 150 people passed through the event that afternoon.  Many were hungry and thankful for the food.  Everyone commented on the warmth they felt being there.  For a few hours, a space usually dominated by speeding vehicles, drug deals and garbage was transformed into a community center, safe for kids to play road hockey, swing hula hoops, make new friends, paint happy faces over graffiti and plant some food and flowers.

When one of the organizers made a request to public works for garbage collection before the event she was told they could come a week after the event.  Then two days before the party, a local high school teacher and his grade seven class swept down the back lane picking up garbage. Unaware of our celebratory plans, our lane was a part of their annual neighbourhood cleaning exercise. Serendipitously, they ‘tidied up’ our party space just in time!

While many in society see only the poverty and crime that plagues the “inner city” those of us who live there know there is more than one story to the people living here. The Maryland/Sherbrook neighbours have sown seeds for a greener and safer future in West Broadway. With on-going cooperation and efforts from residents, various government levels and businesses the seeds planted on a sunny Sunday afternoon can take root and blossom .

- kimlee wong

Rural communities are experiencing extreme decline and change. Rural depopulation, technology-based deskilling, and changes in agriculture have led to high unemployment, closures of schools and grain elevators, family violence, and substance abuse among other problems. Nonetheless, some rural communities such as Clearwater, a 100-person community located in southwestern Manitoba, are showing great resilience and are in the process of reinventing themselves.

The program takes place in Clearwater, Manitoba, where students will visit farms and explore the relationship among farm operations, rural culture, and the environment. Conducted over a two-week period, the program combines lectures and farm visits, along with course projects. Specifically, students gain an awareness of pressures facing rural communities and environments, insight into evolving rural cultures, experience in a diversity of farming and gardening operations, and experience with riparian forests and prairie research.