Vision

A region-wide initiative of The Sustainability Project, and funded by The Greenbelt Foundation, RGB set out to determine whether there was a narrative existing in Grey and Bruce counties about a future of our landscapes that was hopeful, future-oriented, and community-led.

Regenerate Grey Bruce envisions a landscape that is resilient, vibrant, and hopeful.

• A vibrant, living landscape fosters the resilience of all living beings towards external threats, including those posed by climate change, economic disruption, and disrupted food chains.
• Human society (individuals, communities, and governance structures) benefit from the vibrant landscape through tourism, access for learning and healing, and economic activities that sustainably harvest its resources.
• The relationship between human society and the living world is characterized by awareness, mutual care, and co-benefits. These relationships recognize future living beings - human generations, and other life forms. Human society proactively manages its landscape with the goal of simultaneously meeting the needs of humans and the living world, now and into the future.

Our Theory of Change

"The Good Stuff" about our project can be found here.

Equity of Change Statement

Our statement on Equity of Change can be found here.

Where the Narrative is RIGHT NOW!

When asked about what Landscapes signify to them, some Grey Bruce residents shared stories of “home”being their house and private property, with less thought to the wider region. Others perceived the land merely as an investment good that is simplified for agricultural rental, and potentially for future development. Yet others expressed the need to take active responsibility in landscape conservation and stewardship for the land at large.

Our current landscape narratives are diverse and seem in conflict with one another. However, RGB staff have found an emerging landscape narrative where individual and community actions to regenerate land, spirits and community in the region showed that the stories we are telling ourselves are indeed full of hope.

The stories of how our community is actuating this new narrative are:

1. diverse in content, scale and context and so reflect how Regeneration is a process, action and mindset.
2. few but growing in number.
3. sparsely scattered across the entire region.
4. exist in the private, day-to-day actions taken by individual citizens on the land they own/steward
5. exist in institutional, public and government spaces
6. not easily visible to those not reflected or represented in them.
7. most visible stories are those of residents in later stages in life.
8. most ‘close to home or private’ stories are those of residents in the middle stages of life.
9. least known as of right now, and so have little space in the emerging narrative, which is a very serious concern, are those residents in earlier stages of life (i.e. youth in school and still/are dependents: lack of capacity and skill).
10. seem challenged in recognizing one another, which has created a lack of collaboration and support for resident’s individual experiences, stories and work in regeneration. This in turn seems to be one of the barriers in scaling up regional efforts as this lack of recognizing one another has created feelings of isolation, despair, and nervousness to engage.
11. across the board, seem to reflect these values: accessibility, responsibility, adaptability, respect, relationships/family, and hope.
12. More stories are emerging every day as the larger regional climate movement continues to take the time to listen, reflect and shift with the people, science and landscape changes that are engaged.

Youth Climate Action Conference

We're hosting the YCAC 2.0 on November 21, 2023 at the Sydenham Campus in Owen Sound, Information is here.

A Guide for Intergenerational Collaboration

The guide, the advisory body, coming soon.

On Landscape Narratives

What is a "Landscape Narrative" exactly? We started with cultural narratives. Our "take" can be found here.

More to Come

eg. Directly inviting friends, family, co-workers, etc. to join the work... YCAC collaboration, Wiarton Tiny Forest Collaboration, RGB Seed Collectors, etc.

Don't Forget!

Remember, the goal of RGB now is to amplify this emerging narrative we've uncovered, the collective and individual stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, acted out in real time through our decisions and actions. You can take action by:

PLANT (POLLINATORS and NATIVE SPECIES): Addressing barriers community members face in regenerating their surrounding landscapes i.e. planting native plants; supporting a regional native plant supply chain; and, bringing together nursery owners, farmers and seed collectors, etc.

SHARE (YOUR STORY): Publishing, Highlighting and Inviting more stories into the emerging narrative to i.e. Regeneration Stories, Presentations, StoryMap, Social Media, Signage/Messaging, etc.

INSPIRE (TO JOIN): Directly inviting friends, family, co-workers, etc. to join the work i.e. Theory of Change, Guide for Intergenerational Collaboration, YCAC collaboration, Wiarton Tiny Forest Collaboration, RGB Seed Collectors, etc.