Voor Urban Labs

The Voor team is attending and presenting at this week’s 2024 LIVABLE CITIES FORUM: Multisolving for a Net-Zero and Resilient Future. Produced by ICLEI Canada the three-day gathering features municipal policy makers and elected officials from across Canada. Voor advises the City of Vancouver on climate equity and has designed nature-based solutions for City Engineering and launched a green infrastructure stewardship microgrant program for City residents. Among other policy fronts, we also train on decolonizing public policy and conduct research on urban Indigenous climate plans. Voor Director Irwin Oostindie is also a member of the District of North Vancouver Climate Advisory Committee. Irwin spoke at #LCF2024 on mobilizing Indigenous Knowledge in urban natural infrastructure. Voor staff Isabela Ortiz Orozco, Chelsey Schmidtke and Molly Coulter also attended the conference.

Join us this Thursday with Dawn Morrison of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty for our Voor Urban Labs' Munch! speaker series event as part of the 2024 Sustenance Festival. We will explore food security and self determination in a changing Downtown Eastside; COVID, housing and health crisis. Gather for a break for Indigenous and Chinatown foods and hear from Dawn Morrison speaking about how Indigenous food sovereignty is emergency preparedness. Dawn Morrison is a Secwépemc leader and founder of the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, emphasizes the critical link between food sovereignty and emergency preparedness. Her work highlights how Indigenous food sovereignty is not just about access to food but also about resilience and sustainability in the face of crises. Morrison's initiatives, such as the Wild Salmon Caravan and the Indigenous Food and Freedom School, focus on restoring traditional food systems and knowledge. These efforts are crucial for communities that face food insecurity, especially in remote areas where access to grocery stores is limited. By revitalizing traditional food practices, Morrison aims to create a more resilient food system that can withstand emergencies and support community health and well-being. Thursday October 24th, 5-7pm at Voor Urban Labs Studio (212-475 Main St, Vancouver). Virtual event access also available! Register for the event here: https://lnkd.in/gh_kttFA #Indigenousfood #foodsovereignty

Fun to see the delight of local children seeding a meadow for our Coast Salish native plant landscape design now completed at Gibby’s Field for the City of Vancouver. (left > right) Molly Coulter (Voor), Madeleine Wilson (City of Vancouver), Julie McManus (City of Vancouver), Chelsey Schmidtke (Voor). The development of Gibby’s Field (18th and Knight) into a nature-based-solution green infrastructure site is a testament to community advocacy that sought to preserve the early settlement and ecological history of the neighbourhood. The design features improved accessible pathways and builds on the community vision developed by neighbours and advocates to preserve and enhance the last undeveloped remnant of creek bed of the historical Gibson’s Creek. With enhanced planting and drainage design, the site collects water from the nearby lanes and roads and treats roughly 6,253 m³ of rainfall each year – the equivalent of 62,530 bathtubs, while providing critical habitat to pollinators, bats, and birds.  Voor provided an innovative planting, featuring native plants and implementing recommendations from Squamish Ethnobotanist T’uy’t’tanat- Cease Wyss. To engage students from the nearby school, Tyee Elementary, Voor also developed an engagement plan which saw gr. 4 and 5 students learning about the local diverse histories of Gibby’s Field, engineered storm water systems, and plant ecology. Drawings that the students produced from the educational workshops were later stencil painted by them on the sidewalk at the opening today. The project was made possible in partnership between the City of Vancouver Engineering Department Green Infrastructure Implementation team and the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation. Through projects like Gibby’s Field, Voor is proud to be able to contribute to decolonizing landscape architecture and lift up Coast Salish knowledge in our community. We see a need to weave together First Nations redress with opportunities to also connect to diverse immigrant community stories. The project connects with the site’s settler and agricultural heritage, while also designing Coast Salish planting plans. Media release from City of Vancouver today Sept 18, 2024 https://lnkd.in/g_9aQGtW

We’re pleased to be a top-tier sponsor for the Second Annual Dutch Street Market in Vancouver this Labour Day long weekend! We have supported the event logistics and strategy to curate a street market model that is the largest Dutch event in BC and will grow to serve the needs of 200,000 BC resided Dutch descent from the broad diaspora. The DutchBC event is also sponsored by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Vancouver and Blue Chip Logistics Inc. and TaiwanFest, with the support of great businesses Dutch Heritage Greenhouse, Van Noort Bulb Co. Ltd., Downtown Van, The Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society, De Esdoorn - Dutch Language and Cultural School, Zip Courier, Global Reach Confections and More, Dutch the magazine, Holland Shopping Centre, and others.

Our Voor team are pleased to be coproducing this conversation on Saturday. We are delivering a couple of projects with the Tsleil-Waututh led organization including Repairing Relations project management and a Tourism Development Strategy for the 256-acre site.

Great to witness this historic announcement by Salish Elements partnering with Xaxli'p (St’at’imc) as they build out hydrogen production and distribution across BC and beyond. Congrats to Rueben George Omar Kassem James Delorme Deanna Ambrose REgen Geneviève Noël T. Maginnis Cocivera and the team for this important work. Opening words by Charlene Aleck (Tsleil-Waututh) and BC Minister of Mines and Low Carbon Innovation Josie Osborne. Good to introduce my hydrogen colleague Robin Heijmans from Consulate General of the Netherlands in Vancouver to Rueben George and Salish Elements. Salish Elements constructs a “hydrogen business table” to unite First Nations, government, technology providers, and other stakeholders in the development of hydrogen projects. We envision revolutionizing fuel production through Indigenous-owned green hydrogen production and distribution centres. https://salishelements.ca/

Looking back at a busy month the Voor team was at the #BCLandSummit representing our Tsleil Waututh Tourism Development Strategy at Maplewood Flats and Repairing Relations restoration project management work with the Wild Bird Trust of BC. It was fun to stand in front of the banner that said “Ask me about land back” surrounded by 650 professionals all impacting land use in the province. Great to visit with many colleagues and have time to build relations. Good to have Voor represented by coworkers Molly Coulter, Isabela Ortiz Orozco and Irwin Oostindie. It’s definitely an important gathering every five years and look forward to significant shifts in decolonial practices of the associations who coproduce the gathering. Grateful for the sponsorship of the Real Estate Foundation of BC who are pushing these ideas so well.

Glad to involve Capilano University students in our work for a tourism development strategy for səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) (TWN) and Takaya Tours knowledge holders at Wild Bird Trust of BC Maplewood Flats site. The 256 acre location is unceded TWN lands and currently the only wildlife sanctuary in Vancouver harbour and has transitioned to TWN community governance. Voor Urban Labs project manages their $400,000 Repairing Relations infrastructure project as well as the tourism development strategy. Through 2024 research and engagement will produce cultural and economic opportunities at the site for Tsleil-Waututh and help “put the face of TWN on the land.”

Voor Urban Labs is honoured to be supporting National Urban Indigenous Coalition Council and producing this inspiring conference. Our staff team have worked behind the scene for the past 2.5 years helping coalitions in 30 Canadian cities develop a national federation for one million urban Indigenous peoples. 80% of Indigenous people live in cities. The 3000 urban Indigenous nonprofits and charities across Canada are not merely service delivery partners to governments, but the coalitions that unite these communities have rights to self determination and urban governance. Background reading on the Misquadis and UNDRIP legal frameworks that inspire our work please read our brief: https://lnkd.in/gYiA57iZ

Irwin Oostindie will be the first speaker in Heritage Vancouver Society's new series "Shaping Vancouver 2024: Community-Based Planning Conversation 1." Catch the presentation that is centred on Voor Urban Labs' unique approach to community planning and heritage. Jan 18, SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs, with support from Vancity Office of Community Engagement. #vanpoli https://lnkd.in/gKhnefEc