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What is Be the Change?
Be the Change Earth Alliance is a Vancouver based non-profit society formed in 2005. We offer Presentations and Symposia, Action Guides, Circles and Gatherings to inspire and support people in making sustainable lifestyle choices and re-creating healthy communities. For more information, visit our website or contact us at 604-269-9870.
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Our Community Initiative is supported by:
The Great Turning is supported by:
Special Thanks to our Media Sponsors:    
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Be The Change Partners With Village Vancouver
The Village Vancouver Steering Committee and the Be the Change Wisdom Circle met for a day long visioning several months ago and founders Ross Moster and Maureen Jack-LaCroix have continued to dialogue on the complementary ways these two community based organizations can work together. The combination of action circles within neighbourhood villages is the intriguing prospect they are hoping to birth from The Great Turning this spring. Creative collaboration is the calling card of 2011.
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Oxfam Canada Brings Global Consciousness to The Great Turning
Local community leader Miriam Palacios heads the Vancouver office for this international organization that works tirelessly to improve conditions for women locally and throughout the third world. This spring they are launching a campaign that focuses on the role of women and food security. Miriam will be speaking on Food Justice in a Resource Constrained World.
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Join the Wave Against the Pave, April 22, 2011
Special thanks to Carmen Mills and Eric Doherty for speaking at The Great Turning even though it's the weekend right after their big Earth Day climate change action protesting the controversial $2 billion South Fraser Perimeter Road freeway. The pre-action training in Vancouver takes place March 26. Get all the info at stopthepave.org.
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Our Student Initiative is undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through the Department of the Environment, and:
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Join the Pilgrimage to Burns Bog, May 1, 2011
The Pilgrimage to Burns Bog is an annual, free multifaith event organized by the Burns Bog Conservation Society that underlines the significance and sacredness of the West Coast's largest domed peat bog.
This year's important and enlightening event will take place on Sunday, May 1, at 12:30pm, beginning at 640 Chester Road on Annacis Island in North Delta. For more information please visit the Pilgrimage to Burns Bog website.
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Support Our Work!
With your support, we can empower people to become positive agents of change for a sustainable, just, and meaningful future. Call us today or click here to donate quickly, easily, and securely through PayPal!
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Navigating the Great Turning: An Un-Conference To Be The Change ~ Saturday, April 30
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 Now is a time of great change and opportunity. We can feel the shift in our support systems, from the global economy, to our natural environment, from our institutions to our community networks and families. How will we clarify our personal and collective values, and chart our course to bring forth a life sustaining social order? Please join us Saturday, April 30 for another exciting Great Turning un-Conference! In collaboration with Be the Change, Village Vancouver & Wilderness Committee, over 30 passionate community leaders will speak and lead table dialogues throughout the day. Joanna Macy called this time of transition The Great Turning, where every person has a vital role to play. Building on her wisdom, there will be three streams of dialogue to honour the many ways we are being called to awaken and express: Action to slow down the waste and destruction Innovation to explore alternate systems & values Consciousness of our interconnectedness with all life Join a dynamic community of change agents, share your wisdom and experience, and explore the many ways you can get involved to accelerate the Great Turning. Neighbourhood and special interest action circles will be forming to keep us connected and active in the months ahead. Your role in our emerging future is pivotal. Participation was at capacity in 2009. Pre-registration includes a fabulous organic vegetarian lunch and snacks sponsored by spud. Dialogue with over 30 community leaders sharing their essential wisdom, including:- Andrea Reimer, Vancouver Deputy Mayor: Community Resiliency
- Rex Weyler, author & Greenpeace co-founder: Practice of the Shambhala Warrior
- Ben West, Wilderness Committee: Oil Tankers
- Kevin Millsip, Next Up: Intergenerational Dialogue
- Ross Moster, Village Vancouver: Neighbourhood Food Networks
- Tyee Bridge, Wild Salmon Circle: Fishfarms
- Miriam Palacios, Oxfam:Women & Food Justice
- Conrad Schmidt, Workless Party: Work Less!
- Jessica Wilson, Greenpeace: Alberta Tar Sands
- Carmen Mills & Alec Doherty: Join the Wave, Stop the Pave (Gateway)
- David Tracey, Guerrilla Gardening
- John Vissers, Passenger Rail for the Valley
- Jeffrey Armstrong, Wisdom of the Avatars
- Duncan Martin: Backyard Chickens
- Kate Sutherland: Make Light Work
- Ajay Puri, Bringing Colour to the Green Movement
- Anna Chase: Beekeeping
- Anne Pacey: Emergency Preparedness
- Naomi Steinberg: Community Storytelling
- Andrea Morgan: The UBC Farm
- Tara Mahoney & Fiona Rayher: Activating Gen Why
- Karl Perrin: Burns Bog Conservation
- Jordan Bober: Community Currency
- Rosemary Cornell: Neighbourhood Plastic Depots
- Susan Maxwell: The Zero Waste Project
- Taina Uitto: Living Without Plastic
- Jeff Chu: Community Energy Conservation
- Louis Towell: Urban Streams
- Grant Watson: Edible landscapes & Permaculture
- Gregory Almas: Action Circles
- Suzanne Barois & Anne Thompson: What's Your Tree? Finding Your Purpose & Passion
- Mia Amir: Arts for Community Empowerment
- Naomi Steinberg: Storytelling in Community
- Chanel Ly: Windermere & School Gardens
- and EVEN MORE!
Date: Saturday, April 30, 2011 Time: 9am - 5:30 pm Location: Maritime Labour Centre (1880 Triumph St)
Click here to register today! Space is limited and tickets sell fast!
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Call-Out for TGT Volunteers
Be The Change is looking for volunteers to assist with the production of The Great Turning Un-Conference coming up on Saturday, April 30. The event in 2009 was a great success thanks to the help of the dedicated, competent and reliable volunteers we were honoured to work with. There are some great volunteer positions that need to be filled, including:
- Poster & flyer distribution
- Decor setup
- A/V & P/A production
- Food preparation and pickup
- Registration
- Videography
- Table dialogue facilitation
- And much, much more!
As a volunteer, you will get free admission to The Great Turning and a complimentary organic lunch - not to mention the connection with an amazing group of change agents in your community!
To learn more about how you can participate, please download the official invitation and/or contact BTC Production Coordinator Kimberley Thee. The positions fill quickly, so we welcome you to express your interest by Thursday, March 31. We schedule shifts throughout the day so that volunteers can also participate in the event.
In this great shift towards a more life sustaining society, we all have vital roles to play.Thank you for considering our request and for your potential participation! |
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Upcoming BTC Facebook Game Leverages the Power of Social Media to Make Change Fun
 | | The team with BTC Director Maureen Jack-LaCroix |
Over the past three months, Be The Change has been collaborating with an incredibly talented group of Masters of Digital Media graduate students to produce a Facebook game based on our comprehensive Action Guide for citizen engagement.
The students, from the Great Northen Way Campus have been hard at work
developing a casual game that will reward players for exploring sustainability issues and making positive lifestyle changes. In the game, each player occupies an individual plot of a virtual world that has been ravaged by pollution and unsustainable development. As they take and track actions in their real lives, their sustainable lifestyle choices are reflected in the progressive revitalization and greening of their virtual world.
Drawing from their Facebook friends lists, players will be able to create Action Circles within the game, compare scores on dynamic leaderboards, and participate in a variety of community-building activities.
The game will be tested by students engaged in our Student Initiative program before being released to the general public later this Spring.
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What's Your Tree Action Circles Launching May 11
 "What is it that calls you to stretch beyond what is comfortable into places that are uncomfortable, and to realize that you are more powerful and more magical than your mind could have believed?" - Julia Butterfly Hill
What is What's Your Tree?What's Your Tree is building a global movement of engaged citizens dedicated to ecological sustainability, social justice and spiritual/personal fulfillment. It aims to activate the power of purpose in our lives, calling each of us to go beyond what we know ourselves to be. Vancouver is the first place in Canada to have WYT Circles thanks to a partnership with Be The Change Earth Alliance. What is a What's Your Tree circle?It's an opportunity to explore your purpose and to be supported to use that purpose as a driving force in your life. It is also a powerful tool for supporting others to do the same! Ultimately, we are building communities of people who are lit up by purpose, living their lives powerfully and making choices that call them courageously forward into creating the kind of world they want to live in. Whatever each person's individual pathway is, we want to see them connected, cared for, and in community - because at the end of the day, being in community is the best (and funnest) way to change the world! For more information or to register, please contact facilitator Kate Sutherland. |
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