Do you want to strengthen relationships and foster co-operative action between your local government and Indigenous communities in your region? This has been the overarching goal of the Community to Community (C2C) Forum grant funding that the Province has offered since 1999, and the next deadline for applications is fast approaching on December 4th, 2020. The C2C Forum events are intended to provide facilitated time and space for information sharing and dialogue to build on opportunities, support reconciliation efforts, find solutions to shared interests and more.

At WCS Engagement + Planning, we have had the pleasure to design and deliver C2C Forum events over the past few years, including one for the Haida Gwaii communities of Old Massett and the Village of Masset.

This Haida Gwaii C2C forum involved designing and facilitating a workshop for Old Massett Village Band Council and the Village of Masset Council. The objective was to develop a set of shared goals and guiding principles and use them to guide the two Councils in exploring and agreeing on general direction related to a number of jointly owned parcels of land located in the Village of Masset to achieve fair and equitable benefits for both communities.

The process took place over the course of a day, first focusing on the guiding principles and shared goals. Once these foundational elements were clear for the group and provided a compass for the dialogue, we moved to focused conversations about each parcel of land to identify priority uses for each site and then agree on the preferred option. The result of the process was a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that articulated the principles, goals, preferred direction for each parcel, and the next steps to be undertaken.

In addition to helping you design and deliver your C2C Forum event, we can also assist you with the grant application. Contact Shannon Gordon (sgordon[at]whistlercentre.ca) for more information about how we can help, and visit this page for more information about the C2C Forum funding through UBCM.