Great News!
This fall, Living Labs received a $225 000 grant from the Real Estate Foundation of BC. 

This essential project funding builds on our past and present work. And it supports the collaborative vision for our 2022-2025 Strategic Plan that we developed alongside our network partners. Our goal is to focus on the establishment of educational and employment pathways between schools, colleges and universities which support land-based learning, ecological restoration and a new Indigenous-led stewardship program and community of practice within the Capital Regional District (CRD) and the Salish Sea / ṮEṮÁĆES region. Greater Victoria School District #61 Indigenous Education, the W̱SÁNEĆ School Board, Camosun College, and Parks Canada are core leaders in this initiative, alongside several community and campus leaders and departments. The Indigenous Land Stewardship and Educational Resurgence Project supports the creation of a long-term community campus vision for 2030.

More Details Project Goals and Activities of The Living Lab Indigenous Land Stewardship & Educational Resurgence Project include: 

• Restoration

○ Pilot a WSANEC and Lekwungen Indigenous Land Stewardship Program 

○ Develop a new Coast Salish Restoration Certificate/ Diploma Program 

○ Develop pathways for Indigenous members to partake in employment training and leadership development in the field of ecological restoration 

• Education:

○ Strengthen schools and campus efforts to create educational accreditation pathways and wholistic restoration science and land-based learning programs 

○ Create a new BC Indigenous and non-Indigenous teacher education curriculum to support land- and sea-based learning and new BC First Nations Studies program 

• Research / Engagement

○ Research and mobilize knowledge focused on regional and BC planning, research, policy and governance mechanisms to dismantle systemic barriers to Indigenous land access, traditional land use, sustainable livelihoods, and overall ecosystem health