1/2 day on Thursday, October 20, 1:15 PM – 4:00 PM Full day on Friday, October 21, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Leading Practitioner Kit Miller of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence will lead delegates and others in a post-conference workshop on nonviolent communication (NVC). In partnership with Huron County Economic Development, this workshop will take participants through the impact that NVC can have on our own way of thinking and as importantly impact how a community can change its way of thinking and communicating.
Details: Thursday, October 20, 1:15 PM – 4:00 PM at the Brussels Four Winds Barn, 60 Orchard Ln, Brussels, ON N0G 1H0
Session 1: ‘Increasing self-awareness and emotional resilience during difficult times.’ This is available to all R2R22 delegates who wish to attend.
Friday, October 21, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM at the Libro Community Hall, 239 Bill Flemming Dr, Clinton, N0M1L0 Session 2: ‘Applying nonviolent communication to interpersonal dynamics.’ Session 3: ‘Applying nonviolent communication to teams.’
There is an additional cost of $40 to attend the Friday sessions and lunch is included.
If you are an R2R22 delegate and wish to attend the Friday sessions, register here.
If you are not an R2R22 delegate and wish to attend the Thursday and Friday sessions, register here.
Juno/Maple Blues Award winner Al Lerman along with Alan Black on drums and bassist JP Hovercraft will fill the Four Winds Barn in Brussels, ON with some great sounds. It is a part of the Rural Talks to Rural 2022 conference. If you are in the area it is open to the public. Time to shake a leg in this Rural Dance to Rural Dance event. Come on down!
The Libro Passport to Research is an opportunity for delegates to explore the research happening right in their own rural communities. A hit at the R2R18 conference, delegates will visit different research stations located throughout the Four Winds Barn conference location from 10 AM – 12 PM on Monday, October 17th.
We want to thank Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health for creating this incredible line-up of researchers and practitioners who will touch upon the following:
Disruption and the Workforce: Experiences of Employees and Employers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The case of the rural healthcare research portal: Tracking organizational development
The Cost of Caring – The consequences of the pandemic for rural healthcare workers, a preliminary exploration
Engaging Rural Voices in Rural Health
2SLGBTQIA+ perspectives on growing old in rural communities
S.H.E.D Talks: Sustaining Healthy Farms Through Empowerment and Dedication
Healthcare, Rural Seniors and Food: An Exploratory Study
Summer camp for kids and their grandparents: a model for increasing physical activity, improving nutrition, and strengthening relationships
NEWSFLASH: The CCRC has been selected to present the interactive game – HOME – at the Radically Rural™ conference in New Hampshire this week.
HOME is a collaborative storytelling/teaching tool designed by Game Designer Nolan (Polkinghorne) Wadsworth with the support of Rural Ontario Institute (ROI) to help communities have more productive conversations about affordable/attainable housing.
HOME asks us to inhabit the perspectives of people whose daily lives are impacted by the availability and quality of affordable housing. Players, who represent community members, participate in a housing design project and weigh in on the future of housing against the backdrop of very real struggles experienced every day.
At R2R22, delegates will have an opportunity to play HOME.
As we prepare for this year’s biennial R2R22 Rural Today, Rural Tomorrow on Oct 17-20 in Brussels, ON, we invite you to take a look back at past R2Rs. You’re in for a treat!
CCRC is pleased to announce up to 15 Youth Scholarships available for the upcoming R2R22 Rural Today, Rural Tomorrow conference on Oct 17-20th in Brussels, ON.
If you are between the ages of 15 – 25 years old, you are eligible to apply for the Youth Scholarship. The scholarship offers an all-inclusive pass to the conference in Brussels, ON (transportation and accommodation are not included). > Click here to access the application form.
Scholarship recipients will be notified at the end of September 2022 so submit your application today!
Sponsored by the University of Guelph and the Municipality of Huron East, the scholarship opens the doors to the next generation to actively participate in dialogue as to where rural is at now, and where rural could be going.
If you have any questions about the youth scholarship or student registration, contact Peter at peter@ruralcreativity.org
The Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity (CCRC) is pleased to present this year’s R2R in-person conference (with virtual options) with the theme: Rural Today/Rural Tomorrow! We will be exploring where we are now and where we could be going in the areas of Wellbeing, Housing, Climate and Community. It all happens over three and half days in the Four Winds Barn in Brussels, Ontario, from October 17th – 20th.
It begins with a conversation and builds towards a unique theatrical experience. The contemporary community play movement got started in 1979, by a play produced by the Colway Theatre Trust. The Company went on to produce over 50 productions worldwide and spawned collectives to create their own community play projects. The process is transformative and through the months leading up to a production there are more conversations, meetings, workshops and rehearsals – friendships are developed. The result is that people feel connected to each other, to their shared sense of place. It is inclusive and anyone and everyone can participate. Whether it’s as an actor, a manager, a designer, a researcher, writer, builder, a musician, dancer, a technician, whatever it is, the production is community led and the two year process to create the play develops the thinking, and the talents, and the skills of all involved – and weaves them together. It is a community game-changer.
THE GRAND RIVER COMMUNITY PLAY PROJECT… is being imagined as an event that runs the 310 kilometre length of the river. We have just started with conversations, collecting stories from those who live along the Grand, and connecting with folks who are interested in participating in the project. Over the course of the summer of 2022 we’ll continue to listen and gather stories and in the fall perform a series of workshop presentations at different locations along the Grand. The work of 2022 will lead to further development in 2023 and take us to a full production in the summer of 2024.
The Grand River Community Play Project is the story of the river created and developed by the people of the river and ultimately told to those who are engaged and impacted by the river. It is a coming together of stories and, as importantly, a coming together of people along the length of this magnificent waterway. It also creates room for the river to speak for herself.
The Grand River Community Play Project is produced by the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity – where we strive to establish an inclusive gathering place, a place for creativity and meaningful participation.
To restore any place, we must also begin to re-story it, to make it the lesson of our legends, festivals, and seasonal rites. Story is the way we encode deep-seated values within our culture. Ritual is the way we enact them. We must ritually plant the cottonwood and willow poles in winter in order to share the sounds of the vermillion flycatcher during the rites of spring. By replenishing the land with our stories, we let the wild voices around us guide the restoration we do. The stories will outlast us.” Gary Paul Nabham
GRAND RIVER COMMUNITY PLAY PROJECT update. The map attached to this post was created by friend, Marcia Ruby. What she writes in the margins are grist for the mill in the creation of this project. The Indigenous story of the Grand River, one that intersects with the Settler story now and again, runs very much independently of it. There is much to learn and over time, with humility and respect, hopefully it will be revealed by the First Peoples who live along the Grand and have done for millennia. There are the more recent stories of the Settlers – those who live on the River, or have been impacted by it – and these stories will also be a part of the project. And there is a third story, I believe – the story of the River herself… how is that story told? Can we hear the voice of the river? What can she tell us?
This next piece of writing comes from Peter Godfrey-Smith’s article entitled, Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. While a little bit different than hearing the voice of a river, there is something in what he says that speaks to the awe of being and could be a way forward for the project: “Octopuses and their relatives (cuttlefish and squid) represent an island of mental complexity in the sea of invertebrate animals. Since my first encounters with these creatures about a decade ago, I have been intrigued by the powerful sense of engagement that is possible when interacting with them. Our most recent common ancestor is so distant—more than twice as ancient as the first dinosaurs—that they represent an entirely independent experiment in the evolution of large brains and complex behaviour. If we can connect with them as sentient beings, it is not because of a shared history, not because of kinship, but because evolution built minds twice over. They are probably the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien.”
I wonder if there is a way to understand a river in somewhat the same way? Different – but in being open to the relationship – is a different understanding possible?
If your curious about this project, have a Grand River story to tell, or would like to become more involved contact Pete @ peter@ruralcreativity.org
