As part of the 35th Mayors’ Dinner, workers in the field of employment counselling, settlement support, shelter and homelessness supports, and workers involved in climate change and environmental projects were invited to share their experiences, stories and perspectives.
We have the power to stop war and help solve the climate emergency if we act now. Bill McKibben argues that installing millions of heat pumps in European homes ahead of next winter will dramatically reduce reliance on Russian natural gas, cutting off a key source of Vladmir Putin’s power. Currently oil and gas make up 60% of Russia’s export earnings, and 40% of Europe’s natural gas comes from Russia. Such a project would not only help slow the Russian war machine, but would contribute meaningfully to lowering carbon emissions and addressing the climate emergency. It’s a win-win situation.
We can regenerate our soils. If we want healthier soils – and therefore healthier food, healthier bodies, healthier minds, healthier waters, and a healthier climate – then we can have them. Choices abound for us to do right by that which sustains us. In our backyards, on our farms, and within our whole food system options are available that protect and nurture the soil. In this final article of our three part series we explore just some of these methods and systems. While the threats to soil health are great, the opportunities for regenerative practices are equally so. The choice is ours.
To save our soils is to save ourselves. We all know that in order to live we need to eat, and in order to eat we need good soil. But soil means much more than good food. Soil is also essential if we want clean water, a stable climate, and physical and emotional health. Soil is a critical part of our wider ecological community, living in reciprocal relationship with humanity and the rest of nature. In our first article of this series we explored the critical dimensions to good soil – soil organic matter, soil structure, and microbiology. In this article we will explore the ways soil relates to the rest of nature, and in turn to us as human beings.
Soils deserve our attention. This has been one of the most important lessons at the Working Centre’s Market Garden over the past decade. Every year at the Garden as our community plants, weeds, waters, and harvests we have seen how caring for the soil leads to stronger, heartier, more fruitful plants. We’ve learned and explored different methods for caring for the soil. Soil is capturing our imagination. As the power of soil to store carbon is seen as an important way to reduce our emissions.
This week, Globe & Mail headed its new Climate Change section with the statement, “We knew this was coming.” Increasingly, people and institutions are getting the picture. It is not just the four major hurricanes that have recently made landfall in North America, nor that California is suffering under drought conditions in the midst of a heat wave producing extended 50° C temperatures. Nor is it the scale of dramatic wild fires, or the fear of the smoke filled toxic air that is filling cities up and down the North American west coast.
One way to read the signs of the times is to draw together seemingly divergent social and environmental issues. From our backyard of downtown Kitchener, social issues and the environment are equally pressing. These are signs that can be seen in most Canadian cities. The main social issue is the fallout from the decline in affordable housing and the resulting rise in homelessness. We see the stark reality of people surviving on the streets without access to shelter. We also know that the intertwining of addiction and mental health adds to the burden of surviving on the street.
Too often, in this day and age, are the words “community focused” used to prop up the image of businesses not necessarily focused on the community good. Behind the downtown Kitchener Farmer’s Market however, there exists an unassuming storefront, decorated with flowers, sunlit windows and a bright green door. Welcome to The Green Door, a vital community space.
The ecological works of mercy are one way that we can re-imagine our relationship with nature. We are part of the earth community and are called to live in gentle, humble relationship with our neighbours, both human and non-human. Yet our economy is based on extracting resources at a rate the earth can no longer sustain. Our way of living is pouring chemicals, pollution and carbon into the ground and air at a rate that is disrupting the carrying capacity of the earth. As we search for new ways of being and acting, the ecological Works of Mercy can be spiritual and practical disciplines that help us reshape our relationships to the Earth and each other.
For a decade now I have been trying to reduce my carbon footprint. What I learned is that it is possible to walk more simply on the earth through a diet that is focused on minimally processed plant foods. I also learned something that seems to have been a secret. The key to human health is eating fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains because of the thousands of phytonutrients they provide that are essential to good living. Most amazing are the studies showing how plant-based eating improves body weight, cholesterol levels, blood sugar, digestion, and well-being.
The Integrated Circle of Care is a fluid and collaborative approach followed by workers from different agencies weaving through St. John’s Kitchen. Within this approach, staff members from each agency are aware of their specific personal roles. However, the high level of collaboration between workers means that people can approach any worker, without knowing their agency association or specific role, and still receive support – either that worker will support the person directly, or they will introduce the person to another worker who can support the person more appropriately.
This approach makes relationships more natural and support more accessible. Workers from different agencies are easily approachable, meaning that people build relationships with multiple workers. Having relationships with different workers is important to a person’s support – it makes support from a trusted source easy to find, and means that people have a choice of worker to approach in any given situation.
In order to maintain a circle of care around a person, workers from different agencies ask for consent from the person for information to be shared between workers. Continuous communication between workers helps to ensure that people do not fall into gaps between services, and also that services are not duplicated.
