Northern CommunitiesTransitioning to Resilience

http://www.cgrf.ca (not up as of Mar 26/10, but soon...)

The Common Ground Research Forum: A Cross-Cultural Learning Platform for Resource Sharing CURA was granted in 2009.

Teika Newton
Community Research Coordinator, Common Ground Research Forum
1500 Highway 17 East, Kenora, ON P9N 1M3

teika@teika.ca, office/ mobile: (807) 466-2403, home: (807) 548-2995

The Common Ground CURA is based on the initiative between the City of Kenora and Grand Council Treaty #3 to form a treaty-based partnership to co-manage land near Kenora. See http://www.ratportage.com/page1.html for a history of the initiative.

From the proposal: "The purpose of our project is to understand and build capacity for cross-cultural collaboration and social learning for sustainability. The specific objectives are to: 1) describe what triggers and shapes cross-cultural collaboration and social learning; 2) explain social learning outcomes achieved through collaborative land use planning, and their linkages with sustainable local and regional economies; 3) increase awareness of the benefits of cross-cultural collaboration and the Common Ground initiative for local and regional sustainability; and, 4) enhance capacity for cross-cultural collaboration, social learning and planning for sustainability. The project will result in six short-term (within the life of the project) and four long-term (beyond the project life) outcomes. The short-term outcomes are: 1) contributions to theoretical, methodological and empirical knowledge of social learning triggers, processes and outcomes; 2) best practices and a situated model for collaboration, social learning, and  sustainable economic development; 3) recommendations for policy and legal reforms to enable collaboration, social learning, and local and regional development; 4) an innovative curriculum and pilot project for placebased, cross-cultural, environmental education; 5) a cohort of highly trained graduate and undergraduate students; and, 6) a vision and constitution for Common Ground. The long-term outcomes will be: 7) enhanced capacity to manage Common Ground in a collaborative and sustainable manner; 8) a strengthened sense of place and connection to  Common Ground; 9) enhanced capacity among Common Ground constituents for conducting community-based research; and, 10) a community-based institute or centre of excellence for cross-cultural social learning about resource sharing and sustainable economic development.