PROJECTS
DIGITAL ECO-SOCIAL DESIGN WORKSHOP SERIES
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Are you interested in applying sustainable design concepts to your life and building symbiotic relationships between the land, yourself, and your community?
Most years, RESES organizes a series of free or low-cost workshops that showcase the eco-social design skills of our community members! Anyone with a relevant skill and the passion to share it is welcome to organize a workshop. To date, we have hosted workshops about natural building, growing your own mushrooms, food forestry, introductions to permaculture, and more! In-person workshops are on pause for 2023 to allow us the time and space to work on our digital workshop project.
In 2023-2024, RESES is developing a series of brand new digital workshops about Eco-Social Design (also known by the terms “permaculture” or “ecological design”). Our first step will be to invite the community to complete a survey to help inform the workshops. A special invite will be extended to folks who self-identify as experiencing barriers to attending these kinds of workshops due to financial barriers, mobility, physical or mental health challenges, or others. Stay tuned for updates!
RIPARIAN REANIMATION
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we are very excited to announce a new project that RESES is partnering on in 2023, which is a learning, teaching, and performance experience about riparian habitats and communities in the Kelowna area. RESES board member, Madeline Donald, will be spearheading a project that engages local youth to make puppets inspired by creatures found in a local creek through weekly workshops. The puppets will then be brought into the community space through a series of performances. This project is being run in collaboration with the University of British Columbia and the Rotary Centre for the Arts, with funding support from the City of Kelowna.
COLLABORATION WITH MILPA COMUNITARIA KELOWNA​
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The Milpa Comunitaria Kelowna is a local gardening group that focuses on healing ancestral wounds by learning about traditional food systems to connect/bridge knowledge intergenerationally. The group comes together to cultivate and harvest food and medicinal crops, and to host communal meals and other community events.. A "Milpa" is a crop-growing system used throughout Mesoamerica. It has been most extensively described in the Yucatán peninsula area of Mexico. The word milpa is derived from the Nahuatl word phrase mil-pa, which translates into "cultivated field" (Wikipedia). RESES has collaborated with the Milpa crew to design and implement a compost toilet for use by project participants.
FREE ECOLOGICAL DESIGN EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
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RESES creates free ecological education materials in the form of colouring sheets and a colouring book that can be used by young and old learners, teachers, and curious cats alike! Free PDF downloads of our Wild Edibles colouring sheets and Permaculture Ethics and Principles Colouring Book are available by clicking below. Exciting news, our colouring book is now available to order in print! Contact us directly for discounts on bulk orders.
MISSION CREEK FOOD FOREST​
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The Food Forest at Mission Creek is a 50ft x 50ft space adjacent to the Mission Creek Greenway and the Environmental Education Centre for the Okanagan (EECO) in Kelowna, BC. The food grown in the demonstration forest can be harvested by anyone, for free! RESES board members Haruko and Elana helped design and build the food forest garden, and up unti 2022, worked with the Regional District of the Central Okanagan to lead the Food Forest volunteer efforts and workshops. Community volunteers helped with weeding, pruning, and building soil nutrition through on-site nutrient cycling and mulching.