Learning Initiative for Rural & Northern BC (LIRN BC)

Learning Initiatives for Rural and Northern BC (LIRN BC) provides support to rural, remote, and northern BC communities to advance community learning through capacity building and collaborative networking on locally relevant issues.

? LIRN BC partners are the Canadian Rural Partnership, Service Canada (New Horizons for Seniors Program), the Social Planning and Research Council of BC (Community Development Education Program), PeerNetBC, Community Capacity Building – Canadian Cancer Society (an initiative of the BC Healthy Living Alliance), Fraser Basin Council (Smart Planning for Communities), Rural BC Secretariat -Ministry of Community Development, Interior Health, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and BC Healthy Communities. Collectively these organizations recognized the need to collaborate in order to provide meaningful opportunities for community learning initiatives. As such they combined their collective expertise and resources to provide locally relevant one or two day community dialogues or workshops to successful applicant communities.

Each year the partners issue an Expression of Interest to allow rural communities to request a learning day on a topic/s of local interest. The EOI is generally issued in late May and will be posted at this site. Dialogues and workshops facilitated by LIRN BC partners cover a wide range of topics. The support offered by the LIRN BC partners includes curriculum resources and facilitation services related to each topic area, and may include financial support for event related costs such as rent, food, refreshments, and participant travel from adjacent communities. As such, the LIRN BC partners do not award direct grants. All successful applicants to LIRN BC are expected to engage in planning and delivering the event, as well as contributing to logistical support such as recruiting participants and identifying appropriate local facilities.

Now in its fourth year, almost 60 rural communities have benefited from learning events. Another 20 communities will be selected through the 2009 EOI.

For more information about LIRN BC contact Brandon Hughes by email: hughes.bn@shaw.ca or by phone: 250-354-3178

Reports from previous LIRN events: