Open Space in Vancouver

[Chris Corrigan]

Great news about the OS in Bosnia.

Inspired me to share news of one here in Vancouver.

I'm opening the space on January 21 for about 200 people from First
Nations organizations, government, business and labour to tackle the
issues facing the extremely porr Downtown Eastside Aboriginal community.

The Downtown Eastside is the poorest urban are in Canada.  It is
populated by a huge number of Aboriginal people who have moved from
primarily rural communities into  the city and who suffer from chronic
unemployment, lack of housing, horrendous health problems, and a litany
of other ills.  Under the theme of "Improving the lives of First Nations
people living in the Vancouver area...it's time to stop talking about
it...let's start doing it!" we are gathering people from the community
and those with the power to make things change for the first of what
could be many Open Spaces.

It's incredibly exciting, mostly because I love using Open Space in the
Aboriginal community (where it comes "home" as a process) and I love
using it to draw together vastly diverse people and communities.  This
OS will be the most divers one I have ever done.

OS is really beginning to catch on here with the First Nations
community.  I have been doing a lot of work lately trying to develop
ways of talking about OS that draw on our traditional forms of meeting,
and as I've reported here before, a strong resonance is emerging.

Naturally, I'll let you know how it goes.

Chris