The Thriving Coastal Communities Initiative is a collaborative project by the T. Buck Suzuki Foundation and Dr. Nathan Bennett  from the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at UBC. It aims to help coastal communities in B.C. respond to major issues impacting them, such as climate change, the loss of fishing infrastructure, and increasingly complex management regimes. These forces are taking a social, cultural, economic, and ecological toll on coastal areas as youth leave for searching for work, food insecurity and drug use rates increase, and residents face a suite of physical and mental health challenges.

We worked alongside representatives from several coastal First Nations, other NGOs, and community organizations in the project’s initial stage identifying areas of priority for future initiatives and will continue developing the project to support coastal communities’ efforts to thrive amidst significant change.