Get Outside Reading Room

Get Outside is a three-year movement building project that invites climate practitioners, artists, engineers, academics, and community organizers to step outside the boundaries of institutional patterns and thinking as a pathway towards collectively enacting climate justice. The project is rooted in seasonal, land-based learning practices, with attentiveness to stewardship and climate priorities of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ.

The summer Reading Room is a site for assembly, mapping, thumbing through books and conversing. It is intended to be a flexible convening space for practitioners and students engaged in Get Outside initiatives and will serve as a meeting point before or after field excursions, a space for screenings, and gathering. Reading lists and other archives collected through the project will build over three years, forming a comprehensive collection of materials related to climate justice.

In partnership with City of Vancouver Engineering Services, Solutions Lab and Adaptation & Equity the focus from 2025-2026 will be the Water Equity Lab. Commitments to equity and reconciliation are a key part of this plan, which includes embedding an intersectional lens in decision-making, prioritizing those disproportionately impacted, upholding the rights of Indigenous peoples and integrating Indigenous knowledge into stewardship and management practices. The Water Equity Lab will deepen place-based collaboration connected through water, asking:

What does embedding equity and reconciliation into water planning work mean? How can we move towards more equitable and just water stewardship in our city through stronger internal and community-based collaboration?

City staff working on all aspects of water planning and engineering initiatives are invited to participate in a series of dialogues, field outings and activities with external practitioners. The Lab will support the implementation of the Healthy Waters Plan.