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What we do

Community Evolution (CE) partners with communities and their community-owned
businesses in Canada, Nepal, Bolivia and Ecuador, and hires a local embedded
facilitator who works alongside community members and leaders. Together, we
work to manifest the community’s vision and mission by planning, executing and
assessing the ongoing growth of the community-owned businesses and the
community’s ongoing capacity building.

Our vision

Our vision is of a world transformed by local communities evolving to their full potential. We want to see a world where people work together locally to create a cooperative global community that produces and consumes responsibly, encourages equality for all, and cares for the planet in a way that will preserve it for future generations.

 

Our mission

Our overarching mission is to empower communities around the world to realize their potential socially, economically, culturally and environmentally. We want to help create a better, more peaceful and responsible world, so we invest time, funding and resources into helping communities develop, grow and transform.

Community Evolution provides funding for:

1. A local community facilitator
2. Education that supports the community’s learning needs
3. Seed capital for their business

Our sustainable development goals include raising global awareness of our vision to garner interest from donors that will allow continued growth. We also strongly emphasize gender equality, living wages, economic growth, sustainable cities, responsible consumption, and a more peaceful and just global community.

One success story began in Ecuador in 2017. Community Evolution assisted in the development of a local tourism organization and supported an English-language program developed by a local English teacher. This facilitated a tourism boost and created a more viable economy around community tourism development. 

Meanwhile, in Canada, we continue to help local communities generate income by growing food that is safe and healthy, and by working closely with our partners. In Ecuador, we contribute to and promote sustainable development in local communities and regions by primarily increasing market opportunities for smallholder farmers. In Bolivia, working closely with our partners, we strive to continually improve the socioeconomic situation of rural and Indigenous people by providing them with sustainable livelihoods , such as producing food for sustenance or for trade, for themselves and their families. 

 

Our areas of focus

We work in the area of community economic development, and focus on the two themes below:

Community tourism

In community-based tourism, communities offer services that empower them and are appropriate to their environment. That means that, when they approach ecosystems and cultural and natural assets, they plan and operate their activities in a sustainable way.

Sustainable agriculture and food systems

The concept of food systems is tied to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Overall, it addresses food sovereignty (communities are able to produce their own food) and food security (they have access to nutritious food).

Empowering community-based enterprises to

Improve livelihoods and economic prosperity

Increase community participation, decision-making and leadership

Enable positive changes within the community in the five capitals of sustainable development: natural, human, economic, physical and social

We acknowledge that Community Evolution’s work is primarily performed on unceded Indigenous land belonging to the Coast Salish Peoples including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We acknowledge further that reconciliation is work and we are ready to do our part in service to First Nations on unceded territories across the Province of British Columbia.

Get involved!

There are many ways to support our mission for the benefit of communities in Bolivia, Ecuador and Canada.