About Us

We are a non-profit organization with charitable status providing composting, waste diversion, and ecological gardening education to CRD residents.  Our core funding is generously provided by the CRD. The Compost Education Centre is located on unceded and occupied Indigenous territories, specifically the land of the Lekwungen speaking people—the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. These nations are two of many, made up of individuals who have lived within the porous boundaries of what is considered Coast Salish, Nuu-Chah-Nulth and Kwakwa’wakw Territory (Vancouver Island) since time immemorial. At the CEC we seek to respect, honour and continually grow our own understandings of Indigenous rights and history, and to fulfill our responsibilities as settlers, who live and work directly with the land and its complex, vital ecologies and our diverse, evolving communities.

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Our Mission

The Compost Education Centre reconnects many people, young and old, to simple, land based, resiliency practices.  Our organizational practices sustain the CEC, the natural environment, and our communities.  We actively work towards right relations, anti-oppression and environmental justice in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples on whose land we work.

 

Our Vision

To cultivate resilient communities, which enable the land and all living beings to thrive.

 

 

Values

Reciprocity is mutual dependence, action, or influence. We depend on functioning ecosystems to meet our needs and support our wellbeing, and we have a reciprocal responsibility to steward our ecosystems’ health and wellbeing. We want to cultivate a community of people who exist in a community of reciprocity with the plants, animals, etc. around us.

 

Adaptability means that we can adjust to new conditions. We can expect a lot of change in the future, both short-term and long-term, and we will be able to adjust and change course to continue thriving in our community of plants and people.

 

Curiosity is a strong desire to learn or know something. We recognize curiosity in the children, youth, and adults in our community who come to the Compost Education Centre to learn about climate-resilient practices. We meet the needs of our community by continuing to be curious ourselves. We want to be in a state of continuous learning so that we can be good teachers and role models.

 

Joy is a radical thing in this world. Radical can mean far-reaching and thorough – and it can also mean proceeding from a root. To be joyful in this world, we need to be grounded and intentional. We incorporate laugher, play, and a sense of awe into our daily lives. It is with a deep sense of joy that we counter and work through moments of challenge and darkness.

 

We stay in touch with our social and environmental surroundings by being grounded. We begin our work with an awareness that we are located on unceded Esquimalt and Songhees territories, and our work allows us to visit Coast Salish lands. We believe in growing roots in community and grounding our work in natural cycles as the challenges and opportunities we face are specific to the place and time where we find ourselves.

 

Planting kale in August that will be harvested throughout the winter
One of the many spaghetti squash that planted itself in the raspberry patch.
James Davis, volunteer building our large Solar Dehydrator found on-site.
Launch of the Worm Poop Centennial Project in collaboration with the Victoria Horticultural Society
Healing City Soils program installation of Bioremediation plot at SṈIDȻEȽ.
Flipping hot compost.