Rural Islands Economic Partnership 🍂 Autumn 2025 Newsletter: Communities Talking + 'Shine Online' for the Holidays + Info Hub

SUSTAINING A VIBRANT COMMUNITY NETWORK

With your continued support, RIEP is advancing the development of a dynamic, community-driven network for strengthening connections among BC's coastal rural, remote, and Indigenous coastal communities. We are committed to convening, informing, and advocating for locally-developed solutions that are essential for long-term economic, environmental, and social sustainability.

In collaboration with both Indigenous and settler community organizations, stakeholders, and policymakers, we are amplifying grassroots initiatives by facilitating the exchange of trusted information, providing tools and resources, and fostering meaningful dialogue, advocacy, and action.

RIEP’s mandate is to ensure that our voices are heard and respected as we actively shape the future—empowering us all to persevere and thrive.

Network > Advocate > Support > Activate

INTRODUCING THE 'COMMUNITIES TALKING PROJECT'

A new Pilot initiative, the Communities Talking Project, is set to transform how economic data is gathered and shared in rural island and rural coastal communities.

Led by RIEP and backed by new funding, the Project blends Indigenous knowledge with traditional economic data gathering to create localized, community-driven economic profiles. Instead of relying on broad statistics, it focuses on lived experience and meaningful data collected directly from communities.

In 2026, RIEP's Project Team will collaborate with three rural island communities to:

Explore how communities define economic well-being
Identify what data matters most to residents
Test innovative tools for data collection and storytelling

The Goal: support job creation, attract investment, and empower communities to make informed, future-focused decisions.

At its core, Communities Talking is about listening to communities and ensuring their voices shape their economic future.

We’ll be sharing progress updates soon.

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Visit RisingTideBusiness.ca ➝

Check-Out RIEP's Info Hub

A trusted resource for information, insights, and connections for supporting the resiliency of BC’s rural, remote and coastal communities.

QUICK LINKS:

Become A RIEP Member

Together We Are Building A Vibrant Rural-Coastal Communities Network

• • •

RIEP serves to empower British Columbia’s

rural islands and remote coastal communities by honouring reconciliation and by collaborating and convening to share information, resources and opportunities.

We network, we advocate, we support, and we take action to achieve enduring socio-economic well-being together.

Network > Advocate > Support > Activate

We respectfully acknowledge that this correspondence has been sent from the traditional

unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the WSÁNEĆ First Nations and Hul'quimi'num Treaty Group, whose historical relationship with the land continues to this day.

The Rural Islands Economic Partnership (RIEP) leads, inspires, and cultivates sustainable economic resilience and community well-being through collaborative initiatives and partnerships for the benefit of BC's rural islands, rural-remote coastal regions, and the Indigenous Communities who have traditional or reserve lands on these lands.