In celebration of new partnerships and relational being, this month's blog is a telling of interconnectedness, land access, community, and the relations that tie it all together.

Land access is a human right and core need for survival. We’ve often been taught to see land as commodity, land as wealth. This mindset has detrimental impacts on both land and human relations. What does it look like to hold our relationship to land as kin, as care, as vital to wholistic being and wellness for ourselves and all living beings?

This long-held question at WholeHeart is core to a current partnership with Community Resilience Organizations (CROs) in service of the Vermont Land Access and Opportunity Board (LAOB). This collaboration is the dream child of Jess Laporte – activist, community organizer, Vermonter of Canadian and Haitian heritage, and friend to serve the LAOB as facilitators as they prepare for future staff.

“ Each person lit up talking about places of meaning and memory for them.

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The LAOB was created by the Vermont General Assembly in Act 182 of 2022 to engage with Vermont organizations working on housing equity and land access "to recommend new opportunities and improve access to woodlands, farmland, and land and home ownership for Vermonters from historically marginalized or disadvantaged communities who continue to face barriers to land and home ownership."

It is an honor to be folded into the work of the LAOB in this way, and to tend the growth of this process and these relations. Every board member is representative of a wider web of community and lived expertise. Every conversation is a thread in the fabric of our evolving collective being. We are grateful to align our mission and values with the LAOB and CROs at this juncture in their progress for justice and equanimity on the land and in our state.

On May 15 we facilitated our first LAOB meeting. We began by inviting board members: In the spirit of land access, share a favorite place or landscape you enjoy. Each person lit up talking about places of meaning and memory for them. The importance of this work and process could be felt in a vivid way.

In turn, we ask you: “in the spirit of land relations and access, what favorite place or landscape do you care for?”

What shifts in our actions and ways of being when we remember we care?