Our vision for northern housing is for every family to have a home that his healthy, well-constructed, well-maintained & energy efficient.
A good housing strategy is composed of partnerships, which build capacity as well as homes, using as many local materials as is ecologically or economically practical.

Date and Location
February 21 - 23, 2012, Canad Inns Polo Park, Winnipeg, MB

Special Room Rate:
$102 plus tax, to book a room call 1-888-332-2623 and quote Group Number 195433

Streams:

Forum Description:
Northern and Aboriginal communities are faced with many challenges in improving their housing. There are numerous models of successful partnerships in northern housing management and technology such as Frontiers Foundation’s Standing Tree to Standing Home program. In strategic planning workshop sessions, participants will learn how to combine employment and training, economic development, capital and social budgets toward training community members to build and maintain their housing stock using local resources and products. Communities will bring local information/ stats etc. to the Forum for use in planning sessions and workshops.

Workshop streams will focus on building community and regional capacity for:

• Greener approaches to heat, sewer and water that will address ongoing community infrastructure costs;
• Creating Housing and Community Spaces that are positive determinants of health;
• Training community members to build houses appropriate to northern climate using locally harvested and milled lumber;
• Designing local options for social housing management and home ownership.
• Promoting greater housing stewardship and ownership to reduce cost of maintenance and increase housing longevity.

The Forum will close with a special session on taking it home, with materials, contact information, user friendly templates, and a Forum evaluation. Forum presentations and documents will be available on the Frontiers Foundation website and if requested by CD or paper copy so that participants and others will have access to this information.

Invitees:
Approximately 500 participants from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and North-Western Ontario, including:

• First Nation Leadership, Housing Managers, Employment & Training, Economic Development
• Northern Association of Community Councils (off-reserve northern communities)
• Tribal Councils and Metis locals
• Federal and Provincial public servants in the ministries related to Housing, Forestry, Employment and Training, Economic Development, and Aboriginal and Northern Affairs.
• Professionals and Students in Building Trades and Engineering/Architecture professions.
• Standing Tree to Standing Home instructors and trainees.