Regenerative Communities

The initiative, led by Athabasca University, “Strategic Framework: Rural Housing Affordability & Food Sovereignty,” emphasizes quality through decommodification in the built environment. The roadmap is grounded in guiding values such as ecological restoration, cultural richness, social justice, equitable economics, community empowerment, and transparency. It identifies systemic inhibitors like top-down regulatory frameworks, geographic isolation, limited financial accessibility, and de-skilling that impede rural development. The roadmap provides various strategies to combat these challenges, including advocating for responsive rural policy reform, advancing local needs-focused environmental initiatives, scaling proven rural economic models, and implementing dynamic quality monitoring. The roadmap visualizes the progression from foundational stages like community roundtables and research development to implementing policy frameworks, pilot deployments, and ongoing monitoring. The final stages focus on feedback and knowledge dissemination.