Launch of This Website
Welcome to Living on Denman
Where do you find someone who can repair a fence, tune a piano, prune an orchard, help with a computer, or explain which community organisation does what?
On Denman, the answer has often been: “ask someone who knows someone.”
That remains an excellent system… when you happen to ask the right person. Living on Denman has been created to make more of our island’s collective knowledge easier for everyone to find.
Living on Denman is a new community resource website designed to help residents navigate everyday needs and connect with the people, organisations, services, skills, places, events, and local knowledge that make island life work.
At the heart of the website are two searchable directories.
The Community Services Directory brings together local organisations, programs, facilities, groups, public services, supports, and other resources that contribute to life on Denman.
The Skills Directory helps residents find local tradespeople, businesses, producers, professionals, craftspeople, and neighbours offering practical skills and services: from construction, gardening, land care, and firewood to food, fitness, creative work, technology, animal care, and much more.
We have gathered as much information as we could, but no directory of Denman could ever be declared entirely finished. People arrive, retire, change telephone numbers, begin new projects, acquire surprising skills, and occasionally remember to update their websites.
Living on Denman is therefore intended to be exactly what its name suggests: “a living resource”, continually corrected, expanded, and improved by the community it serves.
Please take a look through the website. Search for your organisation, community service, business, or skill. Is the information accurate? Are you missing altogether? Do you know of a useful resource that should be included?
The “Add or Update” form makes it easy to suggest a new listing, correct existing information, or let us know about something we have overlooked. Community groups, local organisations, service providers, tradespeople, artists, growers, professionals, and anyone with useful skills to offer are warmly encouraged to participate.
The site also includes Denman Places (a work in progress), Denman Events, and other practical information intended to help residents find what they need, discover what is happening, and become more connected with the place we share.
Living on Denman is a project of Denman Works, which now operates under the umbrella of the Denman Island Residents Association (DIRA). It builds upon many years of work collecting and sharing information about local organisations, services, livelihoods, and community resources.
A website cannot replace the conversations, bulletin boards, friendships, chance encounters, and informal networks that have always kept Denman connected, and it is not trying to. The hope is simply to give all that local knowledge another useful home: one that is clean, searchable, accessible, and available whenever someone needs it.
Please visit http://livingondenman.ca, look around, test the directories, and help us make the site more complete.
Because on an island, knowing what is here, and knowing how to find it, makes life a little easier for everyone.
Tony Gregson
Denman Works