The Village Hearth Initiative is a non profit organization dedicated to promoting Nature Connection through mentorship and culturally regenerative practices.

We achieve this mission by a series of emerging programs, the most recognized is the Guelph Outdoor School which offers immersion programs for young people to foster nature connection in youth.

We are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction in the planet’s history. The past five have wiped out between 75% and 96% of the planet’s species. Today, species are disappearing 1,000 times faster than in pre-human times.

Technology has simultaneously sparked what author Florence Williams, in The Nature Fix, calls the “biggest mass migration in human history”—a migration indoors, behind screens. This creates a dilemma: Why should people care about nature if they don’t go outside?

Village Hearth Initiative (VHI) is a platform for supporting timely, accessible, and varied projects, programs and events designed to re-integrate nature connection into the fabric of families, community, business and education.  VHI designs and generates culturally regenerative initiatives and also serves as a hub for sharing on regional and international efforts which match and support our mandate, including work centered on conservation & stewardship, rites of passage, decolonization & reparations, education and mentorship.