Can You Dig It was founded in 2009 by posAbilities, a non-profit Community Living organization, as an innovative way to create new opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities and their neighbours through food gardening. For over a decade, posAbilities created and supported nearly 40 community gardens on public and private lands throughout the Lower Mainland, engaging over 40 partner organizations and 1,700 gardeners. These gardens became welcoming spaces and thrived on diversity. They fostered social inclusion, skill development, intergenerational knowledge transfer, food security, and most importantly, a sense of space and belonging.
In 2019, posAbilities turned the program over to the Public Health Association of BC (PHABC) to scale and iterate province-wide. Learning from PHABC’s Farm to School BC program and holding posAbilities’ original vision of gardens being an inclusive community building space, Can You Dig It is making waves across the province and now looks to amplify what is already happening in municipalities by promoting regional and cross municipal learning opportunities and networks.
