May 2023

We incorporated on May 2, 2023 and the Tribe Network's Start Small Grant powered by Emera allowed us to recover the costs from incorporation.

October 2023

With support from the Michaëlle Jean Foundation's Power of Youth grant, we hired AntiMatter Labs to build this website. We decided to do this early on to share our own story, updates, information, and progress with supporters near and far.

We attended the 2023 Canadian Network of Community Land Trust’s inaugural summit in Toronto, Ontario and facilitated a panel on Racial Justice in CLT’s.

December 2023

We partnered with the University of Toronto on a project titled “Weymouth Falls Community Land Trust: Finding Paths Forward”. The final report, drafted by Masters of Science in Planning students, presented recommendations for the establishment of a Community Land Trust (CLT) in the village of Weymouth Falls, Digby County, Nova Scotia.

January 2024

Reclaim CDO's Community-led Housing fund allowed us to start a project called “Ain’t I a woman? Applying Sojourner Truth’s Philosophy to Housing Needs Assessments in Weymouth Falls”. Building on the Rural Development Network’s housing needs assessment worksheet, this project will expand the template to consider a more qualitative approach to understand housing needs in deeply rural communities who may not be accurately represented in existing data sets. This project will be completed by March 31, 2025.

We were selected to participate in the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts organizational development program for BIPOC-led start-up CLTs. This project uses a cohort approach to provide direct support, knowledge sharing, and funding for external consultants for five BIPOC organizations. Groups will be guided through key organizational development activities, building readiness for land acquisitions and development for three years. This project will run from 2024 - 2027.

February 2024

With support from the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts' organizational development microgrant, we piloted a standard planning procedure in collaboration with Zzap to evaluate a parcel of land's base viability for development. The pilot was successful and will be replicated on every parcel of interest to ensure we are focused on the properties with the most potential.

Our organization was accepted into the Clean Foundation’s Community Climate Capacity (CCC) program, funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Climate Change. This program is giving our community access to a dedicated team of specialists who guiding us through climate mitigation and adaptation strategies for three years, from 2024 - 2027.

The Weymouth Falls Community Land Trust received grant support from the Government of Canada’s Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative and the Tropicana Community Services to undertake two projects: One focused on Capacity Building and one focussed on Capital Assistance. In June 2024, we concluded our first series of community mapping sessions to identify the sites that are the most significant to our community members. Both projects will be completed by March 31, 2025.

April 2024

With support from the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism's Community Network grant, we started a project called “We Been Here: Preventing the erasure of Weymouth Falls through intentional cultural preservation”. The key activities of this project will be to create a strategic acquisition plan to preserve the three sites of most significance that were identified by the community. These sites are the Sam Langford Community Centre, the Mount Beulah Baptist Church, and the 19-acre parcel of property commonly referred to by the community as the Dam. This project will conclude in March 2025.

May 2024

We participated in a study tour organized by the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts in the United States with the goal to identify successful practices and lessons learned that could be replicated or adapted. The tour included stops in Oakland, California; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Albany, Georgia.

June 2024

With support from a Veterans Affairs Canada grant, we started a project called “Forgotten No Longer: Commemorating the Lives and Service of No. 2 Construction Battalion Members”. The key activities of this project will be to create a webpage dedicated to honour those from Weymouth Falls and surrounding areas who served in No.2 Construction Battalion. The project will conclude in May 2025.

We were selected to participate in the Black Opportunity Fund's BOF & BCFC Grant and B3 Capacity Building Program. This grant and program will allow us to build our organizational capacity to interact with Canada's Housing Plan. This program will run until March 2025.

August 2024

We were featured in an event titled "Building Affordable Futures with Black-led Community Land Trusts", a pivotal gathering of Canadian and US CLT's focused own sharing lessons learned during our May 2024 study tour in the US. The event was attended baby the Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities of Canada.

We completed our final community mapping session. This activity supported community members in identifying the sites of most significance to them and will be used to create acquisition and stewardship priorities for our organization.

October 2024

We hired an 8th generation descendant of the community of Weymouth Falls through a Request for Proposals process to digitize our community map.

We received funding from The Association of Black Social Workers (ABSW) Micro-Grant program to host a community winter dinner in December.

We attended the 2024 Canadian Network of Community Land Trust’s Summit in Vancouver, British Colombia and participated in a panel on The Movement with Black Land Stewardship. Our co-panelists were representatives from Hogans Alley Society (Vancouver, BC), Rondo Community Land Trust (St, Paul, MN) and Africatown Community Land Trust (Seattle, WA).