Cascadia: Our Framework for Change

Cascadia - A lifelong journey

A Philosophy - Cascadia and bioregionalism is more than just a place or movement, rather it is a commitment to a way of life, and a life long journey each of us have made

On a personal level - work to better ourselves in our habits, principles, how we eat, consume, work and play - and improve our relationship to the land we live and rely on.
On a an interpersonal level - examine how we treat each other, approach others with respect and compassion, work to make every interaction a positive one, learn about the history and context of how we came to be to where we are, create spaces to address past injustices, and work in equitable and a just manner together in mutual aid, solidarity and support.
On a societal level - create new models, tools, culture and identity - the sum of all of our interpersonal actions and choices, which is positive, inclusive and authentic, rooted in place, and create accessible pathways for the 15 million people who live here to hook in, get involved, and shift our impact as a region. Magnify the solutions already existing.

Together, a Cascadian seeks to live bioregionally, to live and work according to bioregional principles, living in a sustainable manner with a net positive impact on their land and community.

An Interdependence Movement - Cascadia, more than anything else, is a movement to help build the inter-dependence, sustainability and resiliency for the Cascadia bioregion. We start from our watersheds, and use the idea of Cascadia as a framework, guided by key principles, to break global issues down to a local level, increase the accountability and transparency of our regional economic and food systems, and move our actions and impacts to where individuals have the greatest say in the issues that affect their lives. Different communities will have different needs, and will be the best suited to confront the issues facing those communities, but by sharing a land base, we will all have common principles, values and concerns that will pull us together.

As a social and cultural movement it is the sum of our interpersonal interactions, and in which every person can take responsibility for are own actions, and towards a community based model for watershed governance. Bioregionalism, at it’s root is the idea that maybe we should care about whats flowing from upstream of us, and what we ourselves are dumping downstream. Regardless of arbitrary political lines, it will take all of us living along that watershed to make real change happen. Rather than a segmented approach, Bioregionalism creates a model for decentralized placed based movements & hubs, rather than simply a political one in which we send people to a voting box every four years, or wait for someone else to do it for us.

This Theory of Change helps provide us with a framework to shift these actions. Culture stems from place, and together, this help builds a newregional identity rooted in a love of place, with shared principles, values, and concerns. Cascadia is a vision we can be working towards, and a movement that empowers every person to walk out their front door, make a difference about what they care about, and connect with the people already in their community making that change happen.

Bioregionalism is not a national or global solution. Instead, it is an alternative, place based model to ideas like nationalism or capitalism, and a framework to empower a mutual and collaborative network of bioregional movements around the world, each able to learn from each other, adopt models that are best suited for the issues in their own locality, and to empower every person to affect the change we need.

Cascadia is a social, economic and political movement that exists to steward this bioregional vision within our own watershed. We hope you join us.

Theory of Change: By Cascadia Founding Director, Brandon Letsinger