S3E1 – When work keeps families apart

In Atlantic Canada, long-distance commuting for work is a daily reality for many families, particularly those living in rural areas. Families can be separated for weeks, months, or sometimes even years, with loved ones working away and their families keeping life moving along at home.

Atlantic Canadian families living with long-distance commutes tend to face many of the same challenges. Many have developed formal and informal ways of dealing with the, often invisible, pressures of separation. In this episode of Rural Routes, we speak to community leaders, researchers, and people with lived experience about how long-distance commuting can affect families, about the networks and supports that those people are building and about ways these families and those who serve them might benefit from more support.

This episode of Rural Routes is based on interviews with researchers, mobile workers and their family members done at the Families, Work and Mobility Symposium in Prince Edward Island. The symposium happened because so many people lead organizer Christina Murray spoke with during her research told her, “I wish there was an opportunity for people to come together to talk about this issue and how it impacts me, my family and my community.”

Resources:
Families, Work, and Mobility
On the Move Partnership
Vanier Family Foundation
Christina Murray

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

CHMR Campus Radio

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

S2E10-Opioid crisis in rural Canada – Pt. I

The opioid crisis impacts hundreds of thousands of lives across North America and rural areas are increasingly at risk. To investigate the impacts of opioids in rural contexts, we’re presenting a special two-episode edition of Rural Routes, featuring stories from both individuals and institutions with experience on the frontlines of the rural opioid crisis. These difficult and sometimes inspiring stories address important questions about the fight against opioid addiction; are rural communities disproportionately affected? How are individuals and institutions working, or not working, to help communities heal? Is enough being done? In this we hear stories of personal challenge and determination from Stephen Miller, a recovering user and vivid storyteller, and Susan Boone and Brian Reese, whose personal experiences led them to organize a community-based harm reduction program on a small island off the coast of Newfoundland.

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

CHMR Campus Radio

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.

S2E9 – Fantasy Farming

While the numbers of farms in North America are decreasing every year, virtual farms are thriving. What does the bounty of farming related computer, video and mobile games say about the urban-rural divide? Are they just dumb time wasters, or could they actually be used to help create both knowledge and understanding? Join us for a (slightly goofy) chat about virtual pigs and cows, and the millions of people playing them. Our guests include video game researcher and film and media studies professor Dr. Alenda Chang of University of California, Santa Barbara and gamer Andrew Cohoe. We’ll also ask Jane Tucker, originally of Southern Ontario, but now living in St. Philips, Newfoundland and Labrador, what puts her town on the map.

Resources

Wireframe lab

Rural Routes Partners:
The Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development, MUN
Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation 
Rural Policy Learning Commons Partnership
The National Campus and Community Radio Association

CHMR Campus Radio

Music by Laura C. Bates performed by Trent Severn.