The Bayou Culture Collaborative offers several workshops and presentations on the human dimension of environmental change that can be presented to various audiences, including arts and culture networks, planners, environmentalists, mental health professionals, social workers, and the general public.  Workshops can vary in length from 1.5 to 3 hours. Shorter presentations are available. CEUs are available.

The types of workshops include:

CULTURAL STRATEGIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTATION AND MIGRATION

Presented by Maida Owens and Shana Walton

The Cultural Strategies workshops have several modules that can be presented together or separately depending on the group’s needs and expertise.  The premise is that environmental planners should consider a group’s or region’s culture which provides a sense of well being and community connections when disruptions occur, whether people are staying in place or relocating. CEUs are available through the American Planning Association.

Groups can choose which modules are most appropriate. Modules include:

1. Using Stories as Tools,
2. Environmental Change Overview, Assessing Risk,
3. Migration Overview: Adapting in Place, Why Migrate, Migration Variables
4. Why include culture in planning
5. Activating culture: Project spotlights and case studies
6. Cautions and Understandings
7. Preparing Receiving Communities
8. Taking action: Plan to Plan

Modules 1-4 are especially useful for individuals new to this work or to level up a group in order to delve deeper in modules 5-8, which focus on how the arts can be an important tool for communities staying in place or relocating and provides cultural strategies that communities can use to welcome newcomers and foster a sense of place for both long-term residents and newcomers.

An Introduction to Environmental Adaptation, Migration and Relocation Planning (a workshop)

This workshop introduces planners to key environmental planning concerns, specifically adaptation, migration, and relocation planning, with a focus on understanding how cultural strategies can help communities address disruption and adapt whether they are staying, migrating, or receiving newcomers. The overview includes a discussion of why people migrate and migration variables. This workshop is particularly useful for individuals new to this work, and offers tools planners can use to help a group delve deeper into understanding the realities of local risks and the complexities of migration and relocation. Modules include: Environmental Change Overview/Assessing Risk; Migration Overview: Adapting in Place; Why Migrate? and Migration Variables; Including Culture in Migration Planning; and Using Stories as Tools. Groups can choose which modules are most appropriate.

Participants will

1.  Learn about adaptation and the human dimension in order to participate in the community resilience conversation
2. Learn key concepts such as adaptation, mitigation, originating and receiving communities, community-driven decision making.
3. Learn how the human dimension, such as attachment to place and decision making about migration, is an integral part of the community resilience conversation
4. Understand issues related to migration within the United States
5. Learn what community culture is and its role in our sense of well-being
6. Learn cautions and understanding of the complexity of adaptation/migration planning.

An earlier version of this section on migration was recorded and is available on the LFS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNLX4Rqm9fs 

Activating Culture for Environmental Adaptation Planning (a workshop)

This workshop explores how culture and tradition are resources planners can use to help their communities adapt in times of transition and disruption. The workshop includes an overview of what culture and tradition mean for planners and offers examples of uses of culture that build community cohesion. In this interactive workshop, participants use tools provided to evaluate their own community’s risk of migration or possibility of receiving migrants and then identify possible partners and cultural resources. Finally, the workshop offers strategies to activate their community culture as a resource during periods of transition and disruption – including tools such as storytelling, public art, celebrations of heritage, community projects, and more. These strategies are equally valuable for those staying in place and those migrating, both newcomers and long-term residents.

Participants will

1. Learn to define “culture” for policymakers and explain why culture is a way to mitigate disruption
2. Identify aspects of their community culture, as well as learn how to gather information to create a fuller picture of their community culture
3. Learn cultural strategies and resources to activate culture by bringing forward traditions (at both the individual and community levels)
4. Learn strategies to help those adapting in place as well as those in receiving communities to welcome newcomers
5. Become aware of resources and potential partners to implement plans for their community
6. Begin work on a plan outlining steps to mobilize culture to mitigate disruption in their communities

An earlier version of this section, with an emphasis on the arts, was recorded as The Role of the Arts in Climate Adaptation and Migration.

Together, the two workshops are three-hours long with seven activities that help attendees discover not only their personal story, but their community’s story.  A workbook can be provided that includes sources of those covered in the workshop.   CEUs from the American Planning Association are available.

For more information about how this workshop can help your network, contact Maida Owens, maidaowens@gmail.com

Resources

Arts, Culture, and Climate Migration Resource List

BCC Plan to Plan Worksheet.docx

Maida Owens is a folklorist who directed the Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program from 1988 to 2025. She is a co-founder of the Bayou Culture Collaborative, an initiative of the Louisiana Folklore Society. Her focus is on the impact of migration upon our cultures in the face of disruption.

Shana Walton is an anthropologist, professor emerita at Nicholls State University (Thibodaux, LA) and a co-founder of the Bayou Culture Collaborative (BCC). She is co-author of Bayou Harvest: Subsistence Practice on the Gulf Coast, a documentation of hunting, fishing, and gardening practices in Coastal Louisiana and winner of the 2025 James Mooney Award. Currently, she is a project coordinator for the BCC and the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center.