Our organization emerged from Sky Dragon Centre, a multi-faceted community space/wellness centre created in 1996 and situated in downtown Hamilton. For six years the centre has been a home to classes in dance, meditation, yoga, and martial arts, a meeting space for various community and activist groups, and a venue for numerous theatrical and artistic productions. From this successful experiment, we are now dedicated to expanding and intensifying all aspects of the centre. This entails casting a wider circle, drawing on broader community support, and making a long-term commitment by purchasing a building and moving the current centre's activities.

The centre currently being developed will consist of an integrated learning centre, a fair-trade/organic cafe, studios for wellness and arts classes, office and meeting space for community groups, a co-op store, a community media centre and a holistic health clinic. It will be housed in a heritage building located in the city core and will be renovated to create a "sustainable building" - involving energy-efficient construction methods, roof-top gardens, solar panels, and the eventual introduction of wind power generation. In Hamilton, as in many North American cities, the downtown core has been neglected through poor planning and urban sprawl. With our project, we intend to re-invest in the downtown and help its return to a vibrant, diverse community.

Establishing the centre will introduce a living example of sustainable living into downtown Hamilton, yet it is only the first stage of a much broader plan. Through the project, a team of community activists will become knowledgeable in the development process and can then explore other socially and environmentally conscious community development projects. Ideas being considered include developing large-scale green affordable housing co-ops, starting an organic farm, and purchasing land to develop a retreat centre/eco-community.

The centre will also facilitate these initiatives by providing resources, with all surplus revenue generated by Sky Dragon entering into a project development fund. With this fund, a network of innovative cooperative and non-profit ventures can be established. The goal is to create more sustainable buildings, work-places and lifestyles within our city and in other cities Canada-wide.

The people managing the centre project at this point are Kevin MacKay and Dan Smith - two Hamilton residents with unique skills, community roots and a passion for change. However, the centre is much bigger than just two people. There is a collection of top-notch instructors in dance, karate, internal martial arts, yoga, and meditation. There are also co-operative directors that provide integrity and grounding in business and in social/environmental sustainability. Finally, there are the members of this community who support our project through funding, institutional partnership, patronage of centre services, and simply offering solidarity and encouragement. There is room for everybody within the circle!