Transition Network – Growing Great Ideas!

Growing Great Ideas exists to support transformational change across the UK, change that matches the scale of the challenges and complexities we face. By providing long-term investment in groups and networks that are pioneering new ways of doing things, that go well beyond fixing or adapting the current systems, it aims to fundamentally transform the systems in which we live.

We’re honoured to be recognised as a pioneering network and welcome the opportunity to build on the amazing work Transition groups in Britain have been doing over the last 15 years – growing resilience, sustainability and social equity in their communities. With this long-term funding we will develop the infrastructure and capacity of our groups – supporting them to launch new initiatives, build diverse partnerships, develop skills and share best practice, and enabling us to deepen, lengthen and widen the impact of our network.

We will do this by focusing on 4 core areas:

Network & Capacity Building

We will use community network leadership strategies to create the conditions for peer connection, support and learning. Using a combination of online tools, training and events we will support people and groups in Great Britain to develop and deepen their skill sets and forge new connections across the country. We want to build local communities’ capacity to lead and engage in practices of foresight and imagination as well as developing a greater understanding of working with complex power and racial dynamics.

Seed Funding

On a yearly basis we will distribute resources to Transition groups and their partners in England and Wales, to enable grassroots activity that has an impact on the ground and builds the capacity and ambition of groups. This will be achieved via seed funding of micro grants for local groups to run hyper-local experiments. Doing this will allow more communities to innovate and experiment with community-led and owned solutions to persistent social problems.

Hub Development

We will support the development of distributive and grassroots leadership across the Transition movement in England and Wales – creating the infrastructure for decentralising the movement in a way that has already been achieved in Scotland and other parts of the world. This strand will support the shift to a leadership model that aligns with Transition Network’s long-term direction towards distributing power, resources and responsibilities to Transition Hubs and circles.

Movement of Movements

We will also focus on supporting the development of networks, relationships and partnerships between all sorts of different people and organisations who are working to build community power and resilience in Great Britain. We will play a role in creating an ecology of  community-led movements through developing the CTRLshift coalition and supporting the Transition Scotland Hub and the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network, enabling greater collaboration and potential to be realised.

This funding allows us to build upon the great work carried out this year by the Transition: Bounce Forward team, who will be leading on this work and launching their new name and website in September.

We’re so thrilled to be sharing this news with you today, and we’re excited about working with an amazing ecosystem of Transition groups and partner organisations as we build more resilient, sustainable and socially just communities over the next 10 years.

You can read more about our vision in this blog published by The National Lottery Community Fund, and make sure you sign up to the mailing list so you don’t miss any of the exciting updates and project developments as they happen.

Our thanks to National Lottery Players, and The National Lottery Community Fund for enabling us to grow great ideas!