Transition Network Diversity Newsletter March 2011
By Catrina Pickering 28th March 2011
Transition Network Diversity and Inclusion Newsletter March 2011
WELCOME to the Transition Network’s bi-monthly Diversity and Inclusion newsletter. We aim to get this newsletter out to you approximately every two months. Please forward it onto anyone you think may be interested and encourage them to sign up at the subscription link below.
Transition Network Diversity and Inclusion News
LOCKERBIE LISTENING: Transition and Community Development
Jane Gray from Lets Live Local in Moffatt has written this very detailed account of her recent activities supporting the town of Lockerbie (a small low income town in south-west Scotland) to explore ways of responding to high fuel and energy prices, food security and local resilience.
Read more on the Transition Network website
OAKVILLE (CANADA): Reflecting our diverse communities
Transition Oakville in Canada are being supported by FutureWatch (an organisation specialising in incomer inclusion in the green economy) to undertake a project aimed at enabling and including newcomer and immigrant communities. They’ll map and look at ways of engaging newcomer and immigrant groups within the communities they serve. FutureWatch will then facilitate a series of workshops for the staff and volunteers of Transition Oakville and Toronto Green Community (also partnering on the project) that will provide practical tools, policies and procedures. Finally, they’ll then be learning about and adapting ‘promising/best practices’ on newcomer inclusion in the environmental sector.
For further information read more on the Futurewatch website or read more on the Transition Network website
Llambed: Lanterns, schools and clothes swaps
Following on from the Diversity workshops in July and September of 2010, Transition Llambed in Wales have sent a report on their activities. Through a pre-Christmas lantern parade, working in schools and regular clothes swaps, they’ve begun to create activities that bring both incomers and Welsh people together, thereby building relationships and connections with a wider range of people across the town.
Read more on the Transition Network website
Transition Stroud Potato Day
Transition Stroud recently organised a great Potato Day event. Instead of holding the event at the Farmers Market (one of their regular locations), they struck out to a new location – the local shopping centre – in an attempt to engage a wider range of local residents. Their stall was also manned by people with learning disabilities who they contacted through a local charity. Everyone involved had a great day, making it a strong example of working together with everyone in your community. Philip Booth from Transition Stroud who helped to organise the event said; “We’re particularly keen to explore how we can make Transition Stroud more inclusive. Part of this will be building on relationships with the charity that we’ve started to create through collaboration on the Potato Day”.
To see a video (already 450 views) and find out more, read more on the Stroud Potato Day website
Quaker and Transition Conference
24-26 June 2011, Woodbrooke, Birmingham
If you are a Quaker already engaged, or just starting to get involved, in Transition activity (or other similar low-carbon communities), this weekend is for you. Come as an individual, or come representing your meeting’s involvement. We aim to share and learn from each other’s experiences, and look at what Quakers can both contribute to, and learn from, collaborative work in our local communities. Is there something unique that Quakers can bring, from our processes and testimonies?
Ensuite Fee: £184.00 Standard Fee: £174.00. There are just 18 places left so book soon to guarantee a place.
Event profile on the Transition Network website
The faith movie we’ve all been waiting for
A blog post by Ben Brangwyn of Transition Network. He says “If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it – faith leaders speaking with one voice on the ecological and social crises of our time.”
Have a read of Ben’s blog post, and make sure you read all the way to the end.
New Directions at Faith and Environment Event
A report from the recent “Interfaith Seminar on Environment and Sustainability” at Lambeth Palace which, brought together people from faith communities across the UK who are active in building resilience against climate change. Discussion included joining the dots between environmental and other forms of faith based social action, making faith houses more sustainable by opening them out to the wider public and building a spiritual response to climate change.
Read more on the Transition Network website
Islam and Environment In-depth Resource
Saeed Abdulrahim of Transition Town Finsbury Park has written an in-depth 40 page analysis of Islam and the environment which draws on the two main Islamic sources – the Quran and Hadith. It includes topics on the oneness of the Creator; planets, pastures and pollination in Islamic ecology and medical sciences.
News, events and resources from elsewhere
NEW Resource! Creating interfaith and environment initiatives
LIFE – Local Initiative for Faith and Environment – began in the summer of 2009, springing from a history of interfaith relationship-building in Lambeth, South London. It brings together women of faith as well as women involved in environmental work to undertake environmental activities. The LIFE Pack is an inter-changeable series of resource sheets, using the framework of the tried and tested LIFE events as a template, to enable LIFE hubs to take root in and be run by local people. The sheets are assembled in the colourful LIFE Jackets, folders made out of old carrier bags by local Lambeth artist Maggie Winnall. They offer suggestions for how either individuals or existing community groups can start hosting LIFE gatherings.
Read more on the Transition Network website
Job Opportunity: Enterprise and Partnership Manager, Trafford Hall, Chester
Job opportunity at Trafford Hall, a national centre which offers training and support to all those living and working in low-income areas throughout the United Kingdom. The Enterprise and Partnership Manager will find innovative and imaginative ways to generate income to bridge the funding gap created by the loss of government grants and pressure on charitable funds. Specifically, the post must become self-financing within two years. Deadline: 31st March 2011.
Read more on the Transition Network website
Over to you…
If you’ve got news items, events or something you’re proud of that you’d like to include in next month’s Diversity Newsletter, please send submissions to catrinapickering@transitionnetwork.org.