Transition Town Tooting

Tag: Conference

  • Team London’s International Volunteering Conference, December 5th at London’s City Hall

    Egle, Jenny and Chuck were honoured to be able to present our shared experience from the joint CARAS + TTT ‘Rooting in Tooting’ project at this free conference yesterday. It was run by Team London to celebrate the end of London’s tenure as International City of Volunteering for 2016. Over 300 people attended.

    We tried to tell the story visually with pictures of participants and activities over 2015 and 2016. Here’s a snapshot of our presentation:

    You can look at the slides in the normal way by clicking here on the conference website. Our session was shared with Alkisti Macrynikola from Ethelon, an NGO in Greece who also work with refugees.

    We emphasised the project benefits for the young people, for CARAS, for the community, and for TTT. A graphic facilitator captured the day’s learning and stories, and Rooting in Tooting features in the top right of the image:

    We’re glad that some of the key points have come through – including achieving a ‘Sense of Belonging’ with the young people from the CARAS Youth Club. You can see the graphic full size by clicking here.
    There’s a lot of detail to explore!

    The main hall – wow!

    It was inspiring and too much to summarise in a few sentences – have a look at all the session presentations by clicking here. (Scroll right to the bottom of the page). One debate was whether ‘volunteering’ could be called ‘social action’ to make it sound more focused or more attractive to a different audience -‘to be continued!’

    London’s City Hall is a great venue, and the whole event was very welcoming. Thank you for inviting us!

    Tower Bridge, Chuck & Egle

    The garden at Potter’s Fields

  • From the Local to the International – Journeys of imagination and generosity at the Transition Network International Conference

    Back in September, Charles Whitehead wrote a preview piece about 8 of us from Tooting heading to the Transition Network International Conference at Seale Hayne, Newton Abbot. We went by caravan, car share and train arriving the day before, early afternoon and late at night.

    You can read all about how we contributed to the conference in Charles’ blogpost here. Following the conference, we were all excited to share our experience of it as it had so much energy to give! Please do click on the links in the highlighted words, if they are of interest. There is also a Storify of the Conference and a blog on the Transition Network site.

    Tooting heads West!

    Home away from Home, with cake!

    After arriving, pitching our tents, siting and re-siting our caravan and finding our rooms, Jenny , Hilary and myself participated in the Transition Skills day, learning lots about Transition Thrive , designing a new economy in “REconomy” and how to “Become your own Developer” before the conference actually began.

    Meanwhile, Lucy was running her own workshop on Creative Engagement, she writes…

    “Once I’d recovered from the news that my main collaborator, Ruth Ben-Tovim (she of the Tooting Transition Shop from 2012), was sick and I would have to get on and run the day long Transition workshop on the arts and creating community on my own, I decided this Transition Conference (my 4th) was going to be about getting on and doing it with the resources I had to hand. I calmed myself by imagining the 14 strangers I was about to meet and wondering why they could be interested in learning about the craft of making things happen, and the art of creative participation. The knowledge they would all be doing this in a Transition context i.e. making the world we want to live in by modelling the changes in how we live where we live, immediately made me relax. I felt I could be myself and invite them to give all of themselves to the workshop, which they did! The day was astonishing for the rich diversity of their expertise, their generosity to give and gain from one another and the final artworks they created together. I was bowled over by how much creative ground we covered and my abiding faith in the central role our imaginations and creativity play in Transition. I have spent 3 years capturing this in the transition book in the arts, Playing for Time – making Art As If the World Mattered and it felt as if the book had in a sense, come home.

    This feeling of generosity, sharing and common goals was echoed by Jenny’s experience, she reflected later:

    “It was inspiring and encouraging to meet other people from around the world who share a vision for a fairer, more community-led world. A focus on collaboration, partnerships and relationship building was a common theme. It’s something we cherish in Transition Town Tooting and will continue to build in 2016. A Neighbourhood Plan, Foodival and our garden projects wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the generosity and energy of our partners and volunteers”.

    My experience during the Transition Thrive training was similarly applicable to our activity in Tooting and encouraged me to be active in looking after the wonderful volunteers and core group of Transition Town Tooting as well as offering the opportunity to participate to more people through Open Days and outreach.

    Our Workshops: Outdoor Learning with Young People and Creative Facilitation with FanSHEN

    Day 2 and the conference proper begins… Jenny, Charlie, Sharon and I hosted a workshop on Outdoor Learning with Young People. We shared our work in Outdoor Learning in 3 areas:

    • with children of Gatton Primary School at the Community Garden – both Reception/Year 1 and Year 6.
    • with teenagers, creating a garden space at CARAS.
    • with families during our regular Sunday sessions at the Garden and through our collaboration with FanSHEN during the 6 Field Days that ran through he summer. 
    We asked the group what Outdoor Learning meant to them and even got outside to share 3 Outdoor Learning exercises, including the Human Camera…
    What is Outdoor Learning?
    The Human Camera – one
    of 3 Outdoor learning games

    It was fascinating to bring it together for one workshop. Really valuable for us not only to present together, but also to hear each others experiences in a different way. It was also representative of the Conference as a whole that we had 7 participants from 7 different countries! Hearing their experiences gave us food for thought.

    Hilary’s reflections echo this:

    “The single best thing was the opportunities to meet and discuss with others in the Network Worldwide – supported by a great blend of facilitation and self-organisation. From the opening session were a group of 300+ individuals from 40+ countries met and mingled through to focused discussions in the workshop and Open Space sessions and the random conversations over meals, the programme provided every opportunity to connect and talk. Most of all, I enjoyed the capacity of Transitioners worldwide to self organise a room in moments – as demonstrated here!”

    The First Gathering, anticipation builds…

    Lucy goes on to say…

    “The next 2 days of the conference felt like a brilliant holiday! Meeting new people, feeling the pulse of so many international initiatives connecting worldwide; enjoying a session with Tom Crompton from Common Cause on intrinsic and extrinsic values; learning about COP21 in Paris in December and being in a home group with Alajie from Gambia, Pete from Perth and Gill from Transition Exeter. My highlights? Selling all the copies of Playing for Time and attending a brilliant bicycle maintenance workshop with Mike Jenner: as much about a philosophy of life about looking after things, community and compatibility as about chain tools and gear cogs.”

    Meanwhile, Dan and Rachel, aka FanSHEN – our collaborators in the Tooting Field Days – ran a workshop on Creative Facilitation with 50 attendees! Complete with hurling eggs and plasticine models.

    The shear variety of activity on offer was mind-blowing, as can be seen by our mind-map of things to follow up.

    The Paris Climate Change Conference: COP21

    One of those strands was COP21, the International summit on Climate Change happening in Paris. This conversation was convened by a participant of the Conference during one of two Open Space sessions, here’s Charlie’s digest of some key points:


    “The conference runs for the first 2 weeks of December: a vast stage-managed event where final negotiations are thrashed out, and at the same time citizens and groups worldwide watch the process – and make their feelings known, if possible. A good article to sum it all up can be read here. It’s even pretty optimistic!

    Paris is the 21st of these global conferences, and the Transition Network has commissioned the publication of “21 stories for COP21” – inspiring stories from around the world of transition groups taking practical action that has an impact now on carbon reduction, and social and environmental benefits. We’ll circulate that publication as soon as its ready.

    What should we do for COP21?

    At the Transition Conference in September, a very active group focused on what could be done in Paris to support visiting Transition groups who want to be close to the action – witnessing the talks, maybe adding their voices to the marches, and also running events and workshops to demonstrate what we are achieving together now. We’ll share those details.

    Of course there are many events in London too – workshops, films and a major Climate March on November 29th. Never “marched”? Have a look at the post on the TTT blog to consider what its like, and why do it. On the day described, 700,000 people marched all around the world. We’ll share details of a TTT group taking part.”

    Final Thoughts…

    The Valley view, early morning


    From a glass of wine overlooking the valley in brilliant sunshine to Local Entrepreneur Forums to co-creating a network across the world’s Megacities, it was a wonderful weekend. Lucy writes…

    “I came away glad to put so much of my life energy of the last 7 years into a movement that has taught me so much about the broad picture challenges we face, and the practical, immediate and enjoyable ways in which these challenges can be turned to opportunities working day-by-day over time with like minded people.

    Above all it was magic to be there with so many others from Tooting. What a place to come from and go home to! Onward!”

    And the last word to Sharon, who describes her experience of going to the Conference for the first time:

    “As a first-time conference goer, I was anxious about being out of my depth. However, I met lots of fascinating, friendly folk and felt I made valuable contributions – from the outdoor learning workshop I co-hosted, to the lively sessions on professionalising Transition work and creating livelihoods. It was also great to meet non-Transition people at the conference who shared similar goals, values and ideas. All in all, an exhausting yet very energising weekend.”

    All best, Richard

  • Transition Network Conference 2012

    Between the 13th and 17th September, the Transition Network Conference ran on Tooting’s doorstep at Battersea Arts Centre. The network links together more than a thousand Transition Town initiatives worldwide. 

    Designing a city with the enterprises we want
    As you would expect it was extremely full – with the different days focusing on different themes from early until late in the evening, and over 250 people coming along from all over the world for the parts of the conference they chose.


     
    For me, the surprises were valuable – for example in one 2-hour period 60 self-selected small groups met for an hour each, having identified common topics of interest on the spot through ‘open space’.
    We’ll share some of the details later, and how they can be valuable for our community in Tooting. In-depth reports from the conference are being posted now at http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/conference-2012

    Right now I want to share that four of us offered participants the chance to visit Tooting on the Saturday evening, and experience just a part of the Treasuring Tooting wellbeing walk that we hosted in full in May.

    Vitality (at the Lido in the evening sun)
    With a small group, we visited the Lido, the Community Garden, walked through Tooting to the Broadway accompanied by a live story, and then enjoyed a dosa before getting the group back to Battersea for the evening’s session. 
    Change (3000 year old worked flint found in the Garden)

    With an appreciative audience, it was a pleasure to have the time to explore each place and the aspects of wellbeing it represents: we focused on Vitality, Change and Talents.

     
    Using Talents (storytelling en route)

    More to share soon – and see you at the Foodival!  – Charles

  • Transition Conference Report – Charles

    Two of us have just been to the annual Transition Network Conference in Liverpool

    Each of the 200-plus participants probably had a unique experience of the 3 days. Much of the time was offered in chunks of options…

    Exciting choices, because most of the parallel sessions looked tempting…but you needed to select just one!  What would you do:  choose a very popular one with 40 people signed up, or go for a topic with a smaller group of 5? And would you prefer to be meeting the same people, or new ones?

    My choices took me to sessions on social justice, on community renewable energy, on health in cities, on a long evening walk with a forester in local woods and fields, and on Kids in Transition.  

    In the Kids in Transition session I was moved by responses from adults and children to 2 connected questions:

    Why does Transition need kids in order to flourish?

    ‘kids have the power to persuade people to change’, ‘kids are good at direct connection to their surroundings and to nature’, ’kids come up with new ideas’, ’kids know how to have fun’.

    Why do kids need Transition in order to flourish?

    ‘so I can change my future’, ‘to give us some tools to make sense of a difficult world’, ‘to help us to make new friends’, ’so kids can get to grips with real things’, ‘to encourage a healthier lifestyle’.



    Another choice: what would you do at meals…sit with ‘strangers’ you had not met before? That’s what I decided to do, and I loved hearing about Transition projects at different stages of development: in Paris or Sao Paulo, on an island in Denmark, in Switzerland, and in Liverpool itself.
    So, you could make your own conference very personal…which I felt was exactly as it should be. ‘Transition’ has straightforward goals: building resilient communities in a post-carbon world – and it’s the diversity of routes to get there, and of local needs, that offers each of us as individuals the challenge to use our different skills. We’ve got some great things to do together in Tooting!
    A fuller report on the conference, contributed by many participants, can be read at:
    http://transitionculture.org/2011/07/15/full-round-up-of-materials-from-the-2011-transition-network-conference/

  • Transition Conference Report – Lucy

    ‘The change in direction represented by the Transition movement is as profound as any intentional change experienced by a civilisation’.

    I have been at the national Transition Town Conference in Liverpool for three days. An intense experience, characterised by almost constant conversation with 259 other ‘transitioners’ from all over the world and the UK. The conference was on the campus of Hope University near Chilwall Woods in the North East of the City.


    The conference recognised that after 5 years of existence the Transition movement has a great deal to reflect on. The movement can begin to look back at the evidence of its impact with confidence.  With initiatives across the world putting ‘transition’ principles successfully into action, responding quickly as communities pulling together has shown how resilience really counts. This has been especially so in the stark contexts of national crises such as New Zealand’s earthquake and Rio’s floods.   When things are destabilised you have to be ready with new ways of doing things. 
    The structure of the conference reflected a desire to ‘deepen, mature and focus’ – looking at issues that were at the ‘edge’ of the movement’s experiences to date with an honesty around areas that are difficult such as ‘scaling up’ to the next stage after initial successes, running group processes and ‘resolving conflict’.  Imagining a world beyond dependency on oil did not have to be a choice between ‘a roll in the mud eating mouldy potatoes and going nuclear’.

    So said the ever cheery and constantly surprised Rob Hopkins (Co-Founder of movement) who opened the conference along with Peter Lipman (Chair of Transition Network). They cited  the recent announcement by the World Economic Forum in Davos on the major threats to the plant as ‘Climate Change, the Extreme Price Volatility of Energy and the Fiscal Crises’. This was not acknowledged in 2006 when the movement started. This morning Rob closed the conference citing David Fleming’s new book  Lean Logic: “The change in direction represented by the Transition movement is as profound as any intentional change experienced by a civilisation”. (He read that out twice)
    The number of workshops had been kept to a manageable choice but it was still hard to choose. Creating local food systems, up date on local currencies, kids in transition (by Tooting’s own Charles Whitehead), social enterprises – turning transition friendly ideas into jobs, Renewable energy systems and Forests invading cities, the latest on Brazil turning the tide were just a few. 
    I had a busy time. I was running a workshop on Playing For Time, facilitated a theme group on the arts, oversaw a number of art installations by Ruth Ben Tovim and played a role in the overall travelling story of the conference (I wore a handsome red haversack on my back throughout).  My workshop went well and served as a beginning for the Transition book I have been commissioned to write on transition and the arts. To create a different future for ourselves and our communities, first we have to imagine it and the role our imagination and however we understand the arts and our own creativity has a huge role to play in that. So scarey and exciting at the same time. I got a lot of really great practical ideas and much food for thought thanks to a great bunch of people who turned up.
    There was also a fair amount focused on making groups work and on  ‘inner transition’ recognising how demanding the work in transition can be emotionally at a very deep level.  This proved a key theme of the conference and it brought home to me how important this was. We did a ‘group process’ yesterday with 260 people. We looked at how we facilitate groups,  celebrate their achievements, discuss matters, agree and decide. Assumptions that get made, how people get excluded or made to feel included. There was a major emphasis on making this work and not taking anything for granted. What happens when you have to work with people you don’t get on with?  We looked at what gave us courage and what made us vulnerable. It seemed that everyone shared similar feelings of frustration, insufficiency, over work along with empowering feelings of shared joy and achievement.  I had sewn a large cloth onto which everyone at the end of this session pinned something they felt they had to offer as a strength to transition and something they felt they were challenged by. The results were beautiful and moving! Someone said that transition was like an alchemy of the self, turning what we have ourselves into gold. 
    I went to a workshop on inner transition run by Sophy Banks and Ben Yeger which looked at how we construct our own ‘bad’ and ‘good’ realities and how very hard it is to ‘hold the line’ on helping people look at ‘bad realities’. Inner resources need to be strong.  It explained  a lot about why people avoid wanting to confront global challenges.  We also learned that something negative has 15 times the force of something positive on us, so we do have to work hard to create a positive sense of the future!!  
    Another workshop this morning looked at evaluation and how we measure the impacts of transition. How do you measure change, resilience, well being and a successful local living economy? Fascinating stuff. Apparently we respond more quickly to negative feedbacks so we have to work hard yet again to build up the positive. 
    Escaping from hot rooms on Sunday evening, I went on a tree walk with Robin (from Shaftesbury) from Trees for Transition in Childwall Woods where we saw Beech, Holm Oak, Birch, Lime, orchids, meadows and deep dark woods and gulleys with plants and flora. Robin hopping ahead with his enthusiasm and knowledge about how trees and woods can build environmental, social and economic good into the biosphere and the quality of our lives. As a forester he said he had to always be thinking 50-100 years ahead, NO point in planting a tree which will be in drought conditions in 50 years time. Very inspiring man, taking his passion and creating a whole new movement around transition with trees. 
    No doubt about it – we are part of a very powerful movement. Many people came from abroad, emphasising how far and fast the movement is growing in Brazil, Portugal, Spain and elsewhere. There were also a good number of London people and it would be great to get us all together again – even in South London where our numbers have really grown recently. 
    It felt a privilege to be part of this huge thing we call transition changing the way we can see and build a future we want to live in – becoming better connected as a species, not separated out. We are already doing wonderful things here in Tooting and it is inspiring to know we are connected up to such a hard working network of supportive colleagues and fellows. The support really is there for everyone. We can rely on one another.
    The day we arrived there was an article in the Guardian asking if the Green movement had lost it’s way. WRONG QUESTION said Rob: “has a new, emergent culture which embraces resilience and localisation, equity and partnership, even scratched the surface of its potential?  I think the answer is a resolute NO!‘   We’ve all had a taste of that this weekend. Here are Rob’s own reflections on the weekend.

    And here are some words from Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine, quoting Milton Friedman:

    “Only a crisis—actual or perceived––produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.  . . That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable”. 
    Go Tooting Go!
    Lucy 

  • Tooting helps pull off National TT Conference!


    Need to pause to take stock of the last few weeks before getting ready for exciting summer of events coming up….. The National Transition Conference held at Battersea Arts Centre 2 weeks ago was a spectacular success.

    Transition initiatives from all over the UK and those from further afield. Our own Sadiq Khan was heard to declare in this interview that ‘Transition has legs’ – that’s good! It was Sadiq with help from local Councillors and Transition team Tooting that were responsible for getting the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Milliband, to make an appearance at the Conference on Friday May 22nd. Milliband duly joined the 350 transitioners present to discuss over 100 issues – from the current state of oil depletion to building resilient local economies to how to run food growing workshops.Listen to his interview with Rob Hopkins and Peter Lipman here.
    bacmillibbac4

    Sounds like he’s pretty interested in the Transition experiment. Team Tooting then pulled out all the stops for the 2 Hour Energy Descent Action plan which with help from a total team of 40 dramatised the ’12 steps’ of transition around the Grand Hall.
    Film coming shortly. There was SO much to learn from others present at the conference about how other communities are managing this extraordinary process of changemaking at grass roots level. It was affirming to read Madeleine Bunting’s views the next day on how the Transition movement is a positive force to be reckoned with looking peak oil and climate change squarely in the eye…
    Tooting’s next steps for a summer of events over the next few weeks are ready to go: the piloting the Trashcatchers’ Carnival at the Midsummer Funday in Tooting on June 13th 12-4.30pm; screenings of Age of Stupid (7pm on June 18th, The Bedford on Balham Hill; June 29th at Springfield Hospital and July 3rd Tooting Graveney School). And hurray we finally have a leaflet to hand around. The Tooting Town Centre manager has also asked us to take care of one of the Town’s noticeboards so people can pick up on what’s happening as they stroll around….Lots going on and elderflowers to be picked for cordial making next weekend as well..

  • May Transition Town National Conference lands in a town near you…

    Really Exciting News! The National Transition Town Conference will be held in Wandsworth! May 22nd-24th at our very own Battersea Arts Centre. Check this link to Rob Hopkins’ blog in Transition Culture to find out more. A chance for you to really see with your own eyes how transitioning work is transforming communities all over the UK. Booking for the conference opens on March 2nd. Be ready to book!! Transition Town Tooting will play a role in helping to host transitioners from all over the country (and visitors from further afield as well). Lots of workshops, inspiring talks, practical activities. Exciting news. Change-making brought nearly to your own front door.

    LN