Training 4 Transition
by Sarah Edwards
Having a Training 4 Transition workshop or
presentation
about how to start a
Transition
Initiative in your
community is a positive way to work with others in your community to address rising energy costs, climate
change, and their effects
on our otherwise troubled economy.
This community response is quite different from
the efforts we read about these days in the news headlines.
We hear a lot of talk about getting the government and
industry to do something about these problems, i.e. build electric cars, erect
wind turbines, sign the Kyoto Protocol, provide rebates for solar panels.
In the Transition Initiative model, we work together to start doing what needs to be done ourselves in our own lives and our own communities, whether it be weatherizing our homes, recycling, creating community gardens, shopping locally, harvesting nut and fruit trees already growing in backyards and parks or along the streets, buying things cooperatively, or so much more.
Transition Training Workshops
In other words we don't need to wait for someone to step in. So many approaches require massive investments in such things as corn ethanol, offshore drilling, oil shale and tar sands – investments that are not only politically controversial and expensive but may also contribute to the very factors that are causing our environmental and economic problems. That means they may never be implemented or at least not in time for help us with the immediate concerns we're personally facing day-to-day.
The Transition Initiative concept started in Kinsale, Ireland, in 2004. Rob Hopkins was teaching a college-level class in permaculture, which is a set of design tools for working with nature. The class learned that peak oil meant that global supply lines would become increasingly unreliable in a fairly short time. They threw themselves into creating a step-by-step process for building community resilience to our sky-high costs of natural resources and our degrading environment.
Each community is unique
Transition 4 Training workshops and
speeches are filed with constructive ideas. In the Transition Town process, every
communities plan will be different, because every town is has different
needs and resources, but the basic process for engaging people and
generating creative options within each community can be applied worldwide.
While the first Transition Initiative efforts were in England, there it is
growing fast. There are over 900 community projects in countries across the
world and over 140 here the US.
The movement is growing quickly because the process provides clear direction for achieving a rapid transition without limiting the flexibility and originality of each local area. Also as more communities gain experience with Transitions, the model is evolving, so at any given time there are always a set of best practices to draw upon. The Transition Initiatives Web sites, conference calls, etc. offer up-to-the-minute guidelines on what has worked and what hasn't in various communities
A positive approach to change
The positive, hopeful vision of a low-energy future, the Transition Town model offers is one of its more important assets. Approaching the changes we face from a positive proactive vision motivates a community to get involved instead of feeling as if there is nothing they can do.
Contact Us to find out about setting up a Training 4 Transition Workshop, Speech, Webinar, or Teleseminar for Your Neighborhood or Community
Resources
Transition Towns Empower People, Christian Science Monitor
Rob Hopkins Introduces
Transitions on You Tube
Transition
Initiative United States
List of Communities Worldwide