Survey on Economics and Livelihoods

With the Occupy camp in Norwich now taken down, I want to make sure that the energy for change in our economic structure does not dwindle, so I've written this survey to find out what the biggest concerns are amongst people in Norwich, and who's interested in progressing this real change. Please take five minutes or so and give your views! Concerns are divided into national/international and local, and cover areas of interest from unemployment to corporate pay.

The survey is at www.simeonjackson.co.uk/2012/02/23/local-economics-survey.

Please share this link with your friends and email it to others who may be interested.

For background on economics and community resilience see Simeon Jackson's blog here

Millennium Babies Project wins CUE East funding

The Millennium Babies Project team is delighted to report that we've won a funding award from CUE East to develop the Oil Game, in partnership between members of Transition Norwich, UEA and local schools. The inspiration for the Oil Game was the Transition Tales project on peak oil, Transition Norwich's Resilience Plan and creative workshops with Year 6 children. The original Oil Game was invented by Rob Hopkins and developed by Steph Bradley. Tom Harper and Charlotte Du Cann used this format as a base when they played the first TN Oil Game at Catton Grove school last year.

Tom, creative director of the project, says: "This is fantastic news for us. This prestigious award enables us to expand our innovative programme of work with children in Norwich schools. With our partners, we'll be exploring sustainability issues in a fun and creative way. The children will discover the extraordinary story of how dinosaur poo and ancient sunshine became the oil that we use today, and how, during their lifetimes, they will have to find creative new ways to live well without this ancient resource!".

For more information contact Tom Harper: tomharper@ekit.com

Pic: Tom and Year 6 children exploring peak oil at the Millennium Library, Norwich

World Cafe on Creating Personal Change - Tuesday 8 December

The Resilience Plan group together with the Heart and Soul Group invite you to join us in a discussion about "getting from here to there". A lot of the Resilience Plan has been written and gives some clear ideas about how we need to change our food, transport, home heating etc. But how do we get from here to there? What are the inner, as well as outer, obstacles to change, and how do we help to overcome them? Come and join the cafe to answer these questions. (Note: this was going to be an Open Space, but in the interests of reaching a conclusion that can be written up in the Resilience Plan, we've decided to go for a World Cafe format instead. This involves a series of small-group discussions, each with a predefined question and a facilitator. We're sure you'll enjoy it and we aim to engage all of your wisdom and insights.) (Erik Buitenhuis/Resilience Plan)

The cafe will be held in the Alexander Room, United Reformed Church, Princes Street, Norwich NR3 1AZ. Arrive 18:45 for a 19:00 start, bringing cake is optional.

Meeting to discuss the Transition Circles, 16 June 09

Resilience Plan: Open Space Discussion on Changing Culture, Values and Behaviour – Tuesday 8 December

We all recognise that communicating the facts about peak oil, climate change etc is only the beginning of the challenge. We don't necessarily change our lives overnight just because we become aware of the facts. Other obstacles get in the way - some of them practical, others to do with our identity, values, culture and beliefs. We in the Resilience Plan group are moving towards pulling together information about the practical changes that Norwich could make to become more resilient. But we need your help in exploring how we're going to get from where we are now to that more resilient future - that is, to build a vision of how the culture and values of the people of Norwich might change to enable those practical changes to happen. Of course, building this understanding will help the whole of Transition Norwich, not just the Resilience Plan.

We're going to use an Open Space format, which means that you can bring your own ideas about different aspects of this question and invite others to join you in discussing them. Tuesday Dec 8th, 7:30pm. Check http://www.transitionnorwich.org/ for details of the venue. (Tully Wakeman/Resilience Plan)

Creating Our Resilience Plan - 25 May

One of the outcomes of the Open Space meeting was that a group decided to form to facilitate the preparation of a resilience plan for Norwich. Our aim is to help Transition Norwich to create a clear statement of what we need to do in all the areas covered by the theme groups - food, energy, transport, heart and soul and so on - to create a more resilient Norwich. This is the same document that's described in the Transition Handbook as the "Energy Descent Action Plan". According to Transition Network, the Resilience Plan should "paint a picture of the community that is so colourful, so appealing and so irresistible, that anyone not involved in bringing it to fruition will feel bereft of meaning in their life." The group also felt it needed to include some clear numbers about the amount of food, energy etc. we're going to need to maintain a good quality of life. The Group's first meeting will be on Tuesday May 26th at 7.30pm at Inner Space. We already have representatives from some theme groups but we'd ideally like all groups to be represented. Contact tully@transitionnorwich.org for more information.

Resilience Plan

One of the original “12 steps” set out in Rob Hopkins’ Transition Handbook for any Transition Town is to put together an “Energy Descent Action Plan” (EDAP), setting out a vision of how that town can become more resilient, less oil-dependent, and reduce its carbon footprint. Here in Transition Norwich a group has been meeting since summer 2009 to develop our EDAP – except that we decided we wanted to call ours a Resilience Plan.

The Resilience Plan is an important document for Transition Norwich. We hope that it will help members of Transition Norwich to think about the kinds of changes we might want to make in our own lives, and the kinds of projects we might want to develop across Transition Norwich to help to build a more resilient city. We also hope it will help policymakers, for example in the city and county councils, to think about what needs to be put in place now to protect the population from shocks in the future. For that reason the Resilience Plan will ideally include quantitative information, that is, not only will it show what is needed, but how much of it is needed.

The Resilience Plan Group has aimed to be a facilitating group, drawing on the specialist expertise of the Theme Groups, but drawing it together into a coherent vision. We have met a number of times during 2009, and our members are drawn from most of the Theme Groups.

We set ourselves the target of having a first draft by Christmas 2009 – a target which we have met in part! That is, we have a draft but there are still some gaps in it.

In December 2009 the Group organised a successful “World Café” meeting where we invited other members of Transition Norwich to contribute their understanding of the gap between where we are now and where we want to be, what the obstacles are to achieving that vision, and how we can overcome those obstacles.

The Group intends to complete and publish a first version of the Resilience Plan in 2010. We expect that the Plan will never be finished, though – it needs to be a living document that will continue to evolve as circumstances change and understanding grows.

Contact: Jane Chittenden jane@janechittenden.co.uk

Click here to view / join the Resilience Plan email discussion group (Google Group)

Photo: World Cafe on Behaviour Change, organised by the Resilience Plan group, Dec 2009