East Bay residents interested in learning about a grassroots and community approach to tackling some of the most challenges issues of our time - climate change, economic instability and peak oil - are invited to come to Transition Berkeley’s one-year anniversary potluck and visioning session this Wednesday, March 21, at Northbrae Community Church in Berkeley to learn more about the Transition Movement.
Co-hosted by Transition Berkeley and Northbrae Church's Global Concerns Committee, the evening invites citizens to share delicious food while learning about this vibrant international movement through a lively presentation and interactive small group discussions.
Transition Berkeley is part of a growing international network of Transition initiatives, including and Richmond, which looks at how communities can work together to support and create a more equitable and vibrant local economy and become more self-sufficient, through locally-produced food and other necessities, cleaner forms of transportation and energy, and by re-learning practical skills our grandparents once had.
The Transition Movement started in England in 2007, when permaculturalist and professor Rob Hopkins invited his college students to create a plan for their town to use less energy and become more resilience in the wake of climate change and peak oil challenges, to transition to a future beyond fossil fuels. The movement has since spread to 34 countries and 114 towns and cities from across the United States. Transition Towns are organized by ordinary citizens with little outside fundraising, who have managed to accomplish extraordinary projects – from community gardens to alternative currencies to neighborhood greening efforts.
Transition Albany , thanks to the efforts of superstar organizer . She and a group of active Albany citizens have organized countless events and initiatives, from regular awareness-building events at the library to gardening projects.
Inspired by those efforts, I started Transition Berkeley with my colleague Linda Currie in February 2011. With little funding but armed with a team of enthusiastic volunteers, we have achieved much in the past year, including weekly Crop Swaps (in which gardeners trade their backyard produce), bike tours of urban homesteads and an Alternative Economics Forum last month.
The Transition Movement is looking for volunteers who share our concerns for these 21st Century challenges and who would like to work on fun, creative grassroots projects to build a healthier more sustainable community.
Please join us at 6:30 at the Northbrae Church on Wednesday; for more information please contact transition.berkeley@gmail.com. Pleas bring your own plates and utensils to the event, and a $5-10 donation is requested.
