On Thursday, June 4, from 7 to 9 PM at CCHS Concord Carlisle Adult and Community Education and ConcordCAN are offering a workshop entitled "Transition Town Initiatives: Planning for Local Sustainability." This workshop was originally scheduled for Thursday, May 28. The instructors are Chris Ryan and Garrett Whitney, both Concord residents.Transition Initiatives are a special kind of community program for developing local sustainability that have taken the United Kingdom by storm and are now spreading rapidly in the United States. They are a grassroots process for getting a town to organize and adapt to the growing and urgent threats of climate change and peak oil.
As oil resources diminish and climate change advances, all towns and cities must use diminishing energy resources more efficiently and sparingly. The goal of a Transition Initiative is to get the whole community involved in doing that. After intensive consciousness-raising about climate change and peak oil, it lays the foundations for change by working closely with other groups on a community plan known as the "Energy Descent Plan."
These Initiatives are typically inclusive, fun, and productive. They have proven highly successful at creating local citizen support and strong local partnerships between residents, local businesses, and municipal government. You will learn in the workshop about how this is now developing in Concord.
Chris Ryan, a professional city planner, is developing a new firm focused on relocalization planning. Garret Whitney has been studying and teaching about Peak Oil and related issues for over 10 years. A fee of $15 covers workshop costs, and financial assistance is available upon request. Call Community Education to enroll, weekdays at 318-1540 or sign up online at www.ace.colonial.net (course 730).
