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:

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'.

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.  

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. 

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.

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