ACE 2019 - A celebration of Transition in Tooting and looking forward...

On Saturday 2nd March, we held our Annual Celebratory Extravaganza! at Mushkil Aasaan on Tooting High Street. 75 people came from diverse backgrounds, some close to Transition Town Tooting, some coming for the first time, some young, some not so young, all very welcome!

75 people joined us to celebrate! And look forward together

It was fun looking back at our activity and seeing how we have worked.

7 themes of our endeavours emerged:

Local Food Growing and Cooking

Outdoor Learning

Urban Nature and Biodiversity

Good Change Locally

Creativity and Imagination

Low Carbon Living

Wellbeing and Community Inclusion

Do you Jellybrella?

Mushkil Aasaan was decorated in true TTT style with a  displays highlighting specific projects and partners: folks sitting on the Talk / Not Talk bench made by CARAS and TTT; the Community Garden and a partnership project with Gatton School; the Foodival annual community food festival; the buzzing presence of crocheted honeybees illustrated the community & CARAS getting together. We shared the extraordinary Jellybrella - happening now and during the Wandsworth Arts Fringe.

 Looking back

We celebrated over 20 projects ranging across local food, urban outdoors, outdoor learning, creativity and imagination, wellbeing and community inclusion, good change locally, low carbon living and how all that sits within wider networks. 17 people spoke of these projects, painting a vivid picture of what Transition Town Tooting does, and does in partnership with such a rich array of organisations, just some examples of project partners are the London Beekeepers' Association, Ravenstone Primary School, CARAS, Wandsworth Oasis, Work and Play Scrapstore, J4Y Scouts and  Furzedown Low Carbon Zone.

This idea of network and collaboration has grown deeper in recent years and gives context to our work locally as part of a wider movement for change, touched on at the Annual Celebration when Lucy gave us the background on Extinction Rebellion, a growing number of Councils declaring a climate emergency and school children striking for climate. Coupled with that are events such as the CTRLshift Emergency Summit for Change, happening 8th to 10th of May in Stoke, that looks to provide a platform for connection and collaboration across all actors working towards a more sustainable and regenerative future.

After listening for AGES, we looked forward together...

Looking forward...

Richard, Sharon and Chuck,
TTT's Acting Secretary
and Co-Chairs

The business of the AGM took place, with Richard Couldrey being sworn in as TTT Acting Secretary and Sharon Gray and Chuck Whitehead as Acting Co-Chairs. David Thorne volunteered to continue as TTT's Treasurer. 

Why "Acting", well, we're changing the way we do things and moving from the Co-Chair model of governance to a "Governance Circle", including more people, sharing the workload and, hopefully, making it more accessible for YOU to join in!

How we design together...

Chuck led us through a simple and fun activity to look forward, as a group, involving pairing up with someone you didn't know very well and answering 2 questions: What could Transition Town Tooting do in 2019? + What could Foodival look like in 2019?

Feedback from ACE diverse participants about activities in 2019.

Even as raw feedback, it's very interesting and valuable what dozens of people care about and wanted to say at short notice - the activity only lasted 15 minutes or so. It was noticeable that 'social sustainability' is very strongly represented. It was also noticeable that the responders were culturally diverse: reflecting Tooting. Read the ideas here.

Time to enjoy some cake before pack away and look forward to great projects together in 2019...

Many thanks to Sharon, Chuck, Richard, Eleanor and Hilary for photos!

The "Talk, not talk" bench makes its way home...
Turning heads as it goes!