To be discussed at The Conversation about Region-Wide Resilience

Keene, NH, March 15, 2014

A New England College and University Resilience Support Network
Steve Chase, Transition Keene Task Force

This project aims to create a network of academics in New England committed to fostering a strong collaborative relationship between academia and the Transition and resilience movement through service learning, student internship opportunities, and various forms of scholarship, including community-based action research. This project would be similar in some ways to the Transition Research Network in the UK (http://www.transitionresearchnetwork.org/).

Sustain-A-Raisers

Josh Arnold, Global Awareness, Local Action

Sustain-A-Raisers is a people-powered sustainable home & yard makeover movement developed by NH-based grassroots organization Global Awareness Local Action (G.A.L.A.).  G.A.L.A.'s goal was to create an easily replicable, hands-on sustainable community building program where groups of volunteers help one another grow food, catch rain, make compost, hang dry, and use solar at homes, apartments, schools, libraries, town halls, food pantries, youth centers or other sundry sites. This is certainly not a new idea - community garden groups, permaculture meetups, permablitzes, crop mobs, and other variations of the volunteer work party are shaping our "transition" to low-carbon and ecologically restorative living. Sustain-A-Raisers helps make this model even more accessible to other nonprofits, school groups, municipal commissions, neighborhood associations, faith groups, or just a bands of friends through a "Starter Kit" that includes volunteer recruitment strategies, press release templates, a list of needed materials and tools, step-by-step construction guides, talking points and curriculum, branding support, and an online orientation to help interested Community Partners start meaningfully engaging their constituents while having a positive impact on the people and the planet.

New England Resilience Photo Slam - Say Yes to the Possible

Lyn Miller, Upper Valley Sustainable Living

During a given day or week this spring, Transition and resilience enthusiasts around New England will take photographs of images that say "yes! - we are making a difference." These images can include solar panels, group meetings, sharing circles, bike riders, etc. We can then compile them (somehow) into a shared space - perhaps slideshows by theme. Your ideas and inspiration are needed to help make this a reality. Talk to us at Keene!

A “Whole New England Catalog”

Dan Jones, Transition Town Montpelier

A "Whole New England Catalog" will be a tool help re-localize New England. It will begin as a paper catalog modeled loosely after the Whole Earth Catalog of the 1970s. In this book you would find resources, tools, and other goods and services produced in New England which we want to support in order to keep our money working locally. It will also showcase our regional economy. As we create this document we will highlight what we already produce regionally, and discover where the gaps are. The document will then help people find want they need. It will also be an organizing tool to help folks leverage their local stores into sourcing their goods and services regionally, rather than importing things from afar. As economics and transportation become more disrupted, this catalog will empower New Englanders to maintain a unique regional economy.

New England Energy Transition Plan (ETP)

Jim Buckley, Worcester VT

My proposal is to suggest that a team expand, extend, and format the Concept Paper into an Energy Transition Plan, applicable to all who live in our communities. Domains relevant to resilience and sustainability which have been articulated in the concept paper can be fleshed out more thoroughly and other relevant domains added. The plan we come up with could, ideally, be networked as a usable template to all the New England Transition Towns; and the messaging can go out to the media, legislators, and the public at large. The New England ETP could also document, dovetail with, and lend coherence to the other activities of the New England group.

Orchard Revolution in Transition

Alastair Lough, Tohidu, Portland Maine

Engage your neighbors in spending a day planting fruit trees in the hood.  Watch a fire of interest grow and then help that fire to spread on its own to other neighborhoods next year.  This is really about having a party to plant trees, building food resilience, creating neighbor relationships, sequestering carbon, and beautifying the neighborhood for years to come. People who get involved from other neighborhoods like the idea so much that they want to bring the idea to their own neighborhood next year…So save your email contacts, and meet with them next year, to help them pass the torch on.  Watch the video: https://tinyurl.com/ORinTransition (3 min video of The Great Rosemont Dig-In/Plant-In 2013)