Are you working towards a connected community; a localised fair economy and a sustainable lifestyle? Would you like to enhance your skills for working with communities?

Transition Newcastle is offering five workshops focusing on practical tools and skills for working with communities. The workshops are funded by UnitingCare Ageing (Hunter, Central Coast, and New England) as part of the Fair Share Festival.

The workshops: 2:00 – 5:00 pm on Saturday afternoons

1. 31 March – Facilitating community engagement (PowerPoint attached)
2. 12 May – Hosting community conversations (including appreciative inquiry, world cafes and open space)
3. 2 June – Sustaining community leadership
4. 23 June – Responding to conflict (both within and outside your group)
5. 21 July – Building on community strengths (asset based community development)

The facilitators: The workshop facilitators are Graeme Stuart and Dee Brooks from the Family Action Centre at The University of Newcastle. Both Graeme and Dee are passionate advocates of inclusive community engagement processes and have extensive experience working with communities and community groups. Graeme is also the convenor of Transition Newcastle.

Cost: What you can afford (suggested minimum $10)

Location: Family Action Centre Training Room, room ST5 “The Station”, Callaghan Campus, The University of Newcastle. (See the attached map)

RSVP: Please let Graeme or Dee know if you will be attending as places are limited.

New Year Resolutions for the Earth!

There are many ways we can help the Earth. Here are some suggestions for New Year resolutions:

1. Change to 100% Green Energy. Green energy comes from renewable sources such as the sun and wind. For an average family it costs around $1 a day and if everybody who had thought of doing it actually changed, it would revolutionise our energy industry. Details are at http://www.greenpower.gov.au/
2. Reduce your energy use by at least 10%
3. Use your car less
4. Stop buying bottled water
5. Support small local business rather than large corporations
6. Buy local produce wherever possible
7. Buy your fruit, vegetables and meat from green grocers and butchers rather than supermarket chains
8. Start a vegetable garden
9. Have a local produce dinner (where everything comes from within 150 kms) once a week or once a month
10. Put on a jumper rather than turn on the heater
11. Reduce your clutter by giving away something from your home every day
12. Join a community garden
13. Use public transport
14. Walk or ride a bike for short trips
15. Use fans rather than an air conditioner as much as possible
16. Eat less meat (or better still go vegetarian/vegan)
17.  Take your own shopping bags
18. Start or get involved in a school garden
19. Visit a farmers market
20. Buy less
21. Teach your children how to sew or to make something with wood
22. Get rid of your second fridge (or at least turn it off for most of the year)
23. Say no to plastic bags
24. Convert your down lights to LED
25. Get a solar hot water system
26. Start a compost bin or a worm farm
27. Attend the Fair Share Festival in March 2012
28. Help organise the Transition Streets Challenge
29. Learn about Permaculture
30.  Join an environment group
31. Freecycle things you no longer need

Tell us what your New Year Resolution for the Earth will be.

Warners Bay Community Garden has put together a list of community gardens. Contact them is you want yours to be listed.

On 23^rd October 2011 Transition Newcastle joined with Climate Action Newcastle in hosting a 1.8 metre inflatable globe to show support for the federal government’s clean energy legislation.

You can see more photos and a NBN report of the days events.

Environmental groups from across Australia are relaying inflatable globes to Canberra to meet the house-sized Climate Rescue Station on the lawns of Parliament House when the legislation is before the senate.

The Earth Relay was launched in Victoria from the steps of Flinders Station in September 2011 and local environment groups are coming together to take photos of their members and supporters with the globe in iconic local locations, such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Byron Bay lighthouse, the Three Sisters, the Royal National Park, and Nobby's Lighthouse in Newcastle, to name but a few. These photos will then be collected by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW and sent to the Climate Rescue Station as a symbolic representation of public support for climate action.

Thanks to Tricia (of Little Eco Footprints fame) for the photos.

At our planning meeting in June 2011, one of our priorities was to build closer links with the City of Newcastle (our local City Council). Over the years Council has introduced some innovative programs to reduce the Newcastle's energy use and of course there are many opportunites to do more.

Recently we met with Council's Environmental Advisory Committee to discuss some of our current projects and to encourage Council to have a greater focus on Peak Oil, and also made a response to the Draft Carbon and Water Management Action Plan.

In our submission we wanted to emphasise that we supported Council taking leadership in addressing climate change and commended Council for their progress to date. At the same time we urged Council to:

1. Place a greater focus on peak oil and the potential impact of an oil crunch (short term interruptions to supply and dramatic spikes in the price of oil)  in the current Plan, and in its planning and operations more generally
2. Commit to being carbon neutral by 2020
3. Recognise the benefits of developing strong partnership with community groups such as Transition Newcastle and Climate Action Newcastle.

You can read our full submission in the attched file.

We hope to continue discussing with Council ways of working together, explore ways in which we can enhance each others work, and encourage Council to address peak oil.

We hope you will join us at the Fair Share Festival –a weekend exploring a transition to a connected community, localised fair economies and sustainable lifestyles. With speakers, workshops, music, stalls, discussion and entertainment, the Hamilton Public School will be a hive of activity for the weekend. Highlights include:

6:30 - 9:30 pm Friday evening 9 March: A Q&A type forum on Closing the Poverty Gap. Panellists include Cheryl Kernot (Chair of the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand and former Member of Parliament), Doris Puiahi (Tugeda Tude fo Tumoro Project, Solomon Islands), Daniel Ben-Ami (Finance and economic journalist, Author of Ferraris for All) and Donnie Maclurcan (Founder and Ideas Guy at Project Australia and Co-founder of the Post Growth Institute).

10:00 am – 5:00 pm Saturday 10 March: Workshops, speakers, stalls, music, entertainment. Presentations or workshops will cover a range of topics including community gardens, a cooperatively run solar hot water factory, how the Sunshine Coast aims to become the most sustainable area in Australia, permaculture beyond the garden, and strategies for a successful transition to a more sustainable future. There will also be music, entertainment, food, and fair trade and craft stalls.

10:00 am – 3:30 pm Sunday 11 March: Workshops, ideas expo, entertainment. Workshops on spirituality and sustainability, asset based community development, and school gardens. There is also a drama workshop for children and practical workshops on blogs and tumblr’s, and building a 12v sound system with pedal power. The Ideas Expo will allow people who have good ideas that could help create a fairer, sustainable world to set up a table and share their ideas with others.

6:30 pm Friday – 3:30 pm Sunday: Slum Survivor (an initiative of TEAR Australia). Over the weekend of Festival ten 18-25 year-olds will build their own slum housing and participate in a simulation experience designed to help us get a small taste of what life might be like in a slum and to think about how we can respond.

Entry is by what you can afford (minimum $5/day for adults and $2 for under 16s). If you would like to volunteer during the festival (and receive free entry) please contact Dee Brooks on 4921 6845 or dee.brooks@newcastle.edu.au.

The Fair Share Festival is being hosted by Transition Newcastle in partnership with the Hamilton Public School, the Family Action Centre (University of Newcastle), Permaculture Hunter and One Just World. We are supported by UnitingCare Ageing (Hunter, Central Coast and New England).

More details can be found on the festival webpage (http://fairsharefestival.wordpress.com/), our facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FairShareFestival) or by contacting Graeme Stuart on 4921 7241 or graeme.stuart@newcastle.edu.au.

Applications have now closed for the

Transition Streets Challenge!

Watch for more details

What is it?

The Transition Streets Challenge is an opportunity for neighbours to come together and support each other in becoming more energy and water efficient, more vibrant and more connected.

Each Transition Street will explore energy and water usage, food, waste and transport over a six month period through:

• Discussions based on a practical workbook
• Thought provoking challenges
• Workshops (e.g., permaculture, energy auditing)
• Events (e.g., a street film night, a local food dinner).

Together they decide what they can do in their own homes and community to move towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

Developing skills!

Through the Challenge, participants learn how they can save money while also becoming more sustainable.  Each household receives a workbook with useful information, questions for discussion, and suggestions for how to become more sustainable and to reduce their bills. Members of Transition Newcastle can help organise the first meeting and will be available to provide expertise and support. They can also organise speakers, workshops, films and other resources.

Building relationships!

Creating more sustainable communities relies on people coming together. The Transition Streets Challenge helps neighbours build relationships, and opens up possibilities for cooperative initiatives. Not everybody in the street will want to be involved to the same extent so here are some suggestions. You might:

• Meet regularly with their neighbours
• Come to a permaculture blitz or a film screening
• Help organise a street party or a local produce dinner. 

Leading the way!

Inspired by the successful UK Transition Together program, the Transition Streets Challenge will demonstrate what can be achieved locally. There will be opportunities to showcase the Challenge to the broader community through:

• Regular radio, TV and newspaper interviews
• Street open days
• Transition Streets signs to show others they have taken the Challenge.

What Next?

Five streets are participating in the first Transition Streets Challenge. We will be posting more details soon.

For more information email transitionstreets@transitionnewcastle.org.au or phone William Vorobioff on 4967 3231.

We had a good planning weekend (11-12 June 2011) and have a clearer picture of our direction.

The main areas we are committed to working on are:

1. Developing the concept of transition streets (possibly incorporating things like a competition/search for a transition street, street or house signage, eco blitzes for houses or streets, transition street parties/BBQs, streets getting together to discuss how to transition)
2. Developing closer links with Council (e.g. helping to the 2030 plan more specific in relation to sustainability, encouraging Council to develop a peak oil plan)
3. Workshop (e.g., sustainability living workshops, skilling up workshops, food preservation, visioning post peak oil, growing your own food, energy and water efficiency, parenting for transitioning)
4. Special events (including film nights, the Fair Share Festival, talks)
5. A listening project (e.g. a sustainable Newcastle is.....)

Other ideas (that weren’t prioritised at this time, but some of which could be incorporated into some of the above) included

1. Living with less is more festival
2. Working with schools and TAFE
3. Skilling up BBQs
4. Create an energy action centre/transition centre (incorporating a shop)
5. 150km dinner
6. Tell the world/your street with signs, power down signs, transition endorsement
7. Eco blitz of a house or street
8. Plan for an energy descent plan
9. Talking heads – Newcastle’s vision
10. Images of transition hours/streets

We also spent time hearing each other’s inspiring stories of how we got to where we are (in terms of being involved in Transition Newcastle), visioning and socialising. More details will be provided soon.

You can read some reflections about the weekend in Graeme's Blog