Communities In Transition

Coming Event: The Musical Chairs Seminars Aspects of Structural Poverty

Shane Orchard — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:48:31 +0000

Poverty has been compared to a game of musical chairs,[1] in which there are ten players but only eight chairs. Many scholars, politicians and social service providers focus on the two players left out when the music stops, and try to help them be better players. These seminars look at how and why the game is structured to produce losers in the first place, and suggest options for fairer systems.

The Structural Poverty Group invites you to another of our series of seminars looking at different aspects of structural poverty.

Transition Initiatives

and their potential to address structural poverty

Transition initiatives work on a local level to increase the ability of communities to withstand crisis and handle change. They do this by proactively creating a positive vision of their communities in a world with less cheap abundant energy, changing climate and a changed social, environmental and economic environment.

Frauke John (New Brighton Project), Tim Weir (Delta Community Trust) and Katie Nimmo (Roimata Trust) will give an overview of initiatives that they are involved with in Christchurch communities, and how these speak to structural poverty.

Tuesday 23^rd March 2010

12.30pm – 2pm

BYO lunch, Trade Aid tea & coffee provided

Conference Room, 2^nd floor,

Christchurch Community House / Te Whakaruruhau ki Otautahi

141 Hereford St, Christchurch / Otautahi

[1] Mark Robert Rank, One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All, Oxford University Press, 2004

New transition initiative in Sumner / Redcliffs

Shane Orchard — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:45:01 +0000

Christchurch’s newest transition initiative is happening in the Sumner / Redcliffs area! On March 17 Sumner will host its first community event to explore and connect with the worldwide transitions movement that is creating vibrant communities at the grassroots. Anybody and everyone are welcome to come along for an entertaining evening at the Sumner Union Church Hall at 7.30pm. This will give Sumner people a great chance to find out what transition towns are all about, including screening of the recently released movie ‘In Transition’. And of course it will be a chance to contribute your ideas and hear about current and future creative directions in the Sumner community.

For more information contact Shane at shane.orchard@ymail.com or Esther at sumnerbays@xnet.co.nz

See you there!

Other events

jmsinnz — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:08:48 +0000

I have been working with Bill Simpson at the Resilience unit of Environment Canterbury to host a 2/5 hour conversation around lunchtime on Thursday the 18th, at their Christchurch offices. The nature of this event is a shared dialogue focused around some key questions, such as:

What should/could a regional council do, in support of communities self-organising to build local resilience?
How can we help people connect to each other, within any arbitrary geographical area?

There will be some short presentations, using video and slides, to set the context for the conversation. This will help us arrive at some level of common understanding of the changes and responses.

If you are interested in being part of this conversation, please contact Bill Simpson on 03 357 9710.

If you are interested in organising other opportunities for dialogue, please contact me.

“In Transition” film and dialogue events

jmsinnz — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:12:16 +0000

Wednesday March 17th at 7:30pm – Sumner Union Church Hall, Nayland Street

Thursday March 18th at 7.30pm – St Albans Community centre

Come and explore topics at the heart of the Transition movement. This will be Christchurch’s first screening of the ‘In Transition’ movie plus a chance to ask questions and hear about the latest Transition thinking from Waiheke Island’s James Samuel.

“The film explains but doesn’t dwell on the twin shocks of peak oil and climate change… but the notion of community resiliency is really the star of this show”. From a Review by Stephen Cook, Transition Denver

James Samuel is one of the pioneers of the Transition movement in New Zealand. As well playing a leading role in the Transition Towns Aoteoroa Network, James has managed to further some key projects including Waiheke’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and the global Ooooby initiative (Out Of Our Own Back Yards).

These will be an excellent events for anyone new to the ideas of Transition, so bring your friends. See you there! It will be a great opportunity to catch up and collaborate with like minds!

James is actively seeking opportunities for more “Conversations that Matter” around the subject of building local resilience. If you are interested, please get in touch.

For more information, contact:

Christoph Hensch - 0210 77 1244, 03 374 2465 (w), cmhensch@gmail.com
James Samuel - 0274 372 082, 09 372 8737 (h/w), jmsinnz@gmail.com
Shane Orchard - 021 318 548, shane.orchard@ymail.com

Or leave a comment or a question here.