permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

About Transition Network | Transition Network
https://transitionnetwork.org/about

About Transition Network

What does Transition Network do?

Transition Network is a charitable organisation whose role is to inspire,
encourage, connect, support and train communities as they self-organise
around the Transition model, creating initiatives that rebuild resilience
and reduce CO2 emissions.

Ultimately it’s about creating a healthy human culture, one that meets our
needs for community, livelihoods and fun.  We’re here to support you.

We run events, conferences, trainings, blogs, webinars. We produce  monthly
newsletters, books, films, guides, tweets, and more,  all with the
intention of best supporting those around the world who are doing
Transition.

Contact us to let us know how we can help
<https://transitionnetwork.org/contact>.

   - We have a small staff team
   <https://transitionnetwork.org/about/people/staff-and-key-contributors>
   - 10 employees (only 1 of whom is full time) and a network of freelancers.
   Many of us are based in a tatty office in Totnes, but increasingly we're
   drawing on talent from across the UK and beyond!
   - We have a strategy <https://transitionnetwork.org/about/strategy>
   - Here's a list of key considerations that guide our work
   <https://transitionnetwork.org/about/principles>.
   - You might enjoy our 'Who are we and what do we do'
   <https://transitionnetwork.org/resources/who-we-are-and-what-we-do>
   document, which sets out our thinking of how we designed Transition Network
   in the early days (2009).




*Most of the Transition Network staff and board at the June awaydays.*

History (to early 2010) for those with more time

Towards the end of 2006, Transition Town Totnes (TTT) had been running for
close to a year, with co-founders Rob Hopkins and Naresh Giangrande running
awareness-raising events and dreaming up the core elements of the
Transition Model. Around this time, other communities that were concerned
about climate change and peak oil were beginning to take notice. The
initial slow trickle of enquiries about Transition was beginning to build
up and for those listening carefully enough, the rumblings of a tsunami of
interest could be heard in the distance.

Around this time, on the "Life beyond oil" course at Schumacher college in
Devon, Rob met Ben Brangwyn. He'd been studying relocalisation efforts
around the globe, and understood just how special the emerging transition
model was in terms of inspiration and replicability. And how urgently it
was needed.

In response to that urgency, and now joined by Sustrans director Pete
Lipman, they jointly founded Transition Network, with a simple mission - to
inspire, encourage, connect, support and train communities as they adopt
and adapt the transition model on their journey to urgently rebuild
resilience and drastically reduce CO2 emissions.

In those early days, with no office and no funding and a ton of work to be
done, the embryonic charity was set up on the faith that if someone didn't
recognise quickly just how important the new approach that Transition was
bringing and start funding it, then humans were in real trouble.

A few months later at one of the first Transition Bristol (UK) meetings, a
crucial encounter with the Tudor Trust helped secure the initial funding
and start a relationship that has continued to flourish.

With funding, an office, a newly appointed office manager, a website and
the first iteration of the Transition Initiatives Primer all in place, Rob
was able to concentrate on his book, the Transition Handbook which was
published in Spring 2008.

Based on feedback from the earlier initiatives, it became clear that some
kind of training was needed to help the initiating groups in those early
stages. In that strange phenomenon of "the right people stepping up at the
right moment", Naresh Giangrande and Sophy Banks (convenor of the Heart &
Soul group in TTT), both experienced trainers and faciliators, applied
themselves to the task and devoted a huge amount of energy and time to
create that first course. And on a weekend in October in 2007, 18 people
became the first to go through a training course that has since then
spanned the world.

By now there were Transition Initiatives sprouting up in Australia, Canada,
England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland,
South Africa, Spain, Sweden, USA, and Wales.

Over time, further training courses have been developed, including Train
the Trainer, and there is a growing pool of transition trainers capable of
supporting Transition Initiatives in many countries and languages globally.

In response to input from initiatives, Transition Network began working
with a publisher, Green Books, to extend the range of support materials.
The result is a steadily growing stable of "Transition Guides", covering
food (published), Transition Timeline (published), working with your local
government, sustainable housing and domestic energy, transitioning cities,
local money.

In addition, the first Transition movie, "In Transition 1.0" was produced
by a local transitioner, using footage gleaned from initiatives around the
world. The movie has a global audience, having been translated into four
languages (could be five or more by the time you read this!).

That brings the story up to date for the start of 2010, a period marked by
the failures of Copenhagen, an increasing sense of continuing economic
contraction and further reports from highly influential sources
<http://energybulletin.net/node/52311> on the threats from fossil fuel
depletion.