Helping to direct and support our Sydney Basin community move towards a low carbon, sustainable future. A member of the global Transition Towns movement, and the Regional Networking & Support Hub for our local groups and members of Transition Sydney.
Transition Sydney is a group of Sydney people whose concern about the impact that climate change, fossil fuel depletion, and collapsing global trade and financial systems will have on our way of life calls us to do something practical about it. Action is needed at the local level to help communities transition to the new realities these forces will bring and to build their own local resilience. This action starts with a few people getting together and deciding to do something in their local area. Our role is to promote and support such local action – and to roll up our sleeves and work alongside those local groups and coalitions that take up the challenge. Our aim is to be both a catalyst, a partner and an ongoing resource centre for local transition initiatives across the region. Our focus in this endeavour is on the Sydney Basin Bioregion. While the action projects we aim to encourage and support will be at the suburb and precinct level, our local energy, food and water dependencies span the entire Sydney Basin Bioregion and beyond, and local solutions need to take these into account. Luckily, we are not the first and not alone in this endeavour. There are well advanced grass-roots initiatives around the world which have created a pathway for us to follow while we create our uniquely Australian, uniquely Sydney response.
So how does Transition Sydney help local Transition Initiatives?
Since the first meeting in March 2008 when three strangers met after work in a CBD cafe, our vision to assist local transitions all over the greater Sydney Bioregion began to take shape and has driven our efforts since then. In short our efforts are directed toward doing whatever it takes to:
Raising awareness of the need to consider transition initiatives in communities across the region
Helping community groups and concerned individuals connect with each other in their local areas and start the essential dialogue that leads to action
Communicating the possibilities and pathways offered by the “transition model” of community planning and action that leads to community resilience and self-determination
Representing and promoting the model of community resilience planning and action to all levels of government whose decisions impact the sustainability of life post peak-oil and in a carbon emission -constrained world in the greater Sydney region.
Training motivated individuals and community groups in the contexts, processes and skills relevant to successful local transition initiatives
Providing information and links to sources of information that inform the need for and the process of planning for local community resilience.
Facilitating the formation and ongoing development of local initiatives using the power of web-enabled technology
Encouraging and enabling sharing of ideas, information and experiences between local initiatives
Specifically, what does Transition Sydney have to offer?
Presentations to community groups and community gatherings on transition contexts, drivers and processes
A central website ‘meeting place’ for transition-minded folk to connect with others in their area
A library of films to alert, inform, inspire and motivate people to take action
Contacts with local government, state government, academic and community leaders engaged in sustainability work
A resource-rich website (you’re on it now!) to inform, connect and enable
A website capability to allow local groups to ‘piggy-back’ on our development and run their own web-presence at no cost
Internet forums for both local groups and the wider transition community to further the development of the unique transition solutions for the Sydney region
Passion, commitment, determination and personal support for all those who embark on their inner and outer transition journey
Contact us to discuss how we can assist you and your local community embark or continue your transition initiative.