Add a Comment

Comment by Kate Braithwaite on February 25, 2010 at 13:45

Amelie
I've just read the report - great case studies. i'm particularly interested in the innovative finance - energy bonds etc. This deserves a wider audience - Nick could probably assist in using issuu to post the document?
Well done everyone
Kate

Comment by Amelie Trolle on February 25, 2010 at 13:35

The report summarising the participating community groups' stories, percieved barriers and opportunities, and the Forum's responses is now available above!

Comment by Amelie Trolle on November 24, 2009 at 14:32

The three main outcomes from the delegates’ session are listed below.

The narrative
The Eden Forum delegates agreed to form a set of working groups based on the key ideas that emerged during the Forum. The first action group aims to respond to the need of a shared vision of a resilient future; a narrative that inspires people to believe that a better, brighter future is possible. The publication will be inspired by the Picture Post “Plan for Britain” issue from January 1941 which featured visions of a better Britain to strive for once the war was over. It contained pieces about how to best plan the post-war society – from work to housing, transport and health.

The South West energy bond
Inspired by the work of the energy related community groups, a second working group will look at scaling up renewable energy supply across the region. They will investigate the possibility to design and issue a bond that will finance distributed energy projects in the South West.

Support
Particularly touched by the Forum community groups and their stories, yet another group will work to support community-led initiatives and look at the potential to scale up or replicate some of them. This group will gather information about the barriers preventing community-led initiatives and work to remove the identified obstacles. This group has a potential to respond some of the needs identified to help community groups be more effective. As identified in Community Action on Climate Change in the South West (2008), what’s needed is to “Develop and promote a menu of simple, replicable models, including support materials”, “improve and simplify communication channels, especially via the internet, and support county networking (…) as well as occasional networking events”, and “Support the delivery of these recommendations through the regional climate change action plan. Involve mass membership organisations. Start to develop an alternative low carbon vision.”

Comment by Amelie Trolle on November 9, 2009 at 16:57

Hi Nick,

Thanks a lot for offering your assistance - I'm sure that will come in handy, will look out for the "inquiry model". I'll get back with the Forum outcomes and some more images within this week.
Best.

Comment by Nick Wilding on November 3, 2009 at 10:08

Hi Amelie...

welcome back from holiday! If there's anything I can help with to develop this group (posting material, discussions etc.) just let me know (thinking about those eden forum outcomes maybe?).

Also, we are developing an 'inquiry' model for developing these group discussions - the resilience group is one example, and debi fry's about to kick one off about assets - so it might be worth checking out as a possible approach to keeping these conversations developing...

all the best for now
nick

Comment by Amelie Trolle on November 2, 2009 at 17:02

Hello I'm back from holiday!

Rob - the college/university-community partnership ideas have come out a lot through the discussions and there seems to be a demand for it. For the Sense of Place conference in September here at Eden we had the pleasure of having Prof Angie Hart from the University of Brighton here who spoke about their Community University Partnership Programme www.cupp.org.uk - perhaps something of use to you. I believe Angie is on this network too.

Grenville - from my perspective, yes I believe the day at Eden was worth while, but more importantly - do YOU think it was worth while coming all the way from Falmouth? Regarding if the delegates were a little distant - I think there could have been more opportunities for interaction between "our" group and the delegates. Always room for improvements...
Whether they achieved anything, yes, and I'll get back with the main things.

Comment by Rob Curran on October 17, 2009 at 17:32

Hi Amelie,

Although I wasn't at the Eden event, I'd be really interested to learn more of people's interest in the university-community partnership ideas. I work at University College Falmouth and this is an area of activity that I want to promote within my role as diversity coordinator at the College. I'd love to hear from/work with others who'd like the College to play a stronger role in grass-roots community partnerships/engagements.

Comment by Grenville Chappel on October 16, 2009 at 16:38

Was the day at Eden worth while? Did you think the VIP's where a little distant? Did they achieve any thing? I am not to sure, whats your views.

Comment by Amelie Trolle on October 16, 2009 at 12:17

To distinguish this grup from Nick's already much frequented Resilience group (which I suggest you join too!), the starting point here is around barriers and opportunities to community-led initiatives... I guess we can only see where that will take us. There is a South West regional focus to the groups here which might be reflected in the discussions - this is not to say we're only considering the SW, we're not, and we're open to anyone interested.

Some of the barriers preventing a broader uptake of community action and roll out of initiatives like the eight here:

- Outdated policies
- Lack of impartiality
- Nervous politicians, no risk taking
- Contradictory regulations
- Over-developed bureaucracy
- Non-standardised specifications / measurements
- Ill informed decision makers
- Finance
- Endless fundraising and reporting
- Lack of resources – land, finance and time – to develop sustainable models and finance initial investments. Lack of funding to pay for the people with experience to promote the models and support other groups to replicate the models
- Current legislation with regards to planning and implementation of renewable energy projects
- Lack of co-operation across sectors, no joined up thinking
- Complacency and the “well its not really going to effect me yet” syndrome.


And the some of the many opportunities helping communnity-led initiatives to flourish (identified by the eight groups):

- Locate relevant policies
- Set precedents / demonstrate best practice
- Swell of grassroots support
- Replicate success stories
- Co-ordinating body
- Find funds to disseminate
- Promote diversity
- Open source models
- Network
- Facilitation and encouragement
- Focus on interest not position
- Conflict resolution
- Make use of available case studies:
- Gather case studies on website to allow for sharing and dissemination of information and ideas
- Network programmes and workshops linking initiatives on national and local level
- Use examples of (local) community organisations/social enterprises in college and university courses
- Set up Community University Partnerships: Universities, Colleges and Schools to partner with community organisations to bring additional skills and resources – both ways
- Changes to the curriculum
- Give communities access to land: Community Land Trusts


The Eden Forum outcomes are currently being worked on, and I shall get back with that.

Comment by Amelie Trolle on October 16, 2009 at 11:47

Hello all,
We held an event here at Eden on 8-10 October called the Eden Forum. The aim was to bring together a group of people from various backgrounds, professions, world views over a couple of days' intense debate over what a resilient future could look like, what steps we need to take towards greater resilience and what barriers need to be removed if we are to see a wider roll out of community-led initiatives. To inform the discussions and to show what's really working on the ground (and not) we had the pleasure to have a selection of South West community-led initiatives here who presented their projects to the Forum delegates and to Eden's visitors and staff (check out Lisa's great pictures of the lovely exhibits created by our Eden designers). Leading up to the Forum I have spent some time getting to know the eight groups and what their thoughts are about scaling up or rolling out community action to enhance community resilience. I know they have a lot of insight and experiences to share with you and would contribute to Fiery Spirits, in fact, they are Fiery Spirits - or aldsjalar as we say in Swedish. We had several really great sessions together on the Friday and the discussions could have gone on for much longer if we'd had more time. That's why I thought I'd create this sub-group - for the discussions to go on and be enriched by others' insights too. I'm glad to see Grenville and Anthony have already joined and been welcomed by Kate. Hopefully the others will join soon. By the way, anyone is welcome to join this group!

The groups I'm refering to are Beacon Community Regeneration Partnership (Grenville), Bovey Climate Action, Community Power Cornwall, Mendip Power Group (Anthony), Tamar Grow Local, Transition Town Totnes, Stroud Community Agriculture and South Wheatley Environmental Trust.