> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://news.transitionnetwork.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Transition Network Diversity Newsletter January 2011 - URL: https://news.transitionnetwork.org/transition-network-diversity-newsletter-january-2011/ - Published: 2011-01-12T00:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2023-01-13T12:15:41.000Z - Author: Transition Network international - Tags: #News, #Import 2026-03-17 ### Transition Network Diversity Newsletter January 2011 **Bi-monthly Newsletter** **INTRO** *WELCOME to the Transition Network’s Diversity and Inclusion newsletter. We aim to get this newsletter out to you approximately every two months. Please forward it onto anyone you think may be interested and encourage them to sign up at the subscription link below.* **TRANSITION INITIATIVES DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION NEWS** **JOIN THE DISCUSSION: How can Transition initiatives become more inclusive?** A member of Marsden and Slaithwaite Transition recently initiated a forum discussion on the Transition Network website asking “How can Transition initiatives become more inclusive?” This has sparked off a lot of great ideas ranging from going out and giving talks to community groups, doing events aimed at nothing other than building connections in your neighbourhood, translating materials into other languages, asking for help and drawing on the diverse knowledge of people in your area rather than seeing people not involved in Transition as the “others”. The list goes on so have a read and add your thoughts: [Forum discussion on Transition and Inclusion](../../../../../forums/process/general/how-can-transition-groups-become-more-inclusive) **FITROVIA: The People of Tottenham Street** Fiona Green of Transition Fitrovia has lived in the Fitzrovia area for nearly 50 years. In celebration of this and in the spirit of honouring her neighbours, she recently undertook a photography project in which she interviewed and photographed some 45 people along her 200 yard street. Here she talks about what she did and the positive impact it has had on herself and her local neighbourhood. [People of Tottenham Street blog post](../../../../../blogs/catrina-pickering/2011-01/people-tottenham-street) **FINSBURY PARK: Cycling Schools, Cycling Mums** Transition Town Finsbury Park in North London are now running a bike project which aims to work with parents, particularly Turkish mums, from Parkwood Primary school. Nuran, one of the Parkwood parents, is a strong believer that the best way to get children on bikes is to teach the parents. She organised and publicised the project, literally catching parents as they left the school playground and signing them up. She was supported by her sister, Nurçan, (a bike trainer with Sta bikes) and Bart from the travel group. [Mums Bikes Project Page](../../../../../projects/mums-bikes) **KINGSTON: 60 Attend Inter-faith and Environment Forum** About 60 participants from the Kingston area turned out to enjoy the talks, food and small group discussions at the interfaith forum on sustainability in the Guildhall on 28th October 2010\. The forum was organised by Kingston Borough Council in partnership with Transition Town Kingston. Many faiths and non-faiths were represented. Lead speaker Muzammal Hussain from the Islamic Ecological Community Activist group, Wisdom in Nature, gave a deeply inspiring talk in which he argued the sustainability movement has so far been too focused on the intellect and needs to take more of a heart perspective, thereby enabling us to look more systemically at the root causes of climate change and peak oil. Follow ups are now being planned. More information on TT Kingston website **BRAZIL: Unleashing of the First Transition Favela with Rap and Samba** It was a sizzling Saturday morning in December when members of the low low-income Brasilândia community of 247.000 people in São Paulo, gathered with great expectancy for the official unleashing of ‘Transixion’ Brasilândia. In only 8 months, 85 community members have gone through the Transition Training with many of them studying the Portuguese Primer. This combined with their inherited resourcefulness, the ‘mutirão’ spirit and emerging social entrepreneurial skills have generated 7 working groups and many actions on the ground. [Rob Hopkins’ blog on the Brazilian unleashing](../../../../../blogs/rob-hopkins/2011-01-06/unleashing-first-transition-favela-rap-and-samba) **STOKE NEWINGTON: Candlelit Carols** A report back from Transition Town Stoke Newington where following on from an idea that came out of the Transition Network Diversity and Inclusion training, the initiative worked with people on the George Downing Housing estate to put on a carol service together with the residents. [Article on Danielle Cohen’s “Inclusion in Transition” website](http://inclusivetransition.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/candlelit-carols/?ref=news.transitionnetwork.org) [Article on Transition Network website](../../../../../news/2011-01-11/candlelit-carols-stoke-newington) **TRANSITION NETWORK PROJECTS AND EVENTS** **Diverse Roots to Belonging Conference** The international “Diverse Routes to Belonging” conference took place on the 20th and 21st November 2010 in Edinburgh. Transitioners from Scotland, England, Wales and beyond gathered together to discuss the progress of Transition in their different communities, with a focus around inclusion and belonging. Watch the many and varied footage from Alistair McIntosh on “Reconnecting with the Indigenous” to Luci Ransome on “Resilience in impoverished, urban communities”. McIntosh footage McIntosh blog Luci Ransome on Resilience in Impoverished Urban Communities All video footage from this event **Rob Hopkins on Diversity and Inclusion** As part of his new project charting the many and varied “ingredients” that make up Transition, Rob Hopkins has written an ingredient on Diversity and Inclusion. He writes “Building an Initiative that integrates all the strengths and concerns in your community means starting with everyone in that community and interweaving diversity into everything you do. In practise, it’s about a lot more than putting up posters in a few carefully chosen places. Rather than inviting people to your meetings and expecting them to come along, it’s about going out to other people and listening. It means finding out about the strengths, concerns and the passions that fuel the fire of everyone in your community and then together with your own ideas, using that as the building blocks for creating an inclusive vision that informs everything you do. The result will be a just, fair and infinitely more resilient Transition.” [Article on Rob Hopkins on Diversity and Inclusion](../../../../../news/2011-01-11/rob-hopkins-diversity-and-inclusion) [Diversity and Inclusion: Transition Ingredient](../../../../../patterns/getting-started/inclusiondiversity) **Living well in times of change** Exploring ways of working towards greater resilience with vulnerable and isolated communities – a blog. Luci Ransome of Transition Scotland Support has for the last 20 months or so been exploring, trying out and sharing the learning from communities in some of the most under-resourced areas of Glasgow and Port Glasgow. In her newly launched blog, she tells some of the stories of how the people and communities have changed in the process, and indeed how she has too. Read her blog on the Transition Scotland Support website. [Article on Transition Network website](https://news.transitionnetwork.org/news/2011-01-14/living-well-times-change) **Inner City Inclusion** In her blog (below), Danielle Cohen from Transition Town Stoke Newington argues that some visions of inclusion risk implying and perpetuating power relationships, and in the video interview, Danielle argues that Transition needs to take an integrated head, heart and hands approach in working on inclusion. She suggests that rather than seeking to include, perhaps we should also be seeking to be included by others. [Danielle Cohen blog post on Transition Network site](../../../../../blogs/catrina-pickering/2011-01/inner-city-inclusion) [Danielle Cohen interview on inclusion in Transition](../../../../../news/2010-12-20/reaching-out-resilience-inclusion-transition) [Danielle’s dissertation in the Transition Resources Directory](../../../../../resources/thesis-diversity-and-inclusion-transition) **Call for Case Studies** The Transition Network is soon to be launching a Diversity and Inclusion toolkit. If you have case studies or other ideas that you think might be good to include from your Transition initiative or elsewhere, please [email Catrina Pickering, Diversity Co-ordinator](mailto:catrinapickering@transitionnetwork.org). [Call for Case Studies article on Transition Network site](../../../../../news/2011-01-11/call-case-studies) **NEWS, EVENTS AND RESOURCES FROM ELSEWHERE** **Community Survival Depends on Community Infrastructure workshop: 15th Feb (book now!)** Trafford Hall, a conference and training centre working with low income communities invites you to attend an exciting interactive workshop on community infrastructure reinvestment and neighbourhood renewal on Tuesday 15th February 2011 9.30-4.45pm. Reinvestment in the existing urban infrastructure within communities will help the UK reduce CO2 emissions and become more sustainable. This has many benefits including tackling fuel poverty, re-linking poorer existing communities with wider city networks, combating sprawl and enhancing community inclusion. Households don’t exist as islands – many of the wider infrastructure problems of waste, water, energy, transport have to be tackled at community level along with crime, security, green spaces, traffic calming and social integration. Many key questions are yet to be answered. [Event listing in Transition Events Directory](https://news.transitionnetwork.org/events/2011-02-15/community-survival-depends-community-infrastructure-workshop) **London Islamic Community Food Project: Sunday 23rd January** Open to people of all faiths and beliefs, this event is an ongoing community food growing project run by the Islamic Ecological Activism group, Wisdom in Nature. It will support you to - Be empowered: Practicals on the land & grassroots organising with like-minded participants. - Develop experience in social change & facilitation – life-enhancing skills so vital in today’s world. - Hear and share ideas & stories – take small, vital steps to make the imagined real - Bring a team spirit & the yearning of your soul to create a sustainable, more compassionate world for all!.. [Event listing in Transition Events Directory](../../../../../events/2011-01-23/islamic-community-food-growing-all-welcome) **Judaism and the environment: New Year of the Trees (Tu B’shvat seder)** Ever wondered about Jewish perspectives on the environment? Join the Big Green Jewish and ‘green guru’ Natan Levy for their very own Tu B’shvat seder (a customary “[New Year of the Trees](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu%5FBishvat?ref=news.transitionnetwork.org)” celebration) with a difference at the magnificent Kew Gardens. Open to all people of any faith or culture. [Event listing in Transition Events Directory](https://news.transitionnetwork.org/events/2011-01-30/judaism-and-environment-amongst-trees-kew) **Women, Faith and Environment: Event and Resource Pack Launch:** Wednesday 26th January LIFE stands for Local Initiative for Faith and the Environment. LIFE has been created as a bridge between faith-based networks and environmental action in the Borough of Lambeth in London. The hope is that this bridge serves to bring people together around two of the most vital pillars of peace-building today: climate change and inter-faith dialogue. After 18 months of community and resource building, LIFE is hosting this event to celebrate the launch of the LIFE Resource Pack. This will be a renewable resource to enable local communities to create their own ‘LIFE hubs’, discovering ways to integrate faith, diversity and ecological living. Please come along to find out more! [Event page with flyer on Transition Network site](../../../../../events/2011-01-26/women-faith-and-environment-event-and-resource-pack-launch) **Hard to Reach? Engaging Diverse Communities** A one day course from Capacity Global about engaging with diverse and excluded communities on climate change and the environment The course will help you to: - Gain a wider understanding of working with diverse communities and groups on climate change and environment - Enhance your skills on engaging excluded organisations - Understand how relevant legislation and work on impact assessments afects and informs your work - Identify ways to get funding and resources for this work - Develop an engagement plan to work with diverse communities and groups - Assess and understand the demographics of an area and the implications of these figures for your work [Event page on Transition Network site](../../../../../events/2011-01-21/hard-reach-engaging-diverse-communities-training-course) More information on Capacity Global site **Over to you…** If you’ve got news items, events or something you’re proud of that you’d like to include in next month’s Diversity Newsletter, please [email submissions to Catrina Pickering, Diversity Co-ordinator](mailto:catrinapickering@transitionnetwork.org) **Newletter Contact** - Catrina Pickering - Email: diversity@transitionnetwork.org - Tel: 01865 403147 **Transition Network:** - 43 Fore Street, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 5HN. - Email: info@transitionnetwork.org - Tel: 05601 531882