Saturday, January 12, 2013

Transition Training in Dobbs Ferry on February 1 - 3


Don't miss this local opportunity to benefit from world-renowned Transition Training. Learn to build strong and resilient communities that can weather all kinds of storms!

Local Resilience: A Transition Town Weekend with trainers Tina Clarke and Pamela Boyce Simms 

  • Spans Friday, February 1, 6:00 – 9:00, dinner included; Saturday, February 2, 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM, lunch included; to Sunday, February 3, 1:00 – 6:00 PM, dinner included
  • at South Church, 343 Broadway, Dobbs Ferry, NY
  • $140 for weekend / $50 for students (minimum age 14). 
  • REGISTER HERE!
  • No one turned away for lack of funds. For scholarships contact Kathy: 914-693-7389 / kpokoik@verizon.net
  • This training is sponsored by Roots & Wings, the sustainable initiative of South Church, and is cosponsored by Transition Hastings and Transition Westchester


For those that see today’s diminishing oil supplies, economic disparities and climate chaos as just the tip of the iceberg, change is necessary. But how? That’s where the Transition Network comes in. Transition is a community-organizing plan that responds to the realities of climate change and the shrinking supplies of cheap energy. It evolved in the UK in 2006, and quickly moved from towns in Ireland to neighborhoods in Portugal, from cities in Brazil to rural communities in Slovenia, from urban locations in Australia to islands off the coast of Canada.

There are now 1075 Transition initiatives worldwide, with 323 in the United States alone.  It’s a movement that has a toehold in Westchester County, too, with groups in Katonah, Ossining, and Hastings. Common goals of Transition Towns include energy descent plans, rebuilding the local economy, supportive relationships with friends and neighbors, and growing food year round.

Says John Bell, founder of Transition Westchester, “We’ve just been through Hurricane Sandy. We’ve seen the first gas lines since the 70s. Something is changing. Transition Training will help you understand what is changing and will give you tools to deal with these changes.” 

“Hurricane Sandy reminded us that our first responders are our neighbors,” adds Elizabeth Marouk-Coe, one of the founders of Transition Hastings. “There couldn’t be a better time for this training.

ABOUT TRANSITION TRAINING


TRAINER Tina Clarke
Tina Clarke, who worked with Greenpeace USA and Bill McKibben’s Global360 before becoming a certified Transition Trainer, opens the gathering by presenting the reality of the planet's state of being and how to share these facts with others. Participants envision a post-Transition world together, and Clarke offers tools to make the vision reality. Working groups are set up to move towns towards resilient sustainability.

TRAINER
Pamela
Boyce
Simms
Pamela Boyce Simms, an activist who has worked sustainable initiatives in Africa and within the Tibetan Buddhist community, calls climate change “the eye of the needle, as our planet does what it needs to do.” She focuses on inner worlds’ transitionthe emotional, psychological and spiritual dimension of the Transitioning process using Joanna Macy's "deep ecology," self-exploration exercises.

 “When I was laid off, I found myself craving community,” says Elizabeth Marouk-Coe, of Hastings, NY. “I wanted to start new and be part of the solution, rather than part of the system. I met someone in a parking lot and she said to me, ‘Have you heard of Transition?’ I am now one of the founding members of Transition Hastings. My neighbors and I are now sharing a generator and a storehouse. We’re bartering. We’re hoping to map all of the neighborhoods in Hastings and put public readiness practices in place.”

Pauline Schneider, one of the founders of Transition Katonah, went through Transition Training two years ago. She says,  “I loved watching Tina Clarke take a room full of strangers and turn us into a loving close-knit community. We are still in touch with each other. Transition is fun.”