Community Resilience and Social Equity in Changing Times

Presentation Abstract:
Higher energy costs, climate change, and economic instability pose a “Triple Challenge” that requires creative action. Transition Towns is a positive, inspiring, bottom-up response that brings people together to build community resilience. Created in the U.K. and now being used by hundreds of communities around the world, the Transition process successfully engages large numbers of community members in building local security, well-being, and vitality. Thousands of people around the world are now organizing “Transition Initiatives” in their towns, cities, and neighborhoods.

How can the Transition process help increase social equity? This seminar will briefly outline our global predicament and share pathways, actions, criteria, principles and on-the-ground successful models for including everyone as we strengthen our communities in a changing world.

Speaker Bio:
Tina Clarke is a certified Transition Towns Trainer (www.transitiontowns.org) and a consultant with 30 years experience in social change movements, from global to local, including 7 years in the Environmental Health and Justice movement in the U.S.. She will share her first-hand study of and collaboration with the Transition movement in England last year, and her experience helping launch and support over 25 Transition Initiatives in the U.S. Tina has been an advocate, educator, consultant, and director of nonprofit programs with over 400 organizations. In Washington, D.C., she directed national citizen training programs for a faith-based coalition and directed Greenpeace USA’s citizen action network. Tina has an M.A. in Public Policy from the University of Chicago. She lives in a Platinum LEED, passive solar-heated, low-toxic "Power House" that she helped design (www.zeroenergypowerhouse.com) that has won several awards (www.zechallenge.com, www.nesea.org), that generated twice the energy it used in 2009.