South Devon and Plymouth Taking Back Control of Their Future (13th Oct, Devonport Guildhall)
Our press release for the forthcoming South Devon and Plymouth “Collaboratory” - in the face of climate change, taking back control of their future
Contact: info@thealternative.org.uk
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Community members from all over South Devon are meeting in Plymouth on Social Saturday, 13th October, 10.30-17.00, at Devonport Guildhall in response to the multiple crises that we face today.
Top of the list will be deep concerns about a new international report published yesterday (Monday) about the acceleration of climate change, which leaves us only 10 years to turn the situation around if we want to safeguard the future.
Our current political system has not been able to deliver the results we need. But what can ordinary citizens do that would make a difference?
South Devon and Plymouth offer a unique combination of expertise. The area is rich in permaculture, social enterprise, community business, knowledge institutions, technology, wellbeing practice, design and arts networks. If they worked effectively together, they could provide a model for saving people and planet at the regional level.
A model that could be copied – and improved upon at every stage - all over the world, creating a network of transformative action that has not been achieved until now
But this can only work if citizens themselves step up - helping to design the model in a way that ensures it answers their needs in realistic ways. What does “localisation” - bringing power down the local level - mean to individuals and families already busy with their own lives?
New energy plans must work to lower the costs for people, not raise them. Food must deliver health and wellbeing in an affordable way. To participate more fully, people must have a real economic stake in the communities where they live. And if technology looks like removing many human jobs, how can we redistribute the works that’s left and give ourselves more time?
The South Devon and Plymouth Inquiry will be everyone’s chance to have their say and use their own experiences to make sure that our next moves together are the right ones. We will take the first steps in creating a citizens network - an organisation that anyone can join and be active in, to create a future we can all look forward to.
Come to Devonport Guildhall on Saturday for a proper conversation. Starting at 10.30, we’ll start with asking what this community means to us? And move quickly to what kind of future we might want. And then how to find the resources to make it happen.
We’ll finish by 5.00 and, for those who wish, there’s an after party at 8.00 to launch a new community owned brewery Billy Ruffian’s as part of the Atlantic Project. Both events are support by Power to Change and Plymouth’s Empowering Place programme – supporting community business in Devonport and Stonehouse.
For more information, and speakers to the media, please contact: