Succesful Community Event

It is rare to see a room so full of enthusiasm and excitement on a Monday morning, but yesterday's event at Trafford Hall created a very tangible buzz of activity. Numerous groups and organisations across the Cheshire region made contacts and plans were made for future collaborations. It was great to see groups sharing what they knew with others and comparing stories and experiences. The question of funding and support came up time and again and luckily we had "experts" on hand who were able to use their community and professional experience to point groups in useful directions. Many participants have said how useful they found the carbon footprinting workshop, especially the immediate feedback available and advice on how to engage neighbours in the debate about energy reduction. Jon and Derek (from Stretton Climate Care in Shropshire) shared the story of their community and gave useful advice to others. Their sense of humour and in depth knowledge was appreciated by us all.
Other highlights included residents from Blacon getting to grips with the green action plan for their community, which is already involved in many sustainable initiatives, as one resident pointed out, she never realised just how much was going on already. I'm looking forward to this year's Blacon Festival on 5th July and hope Bryan from Sticky Exhibits will bring some of his amazing installations along.
Links were made between climate groups in Cheshire and Manchester and plans made for visits and shared events in the future.
Susi Miller from Federation for Community Development Learning was a very sensitive facilitator, even though drawing the group together sometimes felt like herding cats she managed to draw everyone's experiences together and gave us all a great deal to think about. I certainly came away with more questions than answers. I'm away at Ruralnet's Collaborate 2008 event and Transition Towns Conference in Cirencester for next few days, but will write more about the Community Action event next week. Hope to post from Transition Towns if time permits, but have along list of people I want to meet, a chance to finally put faces to names on email lists and catch up with old friends.