You are invited to our RCDL Launch Party on the Autumnal Equinox! We have been cultivating and myceliating with an incredible set of partners to elevate the solutions needed for community resilience. Join us on the evening of September 21st for an introduction to our team and the suite of tools we have assembled for incubating bioregional strategies.

Susan Juniper Park is an activist working at the cross-section of ecological, economic and social justice. Join us as we first look at colonial systems of oppression, and then talk about how these show up in movements working towards climate and ecological resiliency such as Transition, Permaculture and Re-Skilling.

This seminar led by Ben Weiss is intended for people of privilege who want to do environmental work in underprivileged communities that are not their own. Participants will be challenged to identify their own progress on the path of recognizing their own privilege as it relates to work in disempowered communities.

Join Transition Trainer and local economic development practitioner, Fred Brown of Pittsburgh, PA, to explore how Transition Towns can bridge the urban community with the global economy, using principles of “economic gardening” – a strength-based approach to community development that spans socioeconomic strata.

Join us to learn from community resilience leader Doria Robinson about the model of Urban Tilth, a high-impact grassroots organization that builds resilience in Richmond, CA, a diverse community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Urban Tilth hires and trains residents to work with schools, community-based organizations, government agencies, businesses, and individuals to develop the capacity to produce 5% of the community’s food supply. 

It has become clear we face two distinct possible futures:  Economic Transition or Ecological Collapse. If we stay the current course of a globalized industrial model, collapse is inevitable.  Yet many current Transition efforts, tacitly accept or overtly promote the further marginalization of working class communities and communities of color.  The fact is:  Transition is inevitable, but Justice is not.  Current climate change policy efforts are one example: high-density urban “smart growth” is fueling gentrification in many cities. 

Carlos Espinoza-Toro shares information about the successful fellowship program at the Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition. The program serves as a model for helping potential leaders from underprivileged backgrounds tackle economic inequality and climate change when most of their time is devoted to working to earn a living.

Resource depletion and climate change effects various demographic groups in vastly different ways. Recovery ​within​ historically disenfranchised communities from hurricanes and Superstorms Katrina, Irene, Lee and Sandy looked radically different than that of communities which typify the overall Transition Town demographic. ​Transitioners tend to be predominantly white, educated, post materialist, middleclass, small community people.