Upcoming Events

What: A series of public conversations on environmental and economic crises
When: Wednesday, February 8, 2012 @ 7:00 pm
Where: 10 Carden (across from City Hall)

The opening conversation is: "Too Many People? Population, Immigration and the Environmental Crisis", with guest Ian Angus, author of Climate & Capitalism.

Co-sponsored by Transition Guelph, Guelph Campus Co-op and Guelph and District Labour Council.
Event Poster (PDF)

What: Classes, Workshops, & Hands-on Experiential Work
When: Sunday, February 26, 2012 to Monday, February 27, 2012
Where: The Living Centre, 5871 Bells Rd., London, Ontario, N6P 1P3

At its simplist, permaculture is an eco-logical approach to design. It can be described as a way of thinking, making decisions and designing things based on observing nature. Permaculture has a set of ethics and design principles which can be applied to all areas of our lives, including gardens, energy systems, business, economy and social structures.

In this special workshop workshop you will learn the basics of permaculture. Permaculture is a design science for creating regenerative human habitat. Whether you're heavy into gardening, want to learn about renewable energy, or determined to clean water is freely available, this introductory experience is for you! There's something in this presentation for everybody.

For more informtion:
http://www.thelivingcentre.com/cms/introduction-to-permaculture

What: 4-session workshop: Sessions take place February 28, March 6th, 20th and 27th
When: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 to Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Where: 10 Carden, across from City Hall

Thinking about starting your own farm business? Want to learn more about the opportunities and realities of ecological farming? FarmStart is offering their “Exploring Your New Farm Dream” course at 10 Carden Street, starting this February. The course is designed for people who are thinking about starting a farm business.

The course helps participants set personal and farm goals, assess available resources, determine if farming as a business is a good fit for them, and develop an action plan to guide their next steps. The class is led by a farmer facilitator with firsthand knowledge and experience establishing a successful farm business. The program includes over 12 hours of classroom instruction and a full day of farm tours. The course runs over five Tuesday evening sessions and includes a Saturday of farm tours.

Ali English, Training and Resources Program Manager at FarmStart, explains that “there are more and more people who are interested in getting into ecological farming, many from non-farming backgrounds, and this is a perfect introductory course for these folks. It introduces people to the opportunities and realities of farming and connects them with experienced and aspiring farmers.”

The course takes place between 6:30pm and 9:30pm at 10 Carden Street in Guelph on Feb 28th, March 6th, 20th and 27th with a day of farm tours on March 10th. The cost of the course is $325 per person or $450 per pair. To register and for more information visit http://www.farmstart.ca/explorer/ or contact admin@farmstart.ca or call 519.836.7046 x 103.

FarmStart is a charitable organization based out of Guelph that supports a new generation of entrepreneurial and ecological farmers to establish and grow.
Event Poster (PDF)

What: Now you can complete the introductory Resilience Assessment Online!
When: TBA
Where: In the comfort of your own household!

The Introduction to Resilience Assessment Workshop has changed format! You can now go to the Household Resilience Working Group page and complete the introductory assessment from the comfort of your own laptop/desktop computer:

http://www.transitionguelph.org/HRA.php

After completing the Household Resilience Assessment, please send us your scores from each section ( engage@transitionguelph.org ), and we will invite you to participate in a follow up discussion with other individuals who have completed the assessment.

During the discussion we will review our current level of resilience to economic, environmental, and energy shocks at the individual and/or household level.

Benefits of completing the Household Resilience Assessment:

• This assessment will help you to begin your resilience planning and implementation effort if you have not started.
  
  
• This assessment will help you to identify any deficiencies in your present resilience planning and implementation effort, and provide actionable steps to improve your household resilience level.
  
  
• The assessment will provide you a resilience score that can be compared with other members of the community.
  
  
• The follow-up discussion can set the stage for identifying how your present household resilience could be improved by engaging the support of community members.
  

What: Discuss the next steps after completing the resilience assessment
When: Thursday, March 1, 2012 @ 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Where: At Guelph City Hall

During this discussion we will work together to review the results of our household risk and resilience assessments. We will compare our individual results with those of the other group members to identify opportunities to share and learn ways to improve household/individual resilience. Improving resilience one household at a time develops a vibrant and resilient community.

To attend this discussion you will need to complete both the risk and resilience parts of the assessment workbook, and send the total scores for each of the 5 assessed areas to Ken at kmyers847@yahoo.com. To use this workbook you will need MS Excel version 2003 or newer on standard PCs and all versions of Excel on Macintosh computers except version 2008.

Locate the assessment workbook and all documentation at the link below.
Household Resilience Assessment webpage

What: Workshops & Hands-on Grafting Experience
When: Saturday, March 10, 2012 to Sunday, March 11, 2012
Where: The Living Centre, 5871 Bells Rd., London, Ontario, N6P 1P3

For more than 30 years the Ken Taylor has been involved in the study of organic and cold weather farming. His decades of experience and experimentation have made him one of the foremost authorities when it comes to hardy fruit trees and plants. His research and development efforts have enabled him to put together one of the most comprehensive and unique tree collections in the world.

Event Poster

For more information:
http://www.thelivingcentre.com/cms/living-arts-institute/learn-to-propagate-fruit-trees-with-ken-taylor

When: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 @ 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Where: The eBar, 41 Quebec Street, downtown Guelph

Presenters:

Mike Darmon, Chair, City of Guelph Water Conservation and Efficiency Public Advisory Committee
Wayne Galliher, Water Conservation Project Manager, City of Guelph

As Ontario communities grow in population, so too does the demand on our fresh water resources. Traditionally, water planning for future growth has been based on the pursuit of new water sources, while more innovative demand management approaches, such as greywater reuse, still doesn’t have a great amount of uptake.
In May 2009, the City of Guelph initiated the Residential Greywater Reuse Pilot Program. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of home-based greywater reuse technologies through the installation and monitoring of 30 greywater reuse systems in new and existing homes in the Guelph community.

This presentation will share details and findings of the Greywater Reuse Study as well as provide a homeowner’s perceptive on system use, performance and maintenance. For more information on greywater reuse, visit www.guelph.ca/greywater.

Celebrate 2012 Canada Water Week!

This presentation is one of many local Guelph events planned for 2012 Canada Water Week, March 19 to 25, 2012. This year’s theme explores “Our Water Footprint”. For more information and to view the calendar of local water events, visit:

www.canadawaterweek.ca

When: Saturday, March 24, 2012 to Saturday, March 31, 2012
Where: Locations around town TBA

Last year's Resilience 2011 Festival was a huge success, and we want this year to be even better! Like last year, we're planning some great keynote addresses, some terrific lead-up workshops and symposia, and other events and, like last year, the culminating event will be an Earth Hour candle-light pot-luck dinner on the evening of March 31.

Watch this space for more details!

What: 2-Day Workshop
When: Saturday, April 21, 2012 to Sunday, April 22, 2012
Where: The Living Centre, 5871 Bells Road, London, ON N6P 1P3

Trainers Sally Ludwig and Roxana Roshon of Transition Guelph will be facilitating a 2-day course for those wanting the practical tools and knowledge to set up, run, maintain, and support a successful transition initiative.

At the end of the course, participants will:
• Understand the reasons for Transition: peak oil, climate change, economic instability and social inequity.
• Understand the principles of Transition, Permaculture and Resilience.
• Understand of the Transition model and process, tools and ethos.
• Experience a vision of a positive fulfilling future, and be able to explain why this is so important.
• Gain knowledge of the steps of transition and how to engage the community into the transition process.
• Understand the stages of personal and societal change and people’s perspectives and needs along the way.
• Experience new social technologies and how these can help unleash the collective genius in your community.
• Be able to take this knowledge back into your communities
• And much more...!

Early Bird Registration Fee: $180 + HST until April 1
Registration Fee: $ 200+HST April 2 and after

For more information and to register for this workshop, please visit: The Living Centre - Training For Transition.

Presented in collaboration with The Living Centre and Transition London.
Event Flyer (PDF)

Please check back often for information about Transition Guelph community events, workshops, film nights, public talks, meetings, picnics, potlucks and much more!