What do we mean by transition?
It’s about communities exploring new ways of living by encouraging local resourcefullnesss, celebrating diversity, fostering self empowerment, inspiring change, and ‘thinking outside the box’.
It’s about each individual community coming together to decide what is most appropriate for its own area, uncovering the vast reservoir of local talent, skill and creativity within its community, and then exploring ways of creating simple, elegant solutions that allow us to live in harmony with the natural rhythms of the earth.
It’s about fostering new and valued relationship with ourselves, others and the natural world, and believing in our capability to create a vibrant and thriving future for our children and grandchildren, and those of all species. It’s about having the courage to be different, to share hope, inspiration and creativity. And above all, it’s about having fun.
All the current members of Blackdown Hills Transition Group live and work in the Blackdown Hills and are committed to working towards a community based response to the challenges posed by oil depletion, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels and Climate Change.
Unlike Transition Towns (Stroud and Totnes) the group is unable to focus on a definable town as the Hills are made up of many villages with loyal communities. Consequently the group has traditionally seen its role as being a hub for information and support to local communities to help them consider how to be increasingly self-sustaining as is practical in our modern age.
Initiatives over the years have included:
- A focus on local food production and encouraging communities to support their local suppliers rather than totally relying on the weekly shop at a large town supermarket chain
- Encouraging people who are fit and able to grow their own food resources. Hence a focus on annual apple days to have fun and make juice from apples that may have been left to rot and seed swaps at the local farmers markets encouraging passing-on local knowledge and recycled seed
- Encouraging recycling in all its forms to limit landfill and waste generally
- Promoting energy efficiency via articles and example, in order to move away from oil and focus on renewable sources of energy production
- To care for the environment and to look critically at proposals for fracking and new nuclear power station development
- Understanding how individuals can make their own transition looking at their own practice and inner transition in order to come together with others for mutual support and encouragement
- Working with other groups and inviting people to discuss topical issues of the day relating to transition. The group has hosted election hustings and film events (View and Chew)