Thanks to funding from the Big Lottery ‘Communities Living Sustainably’ programme, a free Transition Together project is about to be launched in Dorset.
Members of Transition Town Dorchester have received training in organising and supporting Transition Together – a scheme that originated in Totnes, Devon, where 550 households have saved an average of £570 per year each on items such as energy, travel costs and food bills.
It works like this: a group of 6-10 people interested in living more sustainably (they may be friends or neighbours) form a Transition Together group and plan to meet 7 times over a period of 3-4 months. They usually meet in each others’ homes on a rotating basis for approx 2 hours per meeting. A trained volunteer facilitator attends the first meeting to help the group get started. The facilitator also provides a Transition Together manual for each person, with chapters on energy, water, transport, food and waste. The manual provides up to date independent information on how much you can save by making different lifestyle choices and changing habits.
The group then carries on without the external facilitator and works through one chapter of the Transition Together manual at each meeting, usually with everyone taking turns to be the organiser or co-ordinator. The external facilitator then attends the last meeting to see how the project went and provide any further help needed. In practice it can be a lot of fun and some groups continue to meet after the end of the 7 sessions.
There is more information and videos on the website www.transitiontogether.org.uk
Transition Together groups will be starting in the Fordington and Monmouth Road areas of Dorchester in early February.
For further details or for help to start your own Transition Together group please contact Emily on 07507 321954 or 01305 213721 or email [email protected]
Posted by Pete West
