The Benefits of Community

With the global issue of climate change very much now on our doorstep, it seems that we are being presented with some really wonderful opportunities to think outside the square about how we live.

As part of this, many of us are starting to embrace the idea of bringing more community spirit into our lives as we start co-creating a more natural, sustainable and green future for ourselves and our planet.

By opening ourselves up to the idea of community, we are able to receive many different kinds of benefits as we start to realise that everyone has something very special to offer another. With this page then, we wish to share some of the ways that individuals can get involved in your local community to help make it a better, happier and more sustainable place to live.
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The Transition Towns Movement  

The transition towns movement is a truly wonderful & inspiring example of action based community growth that encourages earth friendly and sustainable ways of living. Having being started by a few people in the UK, it has now spread to over 34 different countries to create very real and positive changes in many different communities around the world. 
And perhaps the real beauty behind this community movement lies in its ability to empower & motivate people to be the change they want to see. It offers anyone and everyone an equal chance to create community projects, initiatives and to become involved with community events so that they can really help to make changes at the local level. As they say "think global, act local".

  The various transition town groups all over the world are responsible for introducing ideas like community or shared gardens, community skill swapping, community energy solutions, local food events, organic food solutions, permaculture projects, community tool libraries, local currencies, community festivals, time sharing, public food forests, insulation solutions, economic blueprints, getting to know your neighbours and much, much more. 

* Inspiring Better Communities *

The Incredible Edibles Project 

The incredible edibles project is a wonderfully simple and inspiring concept of planting all kinds of edible food in a variety of public places for free consumption by the general public.

And as this short talk from Pam Warhust explains to you, what has started out as a very simple idea has now spread into many different communities around the globe in a rather transformational way.

The growing of food is the main idea here but as you can see, this starts to spawn new and exciting ways for the community to become involved with each other and for the community to proposer as a result. A wonderful story of hope.

Community Skill Sharing

One of the greatest benefits about being part of the community is the amazing ability to access skills, education and help. And by promoting the idea of skill sharing, we are acknowledging the many varieties of skill sets within our community and offering these under some form of fair exchange system.

Community skill sharing can start off as an informal and fun day where people can come and be introduced to all the different things that are being planned for that day. As you can see here in this short video, there can be a great range of different ideas and workshops being presented during these events and lots of educational fun to be had by all who attend.

There are many more community events like this being planned and if there isn't any in your local area - why not start by organising something yourself!

Community Food Forests

With a growing interest in permaculture, we are now able to understand how we can create a food forest. This is an area which is capable of sustaining many kinds of fruit trees, nut trees and other wild edible produce that can be very beneficial for the greater community.
 
And this idea of creating public food forests is now starting to become more popular as local communities start taking action and becoming more aware of issues like community resilience and about the importance of educating our children about where there food actually comes from.

Here is a short video to show one example of a community in the USA coming together to plant a number of different fruit & nut trees as a first step towards their own food forest. Here is another great video for those of who wanting to create your own food forest.

Community Street Parties

There are many different ways that communities can come together and enjoy good times together, some will be educational whilst others may just be a good excuse for a good time! 

One of the big advantages to these kinds of events is that it brings people together who may not have already met and as you can see in this video, it can also be a wonderful way for helping the young community to volunteer and learn a new set of skills as they are given more responsibility and sense of accomplishment in their lives.

There are of course many other examples of community events such as local food festivals, social fundraising, sports days, concerts and other such wonderful community events and these are also a great way of bringing people together and unite the community.

Community Arts Projects

To regularly express ourselves creatively is a wonderful way to relax, heal and remain balanced in our life and as we are realising, it is also a wonderful way of bringing communities together. 

And we can see so many examples of these types of community art projects starting to emerge where artists are taking their work to a more 'connecting with people' type level. This is also a wonderful outlet for anyone who is partaking in these projects and helps to bring a sense of accomplishments into ones' life.

In this short video, we wish to share just one example of this with you noting that you can see the children here gaining this sense of accomplishment and togetherness from this art project. And whilst this is just one project for children, we can begin to see and understand the positive benefits that these kinds of projects can bring into different parts of the community. 

Food Is Free Project

Another wonderful community based project which is helping to encourage the idea of planting community based free food in amongst an urban landscape. And whilst this project is still in its early 'seed' stages, this is exactly the type of project that we just love sharing as this is a great time to start getting involved.

And with this, we hope to empower you towards an inspired understanding that something like this can become a reality in your local area in a few easy & simple steps. It just takes some motivation, planning and a creative and fun loving attitude towards helping us all move towards a more natural and sustainable future. 

And there are so many more !!!

Self-Sustaining & Eco-Communities

In addition to these wonderful community based projects, we can also see a growth in what we refer to as self-sustaining communities and eco-villages starting to emerge over a wide range of different countries, habitats & climates. These communities are normally run in their own unique way depending on a range of different factors; such as number of members, community funding level, land size, shared facilities etc.

Some of these communities choose to offer a more traditional approach to going eco-friendly e.g. with each family paying for their own house and paying an annual fee for their community services whereas other villages and communities have been more communal and simplified in their approach. As always, we are all very different in our approach to living so we will undoubtedly all have different ideas and dreams about how we wish to live more naturally and sustainably with each other (and with the resources that we each have access to).

One common theme that we have noticed throughout these communities however is that they are all designed with a very natural and sustainable approach to living. Some will also incorporate a number of common beliefs about being loving and kind with each other within their model. We feel that these types of eco-communities can offer us much hope and precedence for a more sustainable future - here are a few links to some eco-friendly communities in action:

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