Banter 34: Hay Community Resilience Initiative, 28Aug24, Mike Eccles

Mike introduces a masterpiece of joined-up thinking on how to build a fresh way of looking at and living in your community, and then how to build resilience on the three pillars of food resilience, energy resilience, and wellbeing. This is one of those videos that should be the template of best practice in this arena

Video Timeline (min:sec):

00.00 - 01:28 Introduction by Mike Eccles

01:28 - 39:35 Presentation

39:35 - 66:49 (end) Q & A

Presentation:

30MB
00 Hay Resilience Model 28 August 2024 - Great Collaboration.key.pdf
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Meeting Summary:

Quick recap

The Hay Community Resilience Initiative

The team discussed the Hay Community Resilience Initiative, a rural community engagement program focused on food, well-being, and energy, and its progress, including the launch of a new evening real food market and plans for an online supermarket. They also explored strategies for managing seasonal gluts from home-grown produce and the potential of developing an online local food supermarket. Lastly, they discussed the importance of community assemblies in building a grassroots movement and achieving meaningful action, with Mike sharing his personal experience with the Extinction Rebellion.

NEXT STEPS for the Initiative are to:

Work on making assembly resources and materials available for others to use once more support is available.

Continue developing the online local food supermarket initiative.

Launch the Energy and Mental Wellbeing Pillars of the resilience initiative.

To explore ways to add value to excess seasonal produce for the proposed online supermarket (e.g. making chutneys, jams).

Continue training and expanding the group of assembly facilitators.

Further develop connections with other community resilience and sustainability networks. Explore potential collaboration with One Planet Living.

Summary

Screen Sharing, Registrants, and Connections

Graham and Mike discussed the logistics of sharing screens for presentations and the challenges of managing large numbers of registrants for a community initiative. They also engaged in a light-hearted conversation about their personal backgrounds and connections, including Mike's time in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and Liz's move to Banwell, Somerset. The team decided to wait a few more minutes for any latecomers before proceeding.

Hay Resilience Initiative Presentation

Graham welcomed everyone and informed them about the recording of the session. The main topic of discussion was the Hay Community Resilience Initiative, presented by Mike Eccles from Hay on Wye. The initiative is a rural community engagement program with three pillars: food, wellbeing, and energy. The food pillar aims to reduce carbon emissions by promoting locally grown, agro-ecologically produced, food. The wellbeing pillar is focused on a preventative approach to improving mental well-being through community activities and support. The energy pillar involves the creation of a community-owned energy company to reduce emissions and generate redistribution of wealth profit for the community. The initiative was initiated in response to the challenges posed by the climate catastrophe and the desire to build a more resilient community.

Community-Led Library Initiative in Powys

Mike discussed the efforts to save Hay's Public Library in Powys, which had been threatened with closure since 2014. A community interest company called Hay Public Library.org CIC was established to negotiate a renewable five-year commercial contract with Powys County Council to keep the Hay Library open and was agreed and signed on 1 October 2021. The aim was to provide more community involvement in the library and introduce new services, including community assemblies to promote deliberative democracy.

Mike highlighted the company's affiliation with EGIN, a network supporting community-led initiatives in climate resilience, and other related organisations. He emphasised the significant effort required to effectively find & participate in a host of National and Regional groups which were being formed and set-up to address the climate catastrophe. It was important to identify key players in the region, and gain their support for the Hay Community Resilience Initiative as a strategic model which could be rolled out and adapted by rural communities across Wales.

Mike's Future-Oriented Policies and Collaborations

Mike emphasised the importance of future-oriented policies for the country's sustainable development. He discussed his interactions with the Future Generations Commissioner's office in Wales, particularly with the current Commissioner, Derek Walker, and their shared interest in ensuring the well-being of future generations. Mike also highlighted his recent meetings with key figures in food policy and health, including Professor Tim Lang and Marie Brousseau-Navarro, the Deputy Future Generations Commissioner and Director of Health, who showed interest in collaborating on the Initiatives' Wellbeing Pillar assembly, when it is launched. Lastly, he mentioned his recent Food Resilience presentation at the 2024 Hay festival, where he was fortunate enough to find himself co-presenting with Jane Davidson. Jane, when a minister in the Welsh Government, actually wrote and implemented the Wellbeing and Future Generations Act in 2015 which set-up the Future Generations Commissioners Office, and is now tasked with writing a strategy (Wales Net Zero 2035 Climate Challenge) to ensure the country reaches Net Zero by 2050.

Ensuring that the Resilience Initiative is known to people like Derek, Marie, Jane, and others, and that they support it, is crucial to its success and integration into the National Race to Zero strategy.

Wales Net Zero 2035 Climate Challenge Update

Mike discussed Jane Davidson's leadership of the Wales Net Zero 2035 Climate Challenge, which aims to set strategic targets, plans and initiatives to ensure that Wales hits net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. He also highlighted the success of their first Food assembly, launching the Food Pillar of the Model. This Assembly attracted over 100 participants and Mike went on to emphasise the importance of using intrinsic value language in marketing and publicity. Lastly, he explained, that in a market town, an initiative to revive the local farmers' market tradition, is an easy 'sell'. Only this time, we would produce food agroecologically, and run the Initiative using a new form of deliberative democracy (Community Assemblies) emphasising the importance of facilitation and training for this process.

Mike's Online Course Experience and Strategy

Mike shared his experience of discovering an online course on a website that his team couldn't afford. He reached out to the course organiser, Sam Kaner - founder of CommunityAtWork.com , and was invited as a guest to the course for free. Sam's generosity enabled him to learn from the authors of the ‘bible for facilitators’ - The Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision-making. Sam's course included a segment on How to Design a Meeting, and this in turn enabled Mike to adapt that design specifically for Community Assemblies - How to Design a Community Assembly. This Template Asset can now be used by anyone wishing to design their own Assembly agenda in the future.

Mike detailed the structure of the design of the Food Assembly, which included educational sessions, breakout sessions for addressing the Assembly question (where the real work takes place), and a final feedback session. He emphasised the importance of the tea and cake breaks for networking and idea generation.

Mike also discussed his strategy for using local newspaper publicity to enhance the perceived importance of their articles - a trick he has used in many past social entrepreneurial campaigns.

Mike's Initiative Progress and Future Plans

Mike reported on the progress of their initiative, which involved data analysis, community engagement, and structure alignment. He shared that 10% of the community showed interest, with 61 feedback forms received, indicating a growing ownership of the project. Mike also mentioned that the Food Assembly has resulted in the launch of an evening market for real food in Hay Castle and revealed plans to start an online supermarket for local growers. He suggested that this could eliminate the need for the Initiative to found and run multiple community supported agricultural businesses (CSAs) to feed the Town. The Assembly has also resulted in the creation of a resource library for others to use as templates in their own communities and a clear document for landowners of the needs required for a CSA to be developed on their land. The Initiative now has a database of skills and resources being offered by the community, from feedback forms, and a list of Community food-growing Action Points for further consideration and development.

The Initiative, Systems Change and Changing the 'Story' we tell Ourselves

Mike presented a community resilience initiative that aims to shift the community's narrative from one of consumers to citizens, with the goal of making the community more resilient in the face of the climate catastrophe. We no longer wish to be thought of as anonymous consumers in Capitalism's all consuming delirium. We are rather Citizens of a community working together positively, creating a sense of Hope, Purpose and Belonging, in an Initiative driven by Kindness. The initiative involves local energy production, food self-sufficiency, preventative mental well-being initiatives, and the introducion of deliberative democracy through community assemblies - new form of democracy for a community. Graham expressed his admiration for the initiative and asked for the sources of the emissions savings Mike mentioned. These come from the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park 5-year plan developed by experienced climate specialists and consultants. Mike also mentioned that he was working on making a collection of resources available for others to use and to ensure that others across Wales can replicate and adapt the model for their own communities, but his current workload was a significant obstacle. However it will happen!

Community-Led Sustainable Energy and Food Production

Mike discussed the challenges and strategies of the community-led project focused on sustainable energy and food production. He emphasised the importance of community ownership for the project's success and highlighted the need to balance food and energy production. Community Ownership is not the same as a community agreeing to a large energy business building a Solar or Wind Farm locally - where the global business offers a bribe to that community to prevent local opposition to a planning proposal, or even a share in the profits. Cara expressed interest in linking Hay's project with other community-led solutions including One Planet Living ( https://www.bioregional.com/one-planet-living ) and the one-planet Development (OPD) movement in Wales.

[While the One Planet Living is an international movement into which the Hay Resilience Initiative can fit, the Welsh OPD - https://theoneplanetlife.com/the-science-of-one-planet-living/one-planet-development-in-wales/ - movement in Wales was not designed to feed communities on the scale envisioned by the Hay Resilience Initiative. Having said that, there are less than than 150 OPD people working mostly on two or three acres in Wales at present and everyone involved with an OPD is also a member of The Landworkers Alliance - https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/lwa-cymru/ - which has close connections with the Hay Resilience Initiative.]

Mike agreed to speak at conferences and engage with more organisations to further the Hay Community Resilience Initiative's goals.

Managing Seasonal Gluts and Citizen Assemblies

Stuart and Mike discussed strategies for managing seasonal gluts from home-grown produce, including the use of pollytunnels and adding value through chutneys and other items. They also explored the potential of developing an online local food supermarket. A biodiversity audit was raised as an issue for future discussion.

The conversation then shifted to People's Assemblies and Citizen's Assemblies, with Mike sharing his experience with the Extinction Rebellion and their successful campaigns. He emphasised the importance of community assemblies in building a grassroots movement and achieving meaningful action. The training of facilitators for these assemblies was also discussed.

The conversation ended with Mike agreeing to share his email with the group and Graham announcing that the key points would be posted on a wiki for future reference.

Further reading:

1021KB
Earth Co-op - Co-creating a Social Co-operating System - A Social Utility Capable of supporting Waves of Coordinated Action - 2023.docx
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Chat:

01:00:54 Penny Q - Weymouth: Extinction Rebellion are facilitating a big peoples assembly in Windsor Great Park on Saturday. https://extinctionrebellion.uk/massembly/

01:10:31 Amanda Davis: Quick question please... How do we start with a biodiversity audit? Would like to apply for funds for this, as parish council capacity is exhausted. Who might undertake it?

01:11:45 Cara Naden Environment Somerset Council: One planet Living was created by Bio Regional https://www.bioregional.com/one-planet-living

01:12:04 Liz Shayler (Banwell PC): Thanks everyone. Sorry I have another meeting at 1pm.

01:12:12 Peter Anderson: One Planet Living by Bioregional ( https://www.bioregional.com/one-planet-living & https://oneplanet.com ) and One Planet Development - https://www.oneplanetcouncil.org.uk/ (adopted by the Welsh Gov) are 2 very different frameworks

01:12:34 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Are you looking at community orchards?

01:13:09 Carol Kambites, Stonehouse Town Council: My local foodbank takes surplus allotment produce from the Allotment Association

01:13:16 Cara Naden Environment Somerset Council: Reacted to "One Planet Living by..." with 👍

01:13:44 Peter Anderson: Replying to "{4318DBC5-DDD1-4366-A9AD-CD8A258CBEB1}.png"

Yes, this is One Planet Living - not adopted by Welsh Gov as far as I'm aware.

01:14:30 Cara Naden Environment Somerset Council: If you are close to Somerset please come to the Land Alive conference in November being organised by Sustainable Food Somerset https://www.landalive.co.uk/

01:15:31 Cara Naden Environment Somerset Council: Also Transition Network has lots of resources to support community leadership in climate resilience. https://transitionnetwork.org/

01:15:50 Jacky Lawrence, Napton PC, Warwickshire Low Carbon Network, NEAT: There's a climate assembly in Stratford next week covering food, energy, transport, biodiversity & river health, adaptation etc. Climate Assembly September 2024 | Stratford-on-Avon District Council

01:15:50 Peter Anderson: George Monbiot - Rivercide - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ID0VAUNANA

01:18:08 Cara Naden Environment Somerset Council: There is also George Marshal who wrote Carbon Detox and founded Climate Outreach https://climateoutreach.org/ highly recommend.

01:18:13 Cara Naden Environment Somerset Council: Reacted to "There's a climate as..." with 👍

01:18:22 Cara Naden Environment Somerset Council: Reacted to "My local foodbank ta..." with 👍

01:19:19 David Morgan-Jones (Ewshot PC): Many thanks for an excellent talk and fascinating discussion.

01:20:45 Carol Kambites, Stonehouse Town Council: I have to go down but thank you for a fascinating talk about a fascinating project.

01:20:47 Cara Naden Environment Somerset Council: Replying to "{4318DBC5-DDD1-4366-A9AD-CD8A258CBEB1}.png"

I thought it was the basis of One Planet Wales https://www.oneplanetcouncil.org.uk/

01:21:46 Caroline Murray, Tring Town Council: Very inspiring talk, Mike. Thank you.

01:22:01 Jacky Lawrence, Napton PC, Warwickshire Low Carbon Network, NEAT: thank you

01:22:08 Peter Anderson: Is Mike happy to share his email?

01:22:18 Wendy Thomson: Thank you! Another very interesting presentation. Food for thought!

01:22:23 Sarah whitelaw: EXCLLENT SESSION .. THANKS MIKE !!! muh food for thought … Sx

01:23:36 Cara Naden Environment Somerset Council: Thanks Miek and all!

01:23:44 Cara Naden Environment Somerset Council: *Mike!

01:23:48 Mike E - Hay Resilience: [email protected]

01:24:04 Peter Anderson: It was applause :-)

Really Useful Stuff: (thanks to [email protected] for this)

The October 12th 2024 ‘Meet Your MP’ day of action on the climate crisis is moving forward fast. It is now known as the ‘Common Grounds’ day and being organised by the Climate Coalition (linking over 100 national bodies). They are asking people and groups all over the UK to set up meetings with their MPs to urge the need for rapid and serious action on climate change.

The Climate Coalition are producing a range of useful materials - I would urge you to look at the campaign pack that is just out: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Cy4aaHiaK5VT4TqgKYbKMTpv9z_Inqzd_JGQYk59MSs/edit#slide=id.g2f4b732d235_1_32

In the pack above they suggest three key themes / messages (slides 15,16,17) – do check these out. They are setting up a range of online working groups (I am on the coordinating group) – these include: Political Group; Narrative and story group; Media and comms group; Mobilising, organising and capacity building group; Outreach group; Website and tech group; Delivery Group. See this if you are interested: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIRPPEO_jqi9zY5snK_TH3nGoGLOKLuvUwYLE2bNg5ySkq3w/viewform

Friends of the Earth have produced an excellent guide to ‘meeting with your MP’ – it’s here: https://groups.friendsoftheearth.uk/resources/guide-meeting-your-mp

The Coalition will also be running training sessions on ‘Meet your MP’ and on ‘Storytelling’ in September.

There are 6 Meet your MP online sessions – book here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/theclimatecoalition/1341692

There are 3 ‘Storytelling’ sessions: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/theclimatecoalition/1341702

[The Coalition suggests that we adopt the story-led approach as a tool to inspire action (including from your MP!)]

AI summary:

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