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      • Banter 68: 07May25 Libraries working to Net Zero, Anna McMahon
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      • Banter 66: 23Apr25 Nature Park, with Martin Harrison
      • Banter 65: 16Apr25 Bats, with Daisy Finniear
      • Banter 64: 09Apr25, De-carbonising Community Buildings, Andrew Maliphant
      • Banter 63: 02Apr25 Manchester, first Carbon-Literate City?, Linda Foley
      • Banter 62: 26Mar25 Community Land Trusts, Tom Chance and Janet Cobb
      • Banter 61: 19Mar25 Green and Healthy Frome, Becky Lovegrove
      • Banter 60: 12Mar25 Climate Change Gardening, Clive Boase
      • Banter 59: 05Mar25 Local Climate and Nature Action Plans LCNAP), Matthew Lipton
      • Banter 58: 26Feb25 "Phosphates" with Andrew Clegg
      • Banter 57: 19Feb25 creating a parish Environment group, by Graham S-S
      • Banter 56: 12FEb25 "Smart" Net Zero approach, with David Morgan-Jones
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      • Banter 54: 29Jan25 Climate Emergency declared 5 years ago in Charlbury - what has happened since?
      • Banter 53: 22Jan25 "Harbour Farm and LNRS"
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      • Banter 50: 18Dec24 Food Resilience, Daphne Du Cros
      • Banter 49: 11Dec24 Really Helping and Enabling Personal Environmental Action, Bob Earll
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      • Banter 47: 27Nov24 Climate Action in the world of Sport by Laura Baldwin
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      • Banter 41: Share more, Waste less,16Oct24, Harvey Mcgivern
      • Banter 40: Water Efficiency at home, 09Oct24, Beverley Rogers
      • Banter 39: Postcode Revolution, 02Oct24, Jack Cooper
      • Banter 38: Why not underground?, 25Sep24, Graham Stoddart-Stones
      • Banter 37: Waste and Recycling Regulations, 18Sep24, Matthew Coulter
      • Banter 36: Bringing Solutions Together, 11Sep24, Paul White
      • Banter 35: Biosphere Reserves, 04Sep24, Chris McFarlina
      • Banter 34: Hay Community Resilience Initiative, 28Aug24, Mike Eccles
      • Banter 33: Climate Change and the new Government, 21Aug24, Ed Gemmell
      • Banter 32: Sustainability in Sport, 14Aug24, Claudine Pearson
      • Banter 31: Peterborough Accelerated Net Zero Project, 07Aug23, Gemma Birley
      • Banter 30: Programme Review, 31Jul24, Andrew Maliphant
      • Banter 29: Younity and Community Energy, 24Jul24, Michaela Cryar
      • Banter 28: Funding our Future, 17Jul24, Joolz Thompson
      • Banter 27: Creating Biodiverse Woodlands (& ESG), 10Jul24, Michael Cunningham
      • Banter 26: Messages, 03Jul24, Andrew Maliphant
      • Banter 25: Earthwatch Fresh Water, 26Jun24, Sam Frith
        • Banter 26: Messages, 03Jul24, Andrew Maliphant
      • Banter 24: Solar PV and batteries in your Parish, 19Jun24, Alex Templeton
      • Banter 23 Friends of the Earth, 12Jun24, Toby Bridgman
      • Banter 22: Energy and Low Carbon activities, 05Jun24, Adam Birchweaver
      • Banter 21: Child-led,Eco-refill workshops, 29May24, Lizzie Gimblett
      • Banter 20: Food Security, 22May24, David Dixon
      • Banter 19: CCA workshop 15May24 Joolz Thompson
      • Banter 18: MotherTree, 08May24, Dan Sherrard-Smith
      • Banter 17: Parish Online and Great Collaboration, 01May24, Chris Mewse
      • Banter 16: Resilience, 24Apr24, Chris Adams
      • Banter 15: Twenty is Plenty, 17Apr24, Dilys Gartside, Belinda Bawden
      • Banter 14: The World Game, 10Apr24, Graham Stoddart-Stones
      • Banter 13: Biodiversity Net Gain, 03Apr24, Andrew Maliphant
      • Banter 12: CSE "Future Energy Landscapes", 27Mar24, Dan Stone
      • Banter 11: Carbon Copy, 20Mar24, Ric Casale
      • Banter 10: Great Collaboration website update, 13Mar24, Sarah Battarbee, Graham Stoddart-Stones
      • Banter 09: Carbon Literacy, 06Mar24, Belinda Bawden
      • Banter 08: Education and Climate Science, 28Feb24, Maddie McGregor
      • Banter 07: Sustainable Transport, 21Feb24, Jools Townsend
      • Banter 06: EV Charging Points, 14Feb24, Sarah Battarbee
      • Banter 05: Beneath the Surface - River Evenlode, 07Feb24, Jennifer Lanham
      • Banter 04: Community Climate Action Plan, 31Jan24, Joolz Thompson
      • Banter 03: Climate Change and Digital Mapping, 24Jan24, with Graham Stoddart-Stones
      • Banter 02: Floods, with Bob Earll, 17Jan24
      • Banter 01: Biodiversity, with Andrew Maliphant 10Jan24
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  1. Events
  2. Banter sessions (inc table of all sessions)

Banter 39: Postcode Revolution, 02Oct24, Jack Cooper

Jack explains what led him to start the Revolution (as a change in the way you look at things), andwhy it is based on building postcode communities

PreviousBanter 40: Water Efficiency at home, 09Oct24, Beverley RogersNextBanter 38: Why not underground?, 25Sep24, Graham Stoddart-Stones

Last updated 7 months ago

Video Timeline (min:sec):

00:00 - 36:30 Presentation

36:30 - 61:24 (end) Q & A


Presentation:


Meeting Summary by Zoom AI:

The meeting revolved around discussions about the company's logo, technical issues, and the introduction of Jack, a climate activist and student, who shared his background and experiences. Jack led a discussion about community involvement and the urgency of addressing climate change, and introduced his initiative, Postcode Revolution, aimed at fostering community action on a hyper-local scale. The meeting also explored potential collaborations with local councils, the importance of community building and mutual aid networks, and the potential for open-source tools to support community sustainability efforts.

Jack to share the postcode toolkit Google Doc link with interested participants for feedback and collaboration.

Peter to follow up with Jack via email to discuss potential speaking engagement in Soham for the East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network initiative.

Amanda to explore incorporating tools and techniques from Postcode Revolution into the Borton S. Network for sustainability.

Jack to continue developing and refining the Postcode Revolution model, incorporating feedback from participants.

Jack to launch the Postcode Revolution podcast, with Jules Thompson as a future guest to discuss community climate action.

Jack and Jules to collaborate at the upcoming event in Worthing on November 11th.

Logo Design and Technical Issues Discussion

Jack and Graham discussed the logo of their company, which features a light bulb covered in a map. Jack explained that he designed the logo using Canva, a graphic design software, and is considering a fresh brand in the coming months. Graham and Jack also discussed technical issues related to audio and screen sharing during the meeting. The team was joined by other members, including Jack, Joolz, Anna, Gary, Peter, and Nik, but there were some difficulties in hearing certain participants due to audio issues.

Climate Action and Ecological Safety Discussion

Graham welcomed everyone to the meeting, noting the diverse locations of the attendees. Jack, a 23-year-old student and climate activist, was introduced as the main speaker. Jack shared his background, including his involvement with the Climate Majority Project and the founding of Postcode Revolution, a young organization focused on climate action and ecological safety. He also mentioned the collaboration with the great collaboration, which was not formally named in the transcript. Jack then began his presentation, starting with a question, and encouraged the attendees to participate.

Community Involvement and Climate Action Discussion

Jack led a discussion about the level of community involvement among the participants. He asked who knew more than four people in their street, excluding family and direct neighbors. The majority of the participants raised their thumbs in agreement. Jack then shared his personal experiences as a climate activist and his involvement in protests, which led to a criminal record and a stadium ban. He emphasized the urgency of addressing climate change and global heating, and encouraged the participants to take action in their local communities.

Addressing Environmental Issues and Public Disconnect

Jack: Mike Azevedo criticized the environmental protests for being disconnected and ineffective, creating a disconnect between environmental issues and the general public. Jack connected with the Climate Majority Project, co-directed by Rupert Reid and Liam Cavanagh, and met Jules Thompson, who played an integral role in its founding. Jack volunteered with the Climate Majority Project and Community Climate Action, working with Jules and Bonnie on the Postcard Revolution inspired by the Climate Majority Project. He believes in finding a more constructive way to address environmental issues.

Postcode Revolution: Community Action and Identity

Jack discussed his initiative, Postcode Revolution, which aims to foster community action on a hyper-local scale. He explained that the average UK postcode consists of 15 to 50 houses, and he chose this as the focus for his project. Jack shared his personal experience of living on a long main road and how he decided to act within his community rather than just protesting. He used the postcode as a boundary for his community and organized a community connection event in his parents' house. Jack emphasized that the identity of the community is crucial and that the postcode was a good tool for defining the community's size. He also mentioned that the Postcode Revolution project encourages people to use their own unique community identity, not just the postcode.

Postcode Revolution: Community Building and Sharing

Jack discussed the concept of the "postcode revolution" as a cultural shift rather than direct action, emphasizing its appeal to a wide range of people. He shared his experience of organizing a community meetup and outlined the three key areas of the postcard revolution: connecting with neighbors, creating a community, and using platforms like Whatsapp for virtual community spaces. Jack also highlighted the growth of their community, the importance of physical meetups, and the creation of a 'Community Sharing Hub' to encourage a culture of care and sharing. This initiative led to the formation of a postcode book club and a postcode energy group, both of which continue to meet regularly.

Improving Energy Efficiency and Climate Resilience

Jack discussed his community's efforts to improve energy efficiency and climate resilience. He shared their successful initiatives, such as obtaining energy performance certificates for homes at a reduced cost and organizing a postcode music festival. Jack emphasized the importance of community preparedness for climate breakdown and disaster, and his goal to connect communities with emergency services. He also introduced his community toolkit, which he hopes to evolve into a public source platform for collective wisdom on climate action. Jack discussed the concept of postcard revolution, a community-building initiative that could be useful in the context of a pandemic or climate breakdown. He also mentioned the formation of a separate group focused on greening the community and addressing climate and nature issues.

Postcode Revolution Community Project Update

Jack discussed the progress of his community project, which has gained media attention and is now expanding into a decentralized movement called Postcode Revolution. He mentioned a podcast he is launching and a recent meet-up in Brighton. Jack also encouraged others to join the movement's Whatsapp chat or contact him directly. Graham expressed interest in the project and raised questions for further discussion.

Postcard Revolutions and Citizen Engagement

BourtonSnetwork: Graham and Jack discussed collaborating with local councils for postcard revolutions, an initiative encouraging citizen engagement. Jack aims to integrate councils into the communities while empowering residents as active participants. Graham praised Jack's approach to energize people not yet reached by councils. Peter, chair of the East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network, shared his "So and green and together" initiative recently launched in Soham to address the town's past trauma.

Exploring Social Media for Younger Audience

Peter proposed an initiative to Jack, involving a face-to-face event aimed at younger people. Peter suggested that Jack could use his social media skills to create short videos on platforms like Instagram or TikTok to attract the attention of young people. Peter offered to cover Jack's rail fare to Brighton and possibly provide other forms of funding. Jack expressed interest in the project, but emphasized the need to discuss details and dates. Graham supported the idea, suggesting it could be replicated globally.

Community Sustainability Efforts and Open Source Tools

Amanda discussed the similarities between her community's sustainability efforts and the work being done by an unnamed organization. She highlighted the challenges faced by local councils in managing initiatives due to lack of capacity and resources. Amanda also mentioned their use of a Whatsapp group and a monthly newsletter called the Bought and Browser to communicate with the community. She expressed interest in learning more about the unnamed organization's tools and methods, particularly if they were open source. Jack, from the unnamed organization, confirmed that their Google Doc, the Postcode Toolkit, was open source and encouraged Amanda to provide feedback and use it for their community's benefit.

Climate Majority Project and Community Building

Jack discussed his climate majority project aimed at uniting people concerned about climate and nature, mentioning a sustainable model inspired by the Great Collaboration toolkit. Amanda emphasized sustainable project models not restricted by parish councils' structures. Peter raised transitioning from casual climate discussions to more serious ones in a WhatsApp group, which Jack was expected to address. Jack discussed depolarizing climate conversations, making them more inclusive, and shared experiences from the postcard revolution and climate majority projects highlighting community building and mutual aid networks' importance. Joolz supported Jack's initiatives, asking about their potential to feed into community climate action, which Jack affirmed, noting different action levels' importance. Plans were made for a future food resilience workshop.


Chat:

00:05:55 Anna McMahon: Forgive me - eating cake so keeping my camera off!

00:06:37 Jacky Lawrence: I'll go on mute

00:08:02 Nik Mckiernan: Apologies in advance if I go off camera, I'm expecting a call back from the vets

00:12:26 Amanda Davis: Yes

00:12:28 Jacky Lawrence: yes

00:12:38 Nik Mckiernan: No

00:12:47 Peter Anderson: Yup

00:19:41 Joolz Thompson: 😊

00:47:44 Amanda Davis: BourtonSnetwork

00:48:19 Amanda Davis: Village of 4,200 plus hamlets and those identifying with Bourton

00:49:46 Nik Mckiernan: Reacted to "pic-b2bc9728-cdb1-4720-a8d5-8061cc81eeac.jpg" with 👍🏼

00:49:50 Nik Mckiernan: Reacted to "Cool Blocks is a sim..." with 👍🏼

00:49:53 Joolz Thompson: Reacted to Cool Blocks is a sim... with "🙏"

00:55:04 Peter Bates: I was using paper tape storage on a Mini Computer in the mid 1970s

00:56:25 Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution: My email is jnc26@sussex.ac.uk

00:56:37 Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T8wWQN27Yeyn66pMwjf9mJbGsAv0rIfW9w6utmkt-LM/edit

01:01:40 Amanda Davis: Reacted to Cool Blocks is a sim... with "👏"

01:02:39 Amanda Davis: GDPR considerations? Not looking for issues. Presume people are giving permission as part of opting in

01:09:46 Nik Mckiernan: Thanks so much Jack and congratulations on what you've achieved so far :)

01:09:55 Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution: Reacted to "Thanks so much Jack ..." with ❤️

01:09:55 Peter Anderson: Thanks Jack, good to see you again!

01:09:58 Anna McMahon: Many thanks Jack, great initiative, thanks for sharing it with us


speech-to-text Summary by Zoom AI:

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    Hello, Graham, can you hear me?

  • Let's gonna check

  • works.

  • Okay.

  • Cool.

  • Okay.

  • Hello, Graham. Can you hear me? Okay.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:01:26

    Absolutely large of life.

  • Good morning, Jack.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:01:30

    Good morning!

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:01:31

    And.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:01:32

    How are you doing this morning.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:01:34

    You're a little bit quiet. I just give you some more volume at this end.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:01:38

    How about now?

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:01:40

    Well.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:01:43

    Do I speak up.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:01:44

    Need to. Strong. Yes, increase your voice, but otherwise it's fine.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:01:49

    Okay, I'll speak. Is is this okay?

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:01:51

    Yeah, I think we'll see how you go when everyone else joins.

  • Okay, cool. But thank you so much for for stepping in like this, is you huge? Help!

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:02:01

    Oh, you're so welcome! Thank you for inviting me.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:02:04

    So I'm seeing your screen at the moment, and you probably need to be in there. We go, slide mode

  • beautiful.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:02:11

    Hi Gary.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:02:13

    I love your light bulb. Not many of those around nowadays.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:02:18

    Yes.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:02:19

    Yes, it's an endangered species. Is that what you're saying?

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:02:26

    the idea the light bulb is to do with. So the the logo you've got the stamp which is kind of

  • local and sort.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:02:36

    Do in person. Yes, yeah.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:02:37

    Where you are, and then the light bulb is kind of representing energy and kind of.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:02:45

    Bright ideas.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:02:46

    And bright ideas and then you've got you've got the world as well to show the global

  • climate nature of it.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:02:56

    Brilliant.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:02:57

    So guys.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:02:57

    But yes, I do like your light bulb covered in the map. How on earth did you achieve that?

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:03:04

    Just through some software called called Canva. Actually.

  • okay, I I like graphic design and playing around. So after after quite a while I was able to

  • to to make that. So I'm still still evolving, and I'm kind of

  • looking for for probably a sort of fresh, fresh brand in the next few months. But I'm I'm happy with that that for now. So.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:03:32

    Well, I think the more one looks at it, the more intriguing that it is.

  • Just whilst people are joining. Could you unshare your screen, please cause. Then we can see who's coming in.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:03:45

    Sure thing.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:03:46

    Thank you.

  • And is it the University of Essex that you're at.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:03:51

    Sussex.

  • Well.

  • well.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:03:57

    To dealing with old memories.

  • The aging process is is a killer.

  • anyway. It's very nice to see you. Thank you. Good.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:04:09

    Great to meet you.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:04:09

    Morning, Jackie, who is not talking to us. Yes, she is. Hi, Jackie!

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:04:14

    Hi, Jackie!

  • I can't hear you, Jackie!

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:04:20

    Yeah, there we go.

  • Morning. Nick.

  • Nik Mckiernan

    00:04:28

    Putting

  • Hi Jackie!

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:04:33

    Hi, guys, I think, Jackie, you're

  • okay. We can't hear you. It might just be me, but I can hear everybody else.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:04:43

    No, you're not coming through, Jackie. He's quite right.

  • You're delightfully silent. Well, that's the wrong way to put it. Isn't it

  • so sorry?

  • No, you need to find your microphone.

  • No, no improvement.

  • Now you need to.

  • Do you have a choice of microphones on your computer

  • sometimes if you click on the little arrow down arrow next to the microphone sign that helps

  • Jules is in the middle of nowhere. Again. Morning, Jules.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:05:24

    Hi! Anna!

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:05:33

    I'm expecting a bunch more, actually. So let's just hang on a sec.

  • Joolz Thompson

    00:05:37

    Yeah, I'm out in the garden. It's not raining at the moment.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:05:40

    Nice.

  • Nik Mckiernan

    00:05:43

    Jackie. I don't know if this is at all helpful, but sometimes on your keyboard you have got a switch. Your microphone off button on could be a function button, or just somewhere else

  • on the keyboard, just as a suggestion, I don't know.

  • you know, still can't hear you.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:06:03

    Enjoy the cake.

  • Joolz Thompson

    00:06:13

    Who who can't be heard.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:06:17

    And Anna.

  • No, try, Jackie. I beg pardon, Jackie.

  • are you able to hear her, Jules?

  • Joolz Thompson

    00:06:26

    No, no, I I'd heard you, Graham, and I'd heard Jack, and I wondered if it was either of you.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:06:37

    No? Well.

  • I see, Peter, but I'm not hearing Peter either.

  • Peter Bates

    00:06:42

    Well, I'm not speaking. Can you hear me now?

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:06:46

    Very talented, Peter. Yes, that's fine.

  • Peter Bates

    00:06:49

    It's good.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:06:50

    And I'll say good morning or afternoon to Anna and Gary.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:06:54

    Good morning!

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:06:55

    Whom I see.

  • There's a couple more and good. Stewart's coming in.

  • Thanks, Kate.

  • and Amanda's joining, which means it's probably that's everybody.

  • Morning, Amanda.

  • Amanda Davis

    00:07:31

    Other.

  • Can you hear me? Okay.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:07:33

    Oh, yes, yep.

  • Amanda Davis

    00:07:34

    Good morning to everybody. I'm gonna go off camera and look. But I'm looking forward to hearing the talk.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:07:42

    Yeah. Well, lunch isn't essential.

  • Amanda Davis

    00:07:45

    Well just got out the shower. If truth be known.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:07:53

    Well, I normally give about another 3 couple of minutes to people to come in with. Certainly a couple more that we're expecting.

  • So let me just say in the meantime, good morning or afternoon, one and all. Very nice to see you all.

  • I'm delighted that Jack has joined us because he's single handedly halved the average age of the attendees.

  • which is delightful.

  • And then I'll make my normal Gdpr

  • Conf message that this is being a recorded call. So if you don't want your

  • home visible to the world.

  • turn off the camera as most of you have done.

  • I'm gonna say, let's go. So

  • Jack, don't give any wordy introductions to people. I'll leave that to the speaker. So welcome to our group.

  • You're talking to people who are spread cheerfully all over the country, although mostly in the southern part. As I look at it.

  • and the floor is yours. So please go ahead.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:08:59

    Thank you, Graham. Can everybody hear me? Okay, just to check?

  • Yep, yes, excellent.

  • I'll just start by sharing my screen once more.

  • Here we go.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:09:14

    A man who's using a Mac. That's guys.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:09:18

    Can. Can everybody see this? Okay, thumbs up? If you can. Yeah, awesome.

  • So

  • gonna minimize that.

  • Okay.

  • so

  • Hello, everyone. My name is Jack Cooper.

  • and I'm a 23 year old student of liberal arts at the University of Sussex.

  • a Una. Climate and oceans, youth ambassador.

  • a former radical climate activist and founder of postcode revolution.

  • Postgre revolution is a young organization that asks, What if we talked to our neighbors?

  • What if we connected by acting on climate, nature, and energy.

  • and creating greater ecological safety and resilience.

  • That's the future. On your doorstep.

  • as you can see here, the

  • project is currently being incubated by the climate majority project with whom I've been involved since before they were called the Climate Majority Project and called the Moderate Flank, and they're a large part of the reason of how I met the wonderful Jules Thompson who's on this call.

  • and it invited me here today.

  • and how postcode revolution came about.

  • Thank you very much for having me, and I hope we can have a bit of banter amid the very serious subject matter

  • that we're going to be talking about light amid the dark is what I strive for always.

  • and postcode revolution is now, I'm very pleased to say, collaborating with the great collaboration, not just on this call, but more formally as well. And I hope this is a start of many more collaborations to come.

  • So

  • I'm gonna begin this presentation, which I'm gonna just zoom out here

  • so you can

  • so we can see. So this is a prezi presentation. So I've got this big

  • big board here, and we're gonna zoom into the different aspects.

  • Of it. And I'm going to talk about it.

  • And please, if for some reason you stop being able to hear me, and if I go silent, or there's technical difficulties are on your end. Please just say and stop me and

  • and we'll

  • we'll correct them. So yeah, I'm gonna begin

  • this presentation with a question

  • and

  • feel free to sort of raise your hand or put the thumbs up

  • or hand in the in the chat. If this applies to you.

  • who here knows more than 4 people in their street.

  • excluding your family and your direct neighbours.

  • So who here knows more than 4 people

  • excluding their family in their house and their direct neighbors? Put your thumbs up.

  • If that applies to you.

  • Okay, just give it, give it, see? So I'm seeing quite a few thumbs up.

  • thumbs down.

  • so that's great. And I I expected, in a room full of people involved in in parish parish council and council

  • Council work, that that may be a higher, higher percentage of people that normally say yes to that question.

  • and that's great.

  • And you were the you were the people who I'm I'm in the right room. For for talking about this? Obviously,

  • as you as yeah

  • sounds like you're you're you're doing it already. But for me, growing up

  • and for for many people that I've spoken to. I knew my direct neighbors, but no one else. In my postcode

  • on my street I played in gardens between fences

  • and lived without a strong sense of local community.

  • I grew up in the 2 thousands in the shadow of the Madeleine Mccann case with a strong fear of strangers and being kidnapped

  • from my home as well.

  • which is lovely. I also grew up amid

  • this

  • global heating and climate breakdown that has not stopped and has only got worse throughout throughout my 23 years, and

  • I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the terrible events

  • of the past month around the world, climatically speaking, from floods to tornadoes and

  • all across the world, from Nepal to North Carolina and Central Europe

  • to. Well, next week in the Uk. A major Atlantic storm is set to hit us.

  • and this, this is a this is a visual so

  • and this is just to communicate that. Yeah, in the Uk, we ourselves are not safe from

  • climate breakdown and global heating and

  • postgreg revolution is coming from this context that we need to be prepared ourselves in the Uk, and we are not this is not something that we don't need to worry about, because

  • it very much does concern us.

  • I'm a former radical climate activist, as I said.

  • and

  • this is me.Amanda

  • I look a little bit different now this was back in 2022,

  • when I sat on roads, jumped up on stages, and during the crazy heat waves of summer 2022 ran onto the football pitch at the women's euros quarterfinal in support of just up oil.

  • And yeah, that is some images of me pretending to glue myself to the goalpost imminently before I was Rugby tackled by.

  • The security

  • and yes, one of the comments was

  • the describe me as perhaps the slowest activist of all time.

  • As yes. I wasn't able to

  • be on on the goalpost for a long period of time. But I acted out of a place of love and desire to

  • raise awareness about

  • climate change and

  • in that context of those summer heat waves. And when I was aware of yeah, 9 million people watching, and the game was being played near me, I

  • felt like it was

  • an opportunity that I could not let

  • slip. So

  • I got a criminal record for my actions. And I'm still serving the last year with a 3 year stadium ban

  • for this. I got police cautions for other actions, but this was the most most serious consequences I received, and I was publicly shamed in the Daily Mail and have read every comment.

  • I've got a little selection of the comments here.

  • Your amusement,

  • and but I wanted to draw your attention to

  • the the comment in large Maces's comment here as this, of all the comments stuck in my mind, the most.

  • So Mikaz said.

  • thank you again for doing environmentalism a disservice with disconnected and ineffective way of protesting. Unfortunately, by turning yourselves into enemy number one to the general public. On the contrary, to your mission, the Government is now under more pressure to deal with menacing, campaigning, and distancing themselves from you as the public intolerance grows.

  • Meanwhile you are negatively rebranding environmentalism into some woke leftist radical movement, and in doing so

  • actually creating a disconnect between the issues and the general public.

  • For example, I have long been a big advocate of environmentalism, and believe we should be expediting the transfer to green energy. Amongst other anti pollutant initiatives. Unfortunately, because of these stunts. It's hard to talk about this stuff.

  • Fear of being called a Lefty, even though climate change has nothing to do with my political alignment or a snowflake. This is your doing. Thanks. Find a more constructive way, please.

  • So amid yes, the pathetic man-childs and tools and

  • target practice comments that this. This was the one that actually really stuck with me, and

  • made me think

  • rethink the most

  • And

  • so I decided to

  • in some ways find a more constructive way, as Makaz put it, and at this time around this time, after this action, I connected with an organization called the Climate Majority project, or then they were known as the Moderate Flank.

  • So

  • and

  • the client majority project

  • Jules Jules Thompson played an integral role in the founding of that.

  • and that's where I 1st met Jules at Bidston back in.

  • I think it was September or October 2022,

  • and at that time it was a process of still trying to work out what the climate majority project was and what it could do and what it could be, and Rupert Reid and Liam Kavanagh, who were the co-directors, and it emerged out of a lot of thinking that various people were doing, including

  • Jules and Rupert Rupert Reed, who has been an important kind of academic and

  • philosophical

  • voice behind

  • the theory of of change and what the climate majority project

  • are doing. This is this is a snapshot from from the website, as it currently is.

  • and

  • the postgrad revolution was inspired

  • from the climate majority project and came out of it, and I also, as a result of the climate majority project, was volunteering and part of the early team for community climate action, who were

  • deeply connected with the great collaboration. And

  • yeah, I was

  • fortunate enough to yeah work with Jules and Bonnie and and various people with community climate action. And then.

  • after after spending time working on that, I was inspired to launch my own initiative postcode revolution, which, unlike community climate action, which is slightly focusing on a slightly larger scale in the context of parish councils and towns, and

  • talking in the hundreds and villages and and towns, and sort of hundreds and thousands of of houses. Postcode revolution is is a lot smaller than that and is going hyper local to we're talking. The average postcode is 15 houses in the Uk.

  • So 15 to 30 where I currently am, there's 50. So those are the types of scales of action that Postgar revolution is seeking to

  • initiate

  • and

  • living on a

  • main long main road.

  • Growing up.

  • I came back to. I came back to Burgess Hill, which is where I'm from in the south of England. I'm currently in Brighton, but last year I came back, came back home

  • where my parents live, and

  • decided to start organizing where I was rather than sitting in the road and doing radical climate action. I thought, I'm going to.

  • I'm going to act where I am and try and really walk the walk when it came to the principles of the climate majority project and the theory of change that I believed in.

  • So I lived on a on a long main road, somewhat similar to to one of these, which went on and on and on, and it was difficult to identify a boundary for the community.

  • and

  • until I decided on.

  • are postcodes

  • and growing up, my postcode was always an important part of my place identity.

  • and for most of that time I thought that it was just my house who had this random string of letters and numbers.

  • and I

  • doing a bit of research. I had no idea that 27 other houses, where we lived shared this identity.

  • and it felt like a good size for the community. And I can

  • go into the history of postcodes. But that's probably not for for another time. But

  • yeah, there's there's somewhat kind of arbitrary

  • classification which formed in the 19 fifties.

  • It felt like

  • it, felt it felt meaningful to me, but also a good arbitrary

  • tool to go. This is this is the boundary for the community, and if they're able to be able to go, yeah, this is my postcode. And this is how big our community is going to be.

  • without.

  • of course, with some porous edges and

  • stuff. But yeah, it felt like a good, a good boundary, and but I but but I do say, and part of the postscript evolution project is

  • is saying, if if it's your street, if it's you, live in a close where I currently am

  • in a in a street. Saint Martin Street. It's a

  • It is a

  • the the that there's that identity is stronger than the postcode identity. So

  • when forming this community identity is very important, and for me, in our 1st community it was our postcode. But it could be something something else.

  • That that could be better for you in wherever wherever you live or other people live.

  • So basically, I started

  • knocking on doors and formed a Whatsapp chat. I went round and introduced myself and said, Hello, I'm Jack. I've

  • lived here for the past 2022 years. I don't know you, but

  • I've been here and yeah, we we formed formed a a postcode Whatsapp chat, postcode Facebook group for people who didn't use whatsapp.

  • And

  • we organized a

  • 1st community connection event in my parents, house and garden inviting people to come and bring some food to share and

  • and basically connect and and meet each other. Because what we found is that a lot of people in the postcode on our street didn't know each other.

  • So we

  • yeah. So we met. And

  • in terms of the word revolution in the context of postcode revolution,

  • revolution is define defining it more as a circular movement or a

  • fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something.

  • And

  • so a paradigm shift effectively. And that's that's the revolution

  • that revolution is trying to

  • inculcate. It's 1 that is changing, how people think, shifting the culture, not revolution in the context of on the streets and that sort of direct action. Not that postcode revolution condemns that at all and condemns radical activism. And there's certainly definitely a place for that. But what post code revolution is trying to do is to work alongside that

  • at the base of the of the triangle which draws

  • but well articulated to me once of of change, and attempting to appeal to people who don't want to glue themselves to the road, get criminal records, do that sort of radical climb activism.

  • but do

  • care and see the situation that we're in, and

  • see the need for radical change

  • and postcode revolution. If

  • enough people

  • change then that is somewhat revolution in itself, without a need for

  • a change of government. And this is something the climate majority project is also trying to do which is about changing the electorate very electorate

  • as well as looking at the different levers of power and levers of change.

  • So postcode revolution is coming from that context, and is, is one thing that people can do. And specifically, people who are not into that kind of radical crime activism. And it doesn't matter. If you're young. You're old, you're Socialist, conservative. It's attempting to appeal to everybody as this affects everybody, and we all live somewhere, and if you're in the Uk, you live in a postcode.

  • And so

  • this is is a slightly grainy picture of our 1st community connection meetup. What I really love about this picture is the the mix of ages you can see. So from

  • a 1 and a half year old to 80 year olds came to our

  • our house and garden and

  • and connected many for the 1st time, and it was a beautiful event. Beautiful day.

  • Gave

  • stickers for people to put put their houses on, and

  • and shared food and conversation and and it was. It was really fantastic, and it was a great start to the the community. Having this in person in person space alongside the Whatsapp Chat and Facebook Group, which we'd

  • began all ready

  • and

  • in the context of

  • what what I was doing, I at the same time as as doing it, I created a methodology and a

  • was exploring how to do this, and to to promote it, and to

  • publicize it in a way that that

  • would work for me, but also could work for other people as well.

  • and the 3. The 3 key areas of the postcode revolution

  • theory of change in approach is number one connect with your neighbors. So that's that's what that's what I did.

  • knocking on doors and talking to people and

  • and

  • yeah, forming those connections which just hadn't existed previously.

  • Number 2, create a community. So

  • this did first, st virtually in the form of of the Whatsapp Chat and Facebook group.

  • and these are Whatsapp is. The is is is my preferred medium for this. Because I haven't found I haven't found a better

  • platform which so many people use and know how to use. And also

  • it. Yeah, enables enables. Yeah, there's this virtual community space to be formed very quickly and easily. And there are also community tools which which you can use

  • if if, when the community gets bigger and you have have different groups.

  • So that was that was and then and but also it's

  • in post revolution. It's encouraging the the physical meetup as well, if that's possible. So that was what we did

  • with the community connection. Meet up

  • and getting that, and then combining the 2. We had this

  • community that started to form, and a shift in the kind of way of of being in the street. So we had a lot of sharing of tools and food and resources and created a

  • spreadsheet. I called it called it call it community sharing hub which is a way of trying to trying to

  • catalyze this, this shift in.

  • in, in being and living, so trying to change to the culture, to a community of care and sharing

  • and helping each other. Once you have that initial connection

  • and and what came out of that community connection event was was this, this creativity.

  • and my my dad formed a postcode book club which continues to meet meet to this day, bringing a book on a different theme every

  • 2 or 3 weeks it is now, and that's been a good way of keeping

  • the community together, having having a core kind of group of people meeting up and still

  • so forming

  • and I formed a postcode energy group.

  • and we organized 5

  • energy performance certificates for

  • my parents house, and 4 other houses in the street, and by going as a block we were able to to get energy performance certificates, for I think it was 40 pounds each when it's normally 60 to 70

  • 70 pounds and energy performance certificates. A lot of lot of homes, especially in residential areas. Still, don't have them is. Now, if you sell your home, it's a legal requirement.

  • but there's still plenty of places that don't, and it enables you to get government grants for things like

  • boilers. And what air source heat pumps and

  • and it just shows you how energy efficient your home is and

  • ways to ways to improve it. So

  • We were able to do that in the summer. That was the main kind of climate, energy, action.

  • of of that summer in the community. And then at the end of the summer, we had a postcode music festival.

  • where? Yeah, neighbours were encouraged to. We had instruments and to to play music together, and

  • and and yeah, so

  • that was. And then that was the summer. And then I moved out of the community into another community mall scheme and

  • and then, and the community. I'm now not not directly involved in the running of that, but it still still continues on, and acting together on climate.

  • When when I say this, yeah, energy is one aspect to it. So, looking at insulation and energy performance certificates retrofitting. But also I'm looking at climate education and connecting with climate. Fresque is what I'm trying to do in my current community, looking at things like community recycling, composting.

  • nature, reworlding.

  • sharing of food and tools, and less purchasing and consumption. Lower energy living. The ideal would be.

  • my dream is yeah. Car clubs and and sharing of of transport

  • and also climate resilience. So that was also an important, very important aspect for me

  • of doing this was

  • being able to try and prepare my my parents and my

  • community for for climate breakdown, and

  • disaster. So especially if you're in areas where there's risks of flooding and

  • and storms and greater chance of environmental disaster knowing your neighbours is can be so important for safety in disaster. And one of the things I'm looking at is looking at ways of connecting

  • communities with emergency services, and especially in climate, vulnerable areas.

  • To be able to build that that climate resilience is a key part of

  • of postcode revolution as well. So those are the 3 revolutions in postcode revolution, connection, creation of community and climate action.

  • And

  • I created a community or postcode toolkit, which basically has. This information in it and explain the introduction why? 5 actions. Q&A with me testimonials what others are doing references. And this is available on

  • postcard revolution website,

  • and I've created it in the form of a Google Doc, which

  • people can comment. And it's still evolving. And I'm still looking for feedback. And

  • it's a con idea. My idea was to see this as a as an evolving document which

  • which different people can add to. And I'm looking to get it. Yeah, hopefully, under a public source platform where people, different people can add what they're doing and basically have a collective wisdom document. Because,

  • what do I know? I'm I'm no expert. I'm 23 and a student, and this is still very much learning for me. And there are a lot of people who have a lot of

  • knowledge and expertise who I want to bring in on this to share what they've done, as many, many people have done similar things. This isn't reinventing the wheel. But.

  • for example, transition towns, Transition streets, doing this in the mid, 2 thousands and many people during Covid pandemic were doing this in terms of mutual aid groups, one of which.

  • the Mutual Aid group where I was living last year in Moscambe, in Brighton. The group was still going

  • and it was incredibly inspiring that

  • it continued, and there was an immense amount of sharing and offers of help

  • for each other and sense of community. And he could see that yeah, it was a real

  • real value to the, to myself and to the people people living there. And

  • so Postga revolution is, is looking at this in the context rather than pandemic, even though doing this could be very useful, for because it's

  • it's likely we'll have another

  • well, at some point in the next 100 years we'll likely have another pandemic hopefully not not not soon, but it could, it could happen. And so there were many different applications to it. But post revolution is coming from a contemporary climate breakdown

  • position. And yeah, operating

  • hyper locally. And

  • this is an example of the

  • in the postcode toolkit. This is what I made. This is a template from what I made in my most recent community, and shared with with residents. When I went door knocking

  • and put this flyer through with my phone number and my address, and

  • where the pub where we had our postcode meet up.

  • And yeah, it could be house and garden, but it could also be be a local pub in the context of where I'm in Brighton. It wasn't really suitable to have it where I lived, and we had a pub very close by, but it also could be.

  • It's in summer outside. That's where another community Meetup, inspired by postcard revolution, happened this summer in Worthing, and or it could be online in the form of zoom. If if that's if that's the preferable space as well, there are. There are many different options options for this. And if you can see from

  • from that letter, it's trying to

  • emphasize the different aspects of what we wanted to do, but also make clear that you don't have to be super interested in climate nature to be part of the community, and one of the things that I've done is is formed another. So you've got got the central postcode chat, but then formed another group for greening the community and doing things on climate nature. So it's having this base of of community

  • and connection. And then recognizing that then climate, nature, passionate folks are going to be kind of, arise from that, and can organize within that. And that's yeah. That's what that's what I'm doing right now, and what what we're doing, and others and others are being inspired to do as well

  • the

  • projects. This was in in February. It's been been publicizing it. So it was 2 years ago that it

  • just over 2 years ago that I started it.

  • And yeah, we've we've been in the Worthing Worthing Inside Magazine, and Katie, who broke that

  • article, was inspired. But after after hearing hearing me speak after her, Mum actually heard me speak. Both of them were inspired to form communities where they were in Worthing

  • and

  • and because out of a

  • out of feeling like they can do

  • get arrested for radical action because of

  • circumstances of their life, they wanted something else to do and postcode revolution really inspired them and appealed to them

  • as as something that they could do.

  • The. And I've also been on Hertfordshire radio speaking about it and speaking about in St. Alban sustainability expo

  • at the Crew center in Worthing I had a talk, and I'm continuing to to to get the outreach and to to to publicize it and spread the word in. In ways like this.

  • I've now also got a website which has the toolkit on

  • and the story of the project links to these these media things and contact.

  • And I'm also attempting I'm also launching a podcast as well

  • and have recorded the 1st episode and going to be launching that that pretty soon.

  • and our very own Jules Jules Thompson, is going to be coming on on the podcast soon enough, hopefully as well to talk about community climate action and great collaboration.

  • And that's exploring the ideas.

  • primarily, the ideas, outreach and action of postcode revolution, people doing similar things

  • and giving people ideas of what they can do, what they can, read, what they can, watch, what they can listen to.

  • And good conversation. And a bit banter as well. And

  • yeah. So

  • that is that is, that is the website. And here is a photo from our

  • post Co postcode community meetup in Brighton, which was just 2 2 weeks ago and went really well and had

  • yeah, almost 15 people come and we are having another meetup in 2 weeks. In another pub.

  • I'm trying to make it a monthly monthly meetup.

  • So for me, I'm

  • very much believe in walking the walk and doing this, and so as well as speaking about it.

  • As well as the ideas, the outreach like this. It's it's the action is so important. And that's what I'm doing where I am and testing out still what works, what doesn't work, and it's constantly evolving.

  • But yeah, and I'm learning. But that's that's a lovely shot from

  • I'll meet up.

  • and

  • and here are some links for you guys. So

  • there's that's the link to the website,

  • postgrevolution.com on this link tree here, if you type that in. You can find the Whatsapp chat we've got where there's about 35 people in it from all across the country, some of whom are doing the action, part of thing, doing, doing it themselves. Leading. We've now got

  • approximately 4 communities who are inspired by postcard revolution and are kind of broadly part of part of the movement. I want

  • hundreds, thousands more, but of course decentralized. But the idea with the Whatsapp chat is to have a sort of hub where people can sort of share.

  • This is working. This isn't working, but also people who are just interested in the ideas or the outreach and just create a create a movement for it. So you can find that Whatsapp chat in that link tree there, if you'd like to be added. Also my

  • email there, give. Send me an email. If if you'd like to be added to what's that? Chat that way and send send your number or get in. Get in touch for for anything else.

  • and so

  • yeah, that that is postcode revolution, the future on your doorstep. Thank you so much for listening, and for inviting me here here today and

  • I'm happy to yeah.

  • Hear any questions.

  • on on anything that I've just talked about. Thank you. Guys.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:45:09

    Yeah, thank you very much for that. It was one of the more fascinating presentations in that. I was writing down questions as you went through, and then 3 slides later, you'd answer it.

  • But I am left with a couple which I'd love to start off the Q. And a session with, and then we've got Peter with his hand up, and everyone else, I'm sure, will pitch in.

  • So the 1st question was, Do you find yourself running up against the initiatives coming from parish councils, who are also being encouraged to get apcs for each house, and

  • a lot of the retrofitting insulation, and so forth that you're looking at? Or do you find that you're below their radar, and that the people that are coming to you have no idea what the Council is up to.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:45:56

    I'd say the second one so below the radar. And

  • I think that

  • yeah, Postgre, revolution is kind of working. I'd like to work more with councils, and a good example, for example, is

  • in the community where I was previously living. There were actually counsellors in the chat, and it was a great means of being able to very easily people kind of messaging stuff. And then the counselors in chat going. Yep, this is, I'm sort of working on this. We're going to act on this. And it provided a great fluidity between

  • the council and the the lived kind of local community. So that's that's

  • I think I think post code revolution can. These kind of communities can work very much well alongside councils. And yeah, hopefully, I want to aim. And it's currently been kind of below the radar so far. But that's something that I'm seeking to kind of integrate more.

  • is is yeah, looking at how to get get get councils on board. But it's also trying to. Yeah. Encourage everyone to be citizens and

  • In some ways, everyone to be counsellors, I guess, and to take a active, active interest and care for their their local community. But

  • it's, I think, as you say, it's important also to recognize the fantastic work that councils do. And councillors do. And

  • as the the great collaboration is doing, it's yeah. I think it's ultimately it's look, it's work. There are many different levels to this to action. And but I think Postgreg revolution could work well alongside. But as but yeah, as you say.

  • And this is one of my yeah ways of evolving. The project is trying to find ways of of not replicating

  • unnecessarily work that's already been done, and finding ways of kind of connecting and aligning residents. And these these communities with

  • with the initiatives and and work that's being done on the ground by councils.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:48:19

    Well well done! I think it's brilliant to find a way of energising people that have not really come to the Council's notice yet, or they they. The Council hasn't got the word out successfully. So more power to you. And I hope that you're

  • very successful. And of course the vast majority of people on this call are either on parish councils or they're in community organizations that are very interested in what you're doing. So good stuff. Great point, and let's ask Peter if he can come up with

  • his question. Please.

  • Peter Bates

    00:48:50

    Right? Yes. Well, I'm gonna you're getting straight away. And

  • basically, I'm chair of the East Cambridgeshire Climate Action network. And one of the initiatives which we've actually got running only just launched last Saturday is the so I'm greener together. Initiative.

  • You probably won't know, Jack. But most other people probably know that Soham, as a town, became notorious 21 years ago, because it was the murder of 2 schoolgirls by school caretaker. So that's how how the town became notorious in East Cambridgeshire.

  • But I've just launched this initiative

  • only with one of the town councillors, and I've already committed myself to doing some event of some sort

  • for aimed at younger people. And I think I've already got the the guy that's actually able to

  • to do that for me, I hope. Anyway, that's you, Jack. So I'm gonna offer you. Certainly we have to think and talk about details. But what I'm gonna say is

  • I. If you live in Brighton.

  • you can catch a direct train to Ely.

  • and then I can take you to to the town of So on, which is only about 5 miles away.

  • I'll pay for your rail. I'll pay for your rail fare so long as you use it off Peak, and use your rail card

  • and we might be able to find other ways in which I can can provide some form of funding. Because I think

  • I've been thinking about this as you've been talking, and I think

  • probably initially it would. It may not work in an online environment if I want to attract younger people round about your age

  • are there? So I think you've somehow got to be face to face.

  • People are going to come out and dare I say, touch and feel you in order to kind of get interested in some respect there. So I'm not really sure exactly how we're going to do it. But what's in my mind if you're interested

  • is, I think we may need to kind of get some kind of social media running first.st get you doing quick, quick. I don't know how to do it. But quick Instagram or tick tock short videos to get the attention of the young people of

  • So and see what we can do in that respect. If you are up for it.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:51:24

    Thank thank you, Peter. Thank you.

  • Peter Bates

    00:51:26

    And are you up for it?

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:51:27

    Thank you. Well, I I I'm I'm definitely up for yeah, these these kind of initiatives. And and that sounds fantastic. So I think if we if you, if you email me or I, if you if

  • basically just as long as as long as I have

  • the time

  • to do it amongst I'm a yeah. I'm in my 3rd year at university. And well, this this project is actually what I'm working on as part of that which is fantastic. And I also co-run the Forest Garden Society at university. So

  • yeah, just let's let's talk about it after this call, Peter. And I'd be very interested in getting involved and seeing seeing what I can do, what I can do to help it's yeah, just just we'll, yeah. We'll talk about the the dates and times and what? What? So what? What that would involve.

  • And I know, yeah.

  • Peter Bates

    00:52:33

    I'm thinking this is a model which we could actually kind of. Oh, you, if you wish to do so sometime you replicate this across the country. You know, in that way. So that way, and you've by the way, you've only got about an 8 years sell by day before you're past your sell by date. By the way.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:52:52

    Me too.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:52:52

    Thank you very much for a very generous offer, and I'm very delighted to note that in the chat Peter Anderson is already explaining that we should be going global on this, and he's linking you up to California. So

  • there's no holds bars. Jack. Now you're on your way.

  • Amanda, please.

  • Amanda Davis

    00:53:11

    Hi, there! I hope you can see me. Okay, I'm working off 3 or 4 different screens here.

  • So I put in the chat details of the what we've set up fairly recently, the Bolton S network

  • an F is for this sustainability, of course.

  • And the idea there is, and I put it in the chat. But we've put it into our local new news. It's like a monthly that comes through the letterbox with 4,200 people in our village, and we got very connected during Covid. So I'm seeing a lot of parallels, a lot of similar lines. So basically, let's say that we've we've also got something that's very similar to what you're doing

  • and we haven't met before. I've not heard of it before today. So it's great that we're connecting up.

  • But what what you've given me today is so much more idea of tools that let's say I'm an old fogey. But I was doing computer science in college before there was computers available in college. So we were learning it all from a book and doing. You know the punch cards and the magnetic tape programming, and then taking it to the local bank on the mainframe. For, like the 2 h that the college could afford a week.

  • But the use of tech in the most agile, most engaging way that can organize in a way that you don't have to be the one that it relies on, Jack.

  • because what I think happens in parish and town councils.

  • As we set up meetings we set up structures and then find we haven't got the capacity to take it forward, or we've got to have health and safety. We've got to do our risk assessments. We've got to have our insurance in place. There's all these reasons that get in the way that just don't when you're just acting on your own in a community.

  • So what we've done is we had something at Parish Council called the Environment

  • Action Working Group, or something like that, and it was a subcommittee of a committee.

  • and it it went well for a couple of times. But the the councillor, who was running it didn't have time to get the minutes together, and so nobody knew what they'd agreed to, because they hadn't written it down, because they're expecting the minutes and all that stuff

  • and what you're doing.

  • It's very similar to what we're doing, which is based via a Whatsapp group

  • but also through for older folks that are more used to the magazines going through the letterbox each each month. But there's also an electronic, a digital version of that newsletter. It's called the bottom browser.

  • So what I put in the chat was what we put into the bottom browser.

  • But I suppose what I'm saying is 2 things. One is

  • well done, and it's reassuring for me that we're doing the right thing.

  • especially if you're academically studying it as well as Creator, owner.

  • Of it, founder.

  • I wonder

  • is is it open? Source all your information so that we would be able to sort of take pieces from it.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:56:09

    Yeah, yeah, so yeah, it's the

  • go. The the postcode toolkit is is Google, Doc, and you can. It's it's, you know, to comment. I'll just put a link in this chat as well. So my, I'll put my email again here, and then I'm also I'll just link you to the latest

  • iteration of the postscript toolkit and this. This goes for everyone. Please feel free to

  • to comment. And yeah, give feedback. It's still, it's still very much an evolving, evolving document. And

  • yeah, my, my view of this is is is to make it as open source as possible.

  • And again.

  • what what I'm really trying to yeah, do is is Rec is, recognize that I'm not

  • what what I'm doing here. It's not many people are doing as as your sounds like. You're amazingly doing very similar things. And this is kind of what the also the Climate majority project is trying to do as well, which is kind of to join people up who are doing these things, and to create a sense of like a wave of of a shared understanding that this is this is, there is a climate majority of people who care about climate and nature in this.

  • in our country and to

  • and with with postcode revolution. It's it's

  • aiming to get to give people the tools to be able to, as the great collaboration does with the great collaboration toolkit to

  • to be able to do it themselves. And

  • ultimately, yeah, so far, it's

  • yeah. We've yeah, there are 4 kind of communities sort of inspired by it. But it's mostly just been me. And I'm looking to build. Yeah.

  • Amanda Davis

    00:57:57

    The critical thing is the word sustainability used to be used for whether a project would carry on after the formally funded period finished.

  • And so what you've done is create a model that is sustainable in the sense that

  • not only is it about sustainability itself, the model is sustainable in that you walk away. You went to university, and it didn't fall down because you've created a model in a way that isn't dependent on people. And this is the message, Graham, for councillors, parish and town councils, and the models. If we are the Creator as councillors of models.

  • please don't have it disadvantaged by the structures of parish councils and the requirements of them.

  • Let's try and enable them out in the community. Enable them, but don't restrict them

  • and liberate them and ensure they're sustainable in their modelling

  • in such a way that, or encourage them because you wouldn't have any power to to impose a structure.

  • But learn lessons from what Jack's saying, because I think you know, it's reassuring for our projects. Important. But it's also yeah, we'll definitely link into your

  • overarching sort of national, if not international Register.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:59:15

    Yeah, be, it'd be zip code revolution in in the Us.

  • Amanda Davis

    00:59:20

    That's the one, and I'm in Brighton in a couple of weeks, so

  • might see you there.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:59:26

    Hi.

  • Amanda Davis

    00:59:27

    You very much, Jack.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    00:59:28

    Thank you. Amanda.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    00:59:31

    Thank you all very much. Does anyone else have any points or questions to raise? Please.

  • Peter Bates.

  • Peter Bates

    00:59:41

    Yeah. Sorry.

  • Yeah. More kind of

  • specific kind of question, Jack.

  • Around. I mean, you know, we set about a Whatsapp group which is almost the equivalent to postcode group.

  • in our local neighborhood.

  • And I joined, you know, Covid, which is an obvious kind of

  • reason for doing that. I'm just wondering. How

  • go to well, I'll tell you what actually happened. I mean, you know.

  • I suppose. No, I'm not phrasing very well, but I'm thinking of how do you get to the point in which you can then?

  • you know, generally kind of get people kind of working together, talking together and whatever it is. But then you move it on to the kind of more. Dare I say serious type things around climate change and climate activity in that respect, because I'll give you an example.

  • I don't. I still don't know all the people in our Whatsapp group. People went around right at the beginning and told and told each other, you know where what number they were on, but I seem to have lost all those details.

  • But I did get. I raised the question of

  • in the whole of city of Ely. We've actually got now a 20 mile an hour speed limit.

  • and I was before that became in force. I was actively encouraging people to take part in the consultation for that, and I had one mysterious person on this Whatsapp group was dead against it, and really quite kind of

  • vicious. Well, vicious about it.

  • Now, I didn't pursue it any further, because I thought it was going to upset the balance of that Whatsapp group if I actually tried to pursue it in that way. So I'm just wondering, how do you actually manage to

  • raise the whole issues around climate change, etc. Etc. But not actually kind of alienating people. At the same time.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    01:01:49

    Yeah, thank you, Peter, great question. And it's a very important one. So

  • yeah, basically in

  • I think one of the one of the broader, broader motives of post revolution and climate climate majority projects as well.

  • If if if I can, if I can speak to them. But if yeah, from what I understand of of the climate, majority Project

  • is

  • is is about these kind of depolarizing the conversation on climate and nature, and I think,

  • I think we're. We're still at a point where you know well, the Conservatives and in the in the Us. Is the most extreme example of this, where climate nature has been

  • weaponized and turned into a political football in a similar way to kind of wokeness. And yeah, based, basic kind of human rights are turned into

  • political things which, frankly, they're not and

  • and so this has been an issue in the sense of of kind, of

  • of politics. And to what extent should the group be be political? I'm trying to frame

  • the kind of

  • basically having this.

  • the the post revolution has this strong kind of community and climate focus, but the having the base of kind of connection with your neighbors, and creating this community where you are, in my view.

  • yeah, the the climate and nature. Specific actions. What what I've done and been doing is forming basically canvassing interest within the group and then forming a another chat for that. And then, with the Whatsapp Communities feature, you can then still link that to part of the community. As well. So, and and

  • what I would say with post revolution as well in terms of the branding, being tried to talk a bit more about like energy rather than climate. Nature as well, and kind of cost of living, is a good way in as well, I found to

  • to to that. That that again. Some people can still see climate nature as as political things and like left woke things when it's it's it's just the biosphere. And it affects affects all of us. And

  • yeah, and basically, so trying to shift that that shift, the general shift in framing of framing of of that, but also having

  • having space having a specific space for that within the those kind of climate, nature, actions within the community, but then, also recognizing that if you're having the that kind of community, if you're building by building that community in the face of climate, emergency, disaster, and kind of that adaptation.

  • Then in some ways it doesn't matter if you're mentioning climate or nature like. If you have those connections where you are, it's going to be very useful in the event of disaster and building that resilience, and then also having more sharing of food resources. Tools don't need to mention kind of climate, but that itself is a more eco-friendly kind of recycling lower energy ways of living. So those

  • in some ways yeah, having those inner circles. It's like they're all

  • climate

  • related. But there's different levels to it, if that makes sense. And and in trying to include everybody in that at the base, and then kind of work with work with at present, who? Who is more kind of interested in the various different different aspects of of the

  • of the change. Yeah.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    01:05:40

    Thanks, Jack, very much, and presumably you're now a dryer, Jules, so we could go to you. Please.

  • Joolz Thompson

    01:05:51

    Yes, very quickly. So I've got to dive on to my next meeting. But I just want to say great work, Jack. And you know, building community is the hard yards

  • as is meeting and just talking to our neighbors in modern society.

  • Around our community park, bringing that together. We've had. People have lived in the village for 27 years and didn't know their neighbors. So we've just met.

  • So we're stronger together. So it's a brilliant brilliant aspiration. And clearly when I massively support.

  • And as Jack said, he and I met through the climate majority project and also working on community climate action. And my question is, how do you? How do you feel by building this kind of community and

  • mutual aid network? How might that feed into community climate, action, and and sort of acting in cohort as communities in support of our district and county's aspirations, and also in support of a Parish Council. I think we heard from Amanda

  • that sometimes parishes form committees and then struggle with capacity. So do you think it will feed into that and sort of build, build stronger cohesion for communities to act together.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    01:07:02

    Yes.

  • yes, thank you, Jules. Yes. And I think that

  • as wanted to. Yeah, stress with this, that

  • It's kind of that there's a reason we have

  • parish councils and and

  • town councils and County councils and national government and international government, because ultimately,

  • yeah,

  • if if the entire world was to run off postcode communities, and it would be a bit of a bit of a bit of a struggle, I think, to organize, especially when yeah, centralization has many, many good aspects, aspects to it. And and having these structures which can and institutions which can represent vast numbers of people.

  • Is very important. And so I definitely think, that yeah, post revolution can work with organizations like community climate action, especially when it's kind of spreading kind of initiatives and stuff which concern, say, your whole village or town? And a larger area. Because, yeah.

  • ultimately, we live. We yeah, we live in broad areas and just our postcode. And there are specific systems and

  • things that that affect us, which which are at that that larger scale. And having all these different different levels

  • and forms of action working together, I think, can can hopefully bring about, bring about the change that we all want to see.

  • Joolz Thompson

    01:08:42

    Fantastic. Well, I've got to dive off, but I just want to say, Well done! And really really excited about looking.

  • and then looking forward to and looking forward to working with the building.

  • Community. Mutual aid networks from postcode grassroots ground up, fab fabulous, well done.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    01:08:59

    Thank you.

  • Joolz Thompson

    01:09:00

    Absolutely and look forward to further collaboration.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    01:09:02

    And Jules is. And yeah, Jules, community crime action. And Jules is going to be in in Worthing on the 11th

  • on Friday, the 11th and

  • and I'm also gonna be there as well. So

  • yeah.

  • doing away.

  • Joolz Thompson

    01:09:21

    Shop on food, food, resilience. How are we going to feed ourselves as we move forward into this climate emergency

  • cool? I'll look forward to seeing. Then Jack thanks everyone. Bye.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    01:09:32

    Thank you. Well done all. Thank you very much. Next week we are being advised. Given examples of, and all the things you can do to save water at home by Becky from the Welsh water organization. So I think that should be fascinating for all. Thank you all very much for your time this time, and long live revolution, Jack! Keep going.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    01:09:55

    And we'll see you now.

  • Graham Stoddart-Stones

    01:09:56

    Next time. So thank you all so much. Take care. See you next week.

  • Bye-bye.

  • Jack Cooper - Postcode Revolution

    01:10:01

    Thank you. Guys. Thank you.


Table of Links from Jack's session:

Topic
Category
Link

Mitigation, Adaptation, Biodiversity

Postcode Revolution: letter template to get started on postcode community

Mitigation, Adaptation, Biodiversity

Postcode Revolution: organise events in your community at postcode level

Mitigation, Adaptation, Biodiversity

00:49:13 Peter Anderson: Cool Blocks is a similar programme that has come out of California. They have a well thought through structure and content to engage people within your street and build resilience on different topics over time: - there may be lots to learn from them.

Cool Blocks is a similar programme that has come out of California. They have a well thought through structure and content to engage people within your street and build resilience on different topics over time: - there may be lots to learn from them.

https://.org

https://coolblock.org/
https://coolblock.org/
coolblock
https://www.postcoderevolution.com/toolkit
https://postcoderevolution/home
25MB
gcb39-241002-presentation-gss.pdf
pdf
Jack's presentation on Postcode Revolution