Fwd: Invite to 8/23 Cooperative Solutions convergence in St. Paul
From: Mary Jo Cristofaro (mjcristofarogmail.com)
Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2014 21:32:59 -0700 (PDT)



Transition Northfield-

Summer Greetings!

Several of our youth are involved with Timothy and will be helping at this event. Please consider marking your calendars and car pooling up to this amazing informational, interactive day. If you are interested in carpooling we will be complying a list of sorts- please get back to me here at mjcristofaro [at] gmail.com

Thanks!

In transition- MJ

Paul- if this somehow does not go through to folks...can you forward? tks!




I’d like to invite you to participate in Cooperative Solutions: A Convergence for a Just and Sustainable Economy on August 23rd, which offers a historically grounded and forward thinking space to build on the great community wealth building efforts of the Twin Cities with a new level of cooperative spirit and practice. I’m particularly excited about the role that this event can play in taking local clean energy and energy efficiency work that you’ve been a part of to the next level, with a greater focus on community benefit and social and economic justice.

 

Please consider joining 200 community organizers, economic development groups, entrepreneurs, and youth leaders who are innovating ways to generate livelihoods and thriving conditions in fields of Energy, Food, Transit, and our Built Environment.  In the energy track, we will be sharing existing models for community-owned wind and solar, community-wide energy efficiency, and local campaigns that give communities more power over their energy utilities and shaping new strategies and potential collaborations for growing. As we enter the transition phase from dirty, centralized, wasteful energy towards a clean, distributed, and efficient future, this convergence will provide local communities, clean energy entrepreneurs, and community development organizations the opportunity to come together to ensure the benefits of this transition are harnessed by the communities that need them most.

 

This is a day with our sleeves rolled up, as we invite everyone to participate in interactive presentations, trainings, and facilitated discussions, which will draw out group knowledge from all who attend. In addition to opening and closing sessions, the convergence will consist of four participatory and vision oriented sessions that help us strategize together how we grow a just and sustainable local energy economy here in the Twin Cities:

1.     Living Models: Inspiring presentations by people who are creating solutions about effective, replicable models they are developing.

2.     Solution Strategy Discussions: Facilitated conversations getting groups to identify primary barriers, breakthrough strategies, and emerging opportunities to make change on specific topics of conversation (eg. growing jobs for low-income residents in weatherization, creating opportunities for community ownership in clean energy, gaining greater community control over our utilities, etc.)

3.     Tools for Change: Concrete trainings on specific skills that are valuable for change-makers regardless of their issue area (eg community organizing, cooperative business model development, facilitation, story-based strategy, finance, etc.)

4.     Collaboration Planning: Facilitated conversations on specific collaborations that convergence participants want to work on together to develop action plans for beyond the event.

Together we can find new ways to advance community leadership and enterprise that grows economic stability, ecological health, and social justice.

 

To learn more about Cooperative Solutions, Register, or submit a Proposal for a Session, visit our website:  http://www.grandaspirations.org/cooperativesolutions You can also contact me for more information.

 

Please help spread the word to those you know! Thank you for your support of thriving communities for all and we hope to see you there!


Thanks,


Timothy DenHerder-Thomas
Cooperative Solutions Planning Team

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