Shift Bristol are holding some good training courses this spring – have a look at the list below.
If you would like to book a place on any of the Spring programme email shiftbristol@yahoo.co.uk and request a booking form.
1) Re-Powering Our Neighbourhoods. – With Trevor Houghton
- Monday 7th February
- St Werburghs Community Centre, Horley Road, Bristol, BS2 9TJ
- 10.00am to 5.00pm
- Cost £35 to £55 on a sliding scale
A route to community autonomy and sustainability. How we can generate income from producing renewable energy at a community level and engage people in reducing demand. Trevor Houghton is an independent energy and climate change researcher and consultant. He was until recently a senior consultant and a director of CAG Consultants – a co-operative company working in the field of sustainable development, regeneration and stakeholder involvement.
He was formerly the head of research at the Centre for Sustainable Research and has been a lecturer/tutor on degree and masters courses at UWE, the Open University and the Centre for Alternative Technology. He has been a member of the Energy Saving Trust’s Expert Panel on ESCos.
2) Transition Training – With the Transition Network.
- St Werburghs Community Centre, Horley Road, Bristol, BS2 9TJ
- 10.00am to 5.00pm
- Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th March
- Cost £100
A weekend workshop covering the “fundamentals” for those wishing to know how to set up, run, and maintain a successful transition initiative. This two day workshop is both a practical and informative introduction to Transition and a powerful personal journey to greater personal resilience. It weaves together practice and theory, information and experiential.
Objectives:-
- To understand the context for transition
- To understand the Transition Towns model as it has evolved so far – from inspiration to working groups so that you can talk to others about it
- To gain knowledge of the main steps of transition
- To work out a plan of action for yourself and your locality
- To understand the inner and outer aspects of transition
For more in-depth detail of the content read the event page and read the indepth course outline on the Transition Network website
3) An Introduction to Permaculture – With Sarah Pugh
- Four Tuesday Evenings – Starts 15th March
- St Werburghs Community Centre, Horley Road, Bristol, BS2 9TJ
- Tea/Coffee 6.45pm Start at 7pm – 9.45pm
- Cost £40 – £65 on a sliding scale
Four Tuesday evenings exploring the principles and practice of Permaculture, a
holistic and commonsense approach to sustainable living. Learn to work with
rather than against nature to create abundant, resilient systems in our
gardens, farms, homes and communities. Talks, workshops and slideshows.
4)Weaving Magic – Skills for resilient projects – With Nick Osborne.
- Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th May
- St Werburghs Community Centre, Horley Road, Bristol, BS2 9TJ
- 10.00am to 5.00pm
- Cost £70 – £110 on a sliding scale
A 2 day workshop on working creatively and effectively with other people. Exploring how we can cross stony ground without falling out with each other. Many social action groups fail or are ineffective because we don’t pay enough attention to quality of our relationships with each other, our group process, conflict management or how we run our meetings.
What the course covers:
- Running effective meetings
- Conflict management
- Looking after ourselves & each other
- Roles & tasks
- Group purpose
- Collaborative communication and power
- Decision-making & leadership Benefits of doing the course;
- Understand the diverse features which create & sustain healthy groups
- Identify issues your group is currently facing
- Plan for how to address difficult issues
For 15 years Nick Osborne has worked in management, leadership, training, consultancy or activist roles with organisations including Changemakers, Shell, Amnesty International and the Ecovillage Network. He works freelance as a Trainer & Consultant, as a founder of Response-Ability, working to help people to respond creatively and flexibly to today’s challenging change and complexity. Nick is an active member of Transition Glastonbury, helped develop a network of Transition groups in Somerset and delivers Transition Training nationally. Nick is currently developing ways to support all kinds of organisations to become resilient organisations which sustain the social and ecological systems on which they depend.
5) The Practical Sustainability Course:
- September 2011 – July 2012
A one year, part time course covering all aspects of practical sustainable practice. Includes modules on Permaculture Design, Green Building, Organic Horticulture, Woodland Management, Ecology and Soil, Energy, Relocalisation, Group Dynamics, Creating Change and Engaging Communities.
Plus extras including Animal Husbandry, Herbal Medicine, Seasonal Celebrations and more…. This course brings together some of the UK’s most experienced teachers and practitioners for an exploration of community led responses towards building local resilience in response to Climate Change and Peak Oil.
will be open to applications for this course from Spring 2011, please contact us if you would like to be put on the waiting list email shiftbristol at shiftbristol@yahoo.co.uk
