New Low Carbon Community Fund - deadline 22 Dec

The deadlines are tight, the grants are substantial and the criteria are right in the sweet spot for Transition Initiatives.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change has just announced a new £10 million fund which is available to communities in England and Wales that are playing an active role in the development of a low carbon society. LEAF aims to help communities to accelerate their activity on energy and climate change.

Initial applications must be submitted online by 12 noon on 22-Dec-2011.
The follow up applications need to be submitted by 20-Jan-2012.

The grants are available to finance projects that increase understanding and uptake of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and help to make energy supply secure and affordable for everyone in their community. The scheme aims to help communities to equip themselves to work with the private and public sector to deliver real projects through mechanisms such as the Green Deal, Feed in Tariffs and the Renewable Heat Incentive.

This fund is a short-term intervention to be completed by 31-Mar-2012 and is expected that average grant values will be around £50,000.

There is some useful guidance material here
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2011-12-13/leaf-update-uk

Details of how to apply for LEAF are available here:
http://www.greencommunitiescc.org.uk/DECCAbout.aspx

NORWICH; Magdalen Street Celebration - 1 October

On Saturday October 1st, Magdalen Street will celebrate its unique character in street festival style with performances, exhibitions, fashion shows, workshops, family activities and local history tours.

Following on last year's memorable and groundbreaking success, even more musicians and activities have been arranged.

Norwich Taiko Centre will be opening the event under the Magdalen flyover and some of the best-known bands in the city will be playing on the street throughout the day, using a cycle-powered PA. The audience will be able to hop on the bike and power up their favourite bands!

Helen Simpson-Slapp of the organising committee said “The goal of the day is to bring together neighbourhood residents, regulars and visitors to highlight Magdalen Street's role as a hub of creative, independently-owned, ethnically diverse and environmentally sustainable businesses. ”

The art events, stallholders and historical aspects to the day will bring to life Magdalen Street's rich heritage. The street still boasts a range of food, clothes and shoe shops and is classified by the City Council as the busiest in the whole of Norwich for numbers of pedestrians and buses. Some of the shops from 1905 have survived - most notably 2 of the original fish shops.

The Magdalen Street Celebration themes for 2011 are Creativity, Diversity and Sustainability. Known informally as the 'Creative Quarter', the area houses a multitude of creative businesses. 'Diversity' refers to the street’s ethnic diversity as well as the range of disability-related charities operating in the area and 'Sustainability' is represented by the plethora of second-hand, vintage, antique and craft shops in the area.

The event is spearheaded by members of Transition Norwich seeking a fun way to engage community, celebrate the range of cultural backgrounds represented and promote the opportunity to live more sustainably by shopping locally, buying second-hand and making friends locally. Transition Norwich is a community-based response to peak oil, climate change and economic recession. The organisers are grateful for the financial assistance of Norwich City Council and Norfolk County Council who are supporting this year's event. Chris Hull

TO GET INVOLVED: Helen Simpson-Slapp helenofnorwich@hotmail.com Tel: 07747 751656 Stefi Barna Tel: 07964 494836 Next meeting: Aladdin's Cafe, Magdalen Street. Tuesday 6th September, 7pm Web: magdalenstreet.blogspot.com or join our Facebook page

Events for Community Food Enterprises

GOOD GOVERNANCE & COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR CO-OPERATIVES

A training day for individuals, employees, volunteers, public sector organisations, transition groups, community groups & co-operatives
_________________________________
10 - 5pm Saturday 22nd January 2011
Friends Meeting House, Fonnereau Rd, Ipswich
_________________________________

This event isn't restricted to food enterprises; I want everybody to come!

The skills on offer may not at first glance seem meaty or applicable, but it's been proven that when community projects fail it's often due to the membership or employees not having the basic skills to work together, or not understanding the infrastructure and systems of the entreprise.






















A MINIATURE FOOD CO-OPS CONFERENCE FOR THE EASTERN REGION

For interested individuals, new and established community-owned food entreprises, and food access or ‘5-a-day’ projects

_____________________________________
Tuesday 25th January 10:30 - 4:30
Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket, Suffolk
www.eastanglianlife.org.uk
____________________________________

Discover what support you can get from Sustain’s Food Co-ops project, where your nearest co-op is, hear from experienced food projects, and exchange ideas for the future!

Speakers:

- Kirstin Glendinning - Swillington Community Supported Agriculture & the Soil Association
- Gemma Sayers - Food Co-ops Project & Ipswich Food Co-op

A Plenary with:

- JP- Hastings Community Fruit ‘n’ Veg project
- Jacqui - Community Food Entreprise, East London

+ Networking with local groups and Action Planning to help set up or improve your community food project
+ Delicious lunch of local seasonal produce

This is a FREE event but booking is essential
Contact: http://www.blogger.com/gemma@sustainweb.org or 07971 863 586

More information and a toolkit showing how to get started is available at http://www.blogger.com/www.foodcoops.org

If you are involved in the local food, community food, or food production sector, this event is for you. Likewise, if you are faced with transitioning to a more sustainable and autonomous future. But you are welcome even if your interest is simply in the consumption of good food!

I have chosen the speakers to cater to a variety of groups; those needing templates for making their entreprise stand alone when they've previously been shored up by local authority funding and support; those looking for radical ways to take control of their food supply, those needing specialised information on ambitious independent systems like CSA's; and anybody who'd like to know what's out there that can make good food more affordable and accessible.

There will be plenty of time for Open Space discussions at the event, and that includes food co-ops and others presenting about the work they do, bringing any issues they've encountered to the forum, or thrashing out ideas for a project step-by-step.