Greetings,
Amanda Baker from the Transition Birmingham mulling process here.
Birmingham is a very culturally and ethnically diverse city. Sincere concerns have been expressed in various quarters that, for whatever reason, Transition is currently not very ethnically diverse.
Can anyone provide some insight into Transition initiatives which are successfully reflecting the diversity in an ethnically mixed area?
Many thanks,
Amanda
Hi Amanda
Unfortunately I am not in an ethnically mixed area, however I have worked with ethnic communities in London for many years in a former phase of life and I would consider:
Zenith Rahman at the amazing Bromley-by-Bow Healthy living centre in East London
Taste of a Better Future - Women's Environmental Network - involving women from diverse communities in growing organic food - tapping into wealth of experience from life before UK - see especially The Coriander club - social entreprise run by bangladeshi women (also London)
the amazing untapped skills of people used to remaking and mending - I once tried to find a job in a car body repair shop for a young afghani who could beat out a crumpled panel to perfection with just a hammer - skills not needed here - we just throw away a bent panel and put a new one in...
Refugee Council and Refugee Action - could put you in touch with key members of communities with experience of community action and global issues
Local college ESOL (English Language) teachers - know people from all communities who need to develop skills for employment in UK context (very often ESOL teacher is only friendly non-judgemental interaction people have with English people - what a resource Transition volunteering could be for building skills, trust + community cohesion!)- also try 'Into Work' training organisations - jobcentre could help?
Handsworth Uplands allotments - very diverse
West Mids Racial Equality - support any organisation wanting to address racial equality issues - the CRE in Stoke has a community Development worker - don't know about Birmingham... www.rewm.org
Good luck - a profoundly important issue both in itself and for the success of TTs in embedding deep social change :)
We are only as diverse as the people that forwards themselves to volunteer, thus we are white middle class in the main.
I think the Leicester group are doing some work with Muslim groups which makes sense with Leicester being the largest Indian community in the world outside of India.
Here in Harborough, we would have to raid the local finishing school where the rich foreign kids get sent to make a diversity quota. A very white middle class town.
Thanks for all these great ideas, millymop.
How's it going with the finishing school, dazdread ;-)
you're very welcome treaclemine! And another thought!:
why not try linking up with esol classes to produce some transition tales - memories of living in lower-carbon societies/visions of a beautiful future. Teachers have lots of boxes to tick re citizenship and participation and may be looking for ideas in the post-exam wind-down - great to have a visitor give a little talk to spark off some writing/speaking. you could produce a little pamphlet and sell it in aid of your transition or for refugee groups. See if anything is going on locally for Refugee Week next week - themes are:
The contribution of refugees: refugees make a huge contribution to the UK - socially, culturally and economically
Mutual benefit: British people and refugees learn and benefit from each other
Friendship: with the friendship of British people, refugees are able to better and more quickly rebuild their lives, and to offer so much more.
all ties in quite neatly!
If you do find yourself talking to learners of English - speak slowly - that means lots of long pauses so they can untangle the grammar and process the info. Maybe give time for the teacher to rephrase what you are saying.
Be careful how you simplify - for example 'invent' is much easier for learners to understand than 'make (something) up'
I agree that this is a really important discussion particularly for city initiatives to consider. To follow on from millymop's last note, Craig Barnett from 'City of Sanctuary' held an interesting workshop on the potential & importance of cross-fertilisation between refugees & refugee support groups and transition initiatives. The write up from the workshop is available here: http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/CitiesConference-UK-2008-WriteUp and the City of Sanctuary website is here: www.cityofsanctuary.com
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