Transition Town Santa Barbara (www.transitiontownsb.org) invites you to join us on Tuesday evening, May 19^th for “Four Steps for Removing Official Blocks to Transition,” a presentation by best-selling author and public affairs consultant Paul Edwards on how local communities can change laws and ordinances so they don’t hinder but ease and encourage the shift to a sustainable, resilient, locally-based way of life. The talk will be held at the Karpeles Library at 21 West Anapamu from 7 pm – 9 pm and will include a Power Point on lobbying.

 

Paul’s presentation will cover four steps local communities need to make to recast local policy towards sustainability.  The steps are:

 

1. What’s in the Way of Transition?

2. Where to Start: Deciding What to Focus On

3. Step Three: Deciding Where to Invest Your Energy

4. Step Four: What Methods Do You Use?

 

Paul will identify the major targets for reform and discuss underlying strategic approaches and key resistances to overcome. He will also describe tools such as strategic social marketing, ballot initiatives, and campaigns to elect slates of local officials.

 

Paul has worked with a wide range of corporate, governmental and non-profit organizations throughout his career. During the past four years, he has been instrumental in organizing and launching Let’s Live Local, a Transition Initiative in Pine Mountain Club, CA, now the 11^th official US Transition Initiative. He has also completed Training for Transitions workshops as well as other sustainability training programs.

 

Paul’s consulting includes assistance with ballot initiatives and campaigns for electing slates of local officials with the vision to lead their community into a sustainable future. You can see a fuller description of his services and background on his web site at www.publicaffairsservices.com He is co-author, with his wife Sarah Edwards, of “Middle Class Lifeboat” and many other books.

 

Transition Town Santa Barbara was founded in the fall of 2008 to empower our community to squarely face the challenges of economic instability, climate change and resource depletion and to unleash the collective genius of our own people to create ways of transitioning to a thriving and resilient local community. Inspired by permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins’ book “The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience,” there are now hundreds of Transition Initiatives around the world in many countries.

 

TTSB’s website is www.transitiontownsb.org

 

For more information, contact Transition Town Santa Barbara Seeds Committee member Linda Buzzell at lbuzzell@aol.com or (805) 563-2089.