Bioregional Learning Journey – Wellbeing in the City The Bioregional Learning Centre works in South Devon in the approximate area of the new Joint Local Plan (Plymouth, West Devon and South Hams) plus Torbay and the Teign Valley. |
More than half the world’s population now live in cities and while the density of living and working in cities offers an environmentally efficient way to live, it is also true that many of the current challenges of city life will be amplified by climate change. Air quality, access to fresh and affordable food, clean energy and low-carbon housing are all key aspects of wellbeing that climate change is directing us to address now. How we design and take action together is the focus of Bioregional Learning Centre’s work: strategic whole-systems change at bio-regional scale – in our bioregion of South Devon.
The Bioregional Learning Journey day in the city of Plymouth on September 10th will bring a small group of knowledgeable and practically engaged individuals together to see at first hand how Plymouth people are innovating for climate resilience. The participants on the Journey are from environmental and sustainability bodies and NGOs, thought leaders and academics. The focus of the visit will be on fresh food, local enterprise and clean energy. The journey is being led by Glenn Page from the Collaborative for Bioregional Action Learning and Transformation in Maine USA and Isabel Carlisle from the Bioregional Learning Centre in South Devon.
The morning part of the visit will be hosted by Food Plymouth core team member and edible landscape specialist Tess Wilmot of Dig for Devonport and members of the Grow Stonehouse team from the Millfields Trust. The lunchtime part of the event will run from 12:30 to 14:30 at The Clipper.
Isabel comments “Everyone who takes part in the visit, whether they are hosts, presenters or participants, will be prompted to think deeper, broader and more systemically in a way that will be both challenging and fun. This means means that we need as much time for learning conversations as for presentations.”
Isabel explains that the Plymouth visit is part of a wider Bioregional Learning Journey programme spanning a range of settings in and around South Devon during September. Each day the learning will take the form of conversations and challenges that raise questions rather than answers, with people who have first-hand experience of specific challenges. The programme will also explore how people in the past have responded to eco-system changes in the place where we are. Isabel’s message to participants is “Expect your thinking to be challenged and to gain really useful insights that you can take back into your own life and work”.
If you are interested in the Bioregional Learning Journey programme and in in exploring your own readiness to meet the challenges ahead, as well as looking for the potential in the people and places around you, please click to find out more here on the Bioregional Learning Centre Website, CLICK HEREto see the story covered in issue #79 of the Food Plymouth e-bulletin or contact Isabel CarlisleIsabel.carlisle@bioregion.org.uk
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