On September 29-october 2, 2010, IEMEA is presenting a training session in how to design and lead a local ecomunicipality change process.The training session will be held in Cambridge, MA near well-known Harvard Square. The training's objective is to increase citizen and planner leadership capacity in communities and their local governments to initiate and lead a change process to become a sustainable community. This sustainable communities approach has a substantial track record of successful implementation – possibly the most extensive in the world - in over 100 municipalities in Sweden, U.S., and around the world. The objective of the training is to prepare potential local leaders – including citizens, local officials, planners, or municipal staff – to be able to lead a process involving sustainability education, communication, and a strategic implementation process. 

We have given this training in previous years with highly successful results. Here are some reviews from our "graduates":

As a "graduate" of the national eco-municipality process leader training, I can speak first hand to the benefit of this kind of capacity-building and leadership development training. My ability to work with my communities by providing training, education, and community organizing has greatly increased because of this training. By enabling more people in [my state] to become process leaders, we can move more deliberately and effectively toward becoming a sustainable society".

 University Extension Educator, Wisconsin

After attending the training, which was...pretty life-changing in terms of my thinking about how to help [my town] move to a more sustainable set of practices, I formed a steering committee including heavy involvement from our schools....we are doing our first big community workshop with Sarah James getting us started as facilitator. We have modeled our approach on what Portsmouth {NH] has done as well as Lawrence Township, NJ...When I attended I stayed in the dorm at Tufts and ate on campus to save money...well worth doing. We had nightly outings with class participants which was a great way to bond with a group of very interesting folks from all over the U.S.

Town Manager of a New England Town

Experts Sarah James and Torbjorn Lahti provide a rtaining experience which is not just a tremendous dose of hope, but delivers a high quality sustainable development tool kit mixed with an outstanding assemby of fellow community builders.

Co-Founder, City Neighborhood Sustainability Organization, Pennsylvania

Other participants have said:

The encouragement that is derived from working in a cooperative group is an immeasurable gift.  I am certain that I have expanded the horizons of my possible audiences and have grown in my confidence to offer a worthwhile experience.

This coming together...and learning in a nurturing atmosphere made it possible for me to learn new strategems to work toward social change.

Provides a more in-depth understanding of the [Natural Step] system conditions, human needs model, and how they relate. As well as very practical instruction and exercises in how to apply the model in the eco-municipality process.

If you would be interested in participating in this training, please email james.s@att.net.  For a more detailed description of the training, go to our Events page.

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Announcement:  Eco-municipality Training Manuals Now Available!

Two manuals used in the eco-municipality leadership training are now available for purchase at an affordable price and download from www.lulu.com. To obtain these manuals, go to the lulu.com Web site and do an internal search for the names of the manuals or ther names of the authors.  Descriptions of the manuals follow:


Open Planning for Sustainability: The Eco-municipality Process Guide, by Sarah James & Philip B. Herr, 2009.

This manual is about how to design and lead a participatory, ‘bottom-up’ process for becoming an eco-municipality – a local government and its larger community that endorse a particular set of sustainability principles - either the Natural Step framework or the American Planning Association's guiding sustainability objectives - and integrate these systematically throughout their public and private sectors. It offers practical, step-by-step guidance for carrying out the sustainability change process described in The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities & Towns Can Change to Sustainable Practices by Sarah James & Torbjörn Lahti (New Society Publishers, 2004).   To obtain, go to www.lulu.com and do title or author search.

 

 

Grounding the Vision: The Eco-municipality Education Guide, by Torbjörn Lahti

 

Scores of communities, local governments and organizations have brought citizens and staff a clearer understanding of what sustainability means in ecological, economic, and social terms using this educational manual. The ‘EE Guide’ was the primary training tool used by many if not most of the Swedish eco-municipalities, now 25 per cent of all municipalities in Sweden.  The Natural Step framework is a central tenet in the educational material. The Guide is now available to a wider audience and is used in national sustainability trainings.  To obtain, go to www.lulu.com and do title or author serach.

 

 

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