What we’ve been up to? An update
Hello everyone,
We hope you are well and finding some balance despite the unprecedented and strange times we're in... We've been pretty busy on our end, so we wanted to provide you with an update about what we've been up to.
1) There are now 15 Byron shire neighbourhoods registered with us, and we are in discussion with others. These neighborhoods are located all around the Byron Shire, and bring residents of a given street/shoreline/valley/neighbourhood closer together. We aim to create a network of resilience and regeneration neighbourhoods throughout the Byron Shire (and beyond). If you would like to support your local community, consider creating a neighbourhood group where you live. We've developed some resources to help you (and are working in developing some more), which you can find here.
2) We have put together six different thematic teams (namely Food security; Water security; Housing security; Energy security; Health & Wellbeing; and Safety & Emergency) and have made a call for volunteers to lead each of these. We have received strong expressions of interest and we're so excited to announce that we have identified high caliber leaders and will introduce them to you shortly. The first task of each leader is to map existing institutions/stakeholders that are working in each of these thematic areas so that we can connect with them and support any projects which contribute to the resilience and regeneration movement and identify gaps that need to be filled.
We are still looking for a Food security leader, so if you are interested in the role please send us an expression of interest.
3) The Resilient Byron community on Facebook has reached 350+ people and is vibrant. More and more information is being exchanged, as well as projects spontaneously coming out of these interactions. An example of such generosity has been the organisation over two weekends of a free workshop for 20 people on how to build smokeless cooking stoves that can work without gas or electricity. There was a high demand for it so more may come. We are currently looking at how we can strengthen such skillshare within the Shire. The Resilient Byron Facebook group is a place for neighbourhood and community organizers in the Byron Shire and beyond to share, learn from and get inspired by each other, so you are welcome to join of course!
4) We have published last month our first research publication in partnership with the Ngara Institute. In Being Lonely: Making sense of Australia’s epidemic of social and ecological disconnection, Dr Richard Hil, Louise Holdsworth and Charlie Brennan, do a superb job in reminding us of the ravages of loneliness and its larger dynamics. We hope you will enjoy this deep dive into this topic that affect too many of us.
5) We're now putting a team of researchers together. While this first publication is a long and intellectual read, it was an opportunity that led us to create a research team which goal is to produce short, evidence-based, accessible and impactful information on community resilience and regeneration. The outputs we aim to produce won't be limited to written publications but will also include short videos. Let us know if you would like to join or contribute to this effort.
6) We have submitted 3 grants to the Northern Rivers Community Foundation and should hear the results soon. These grant applications aim to
fund the construction of 5 community noticeboards/stalls in 5 different neighbourhoods;
provide, in partnership with Reunion.Earth, an Intensive course in Regenerative Design that would benefit residents from all 7 LGAs of the Northern Rivers;
organise a Facilitator training on building Resilient Communities in the Byron Shire in partnership with OzGreen, a multi-award winning not-for-profit based in Bellingen. The training aims at upskilling individuals to become facilitators who can then train others on this topic and/or create resilience projects in their communities.
We are now looking at other funding opportunities and would of course welcome any support which you may give.
7) We have partnered with Renew Fest to organise a roadshow in the coming months to raise awareness about the resilience and regeneration movement and invite communities around the shire to join in.
8) We have adopted sociocracy as the governance model and have already structured the different teams accordingly. We've also created new internal processes, templates and tools that reflect that. For those of you to whom the concept means little, sociocracy is a whole systems approach to designing and leading organizations. It is based on principles, methods, and a structure that create a resilient and coherent system. It relies on transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability to increase harmony, effectiveness, and productivity in groups. Sociocracy produces organizations that are both collaborative and highly productive. We're learning as we do but we feel it suits RB's aim and ethos pretty well.
9) RB is a winner of the Byron Shire Council 2020 Sustainability Awards. While it came as a surprise we're of course super proud and happy about it. We like to think of it as a validation of the relevance of our mission.
10) We will be putting a team of fundraisers soon. If you have some experience and interest in writing grants or connecting with potential partners, please let us know!
We've been working on other activities too, including developing partnerships with different organisations, writing a submission to the Rous County Council about their Future Water Project 2060, joining the Community Resilience Network created by the Tweed and Byron councils, etc. but this update is already pretty long so we'll stop here.
Anyway, we hope you can see the invisible threads of connection that link us all becoming more visible. If you wish to help us thread these further, we invite you to volunteer with us or make a donation.
You will hear more from us and we hope to hear from you too!