Steve McAllister

Instead, we must learn to check our privilege, reach out beyond the usual suspects, and build more diverse coalitions, based on trust, mutual benefit, and common cause. In this way, our Transition Movement will become, more and more, a “just transition.”

In 2005, a group of Permaculture students from Kinsale Further Education College set a course for how their town of 7,000 people on the west coast of Ireland could transition to a better quality of life while dramatically reducing fossil fuel consumption. … Their plan was soon adopted by the Town Council of Kinsale, and when it was posted online, it quickly spread around the world as people everywhere embraced it as a groundbreaking tool for cultivating community-level sustainability and resilience.

In response to this need for clear and accessible ways to build resilience in the face of uncertainty and mounting social and environmental challenges, Transition Streets is helping to bring neighbors together to build community and take action right where they live.

To return this sense of empowerment, food sovereignty, and resilience to the people, Transition Milwaukee helped to launch and incubate the Victory Garden Initiative, which recently celebrated installing its 4,000th garden.

Inspired by Willits Economic Localization in Northern California, Local 20/20 in East Jefferson County, Washington formed in 2006 as an all-volunteer organization dedicated to promoting community-based self-reliance, sustainability, and resiliency.

One of the biggest challenges faced by any Transition Initiative is that they are largely non-hierarchical, volunteer-based organizations.