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SustainabilityLINKS Linking People, Sustainability & Participation |
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Find your way round the site
What all this is about
How you can help
See whats worked
Have your say
Further Sits & info.
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Content Updates New to These Pages Website Content Updates Come here whenever you log on to find out about any recent additions or other changes to the website.
Coming Shortly…
First interactive edition of S&P News. Direct input from national third sector organisations. Best practice model resolutions from LSPs nationwide. Initial responses to the website.
About the LINKS Website Background The purpose of this site is to pursue the key objective of the UN’s Agenda 21 and Rio Declaration – an active promotion of sustainability and participation (S&P) concerns through grassroots work. It was at 1992’s Earth Summit that these documents were endorsed by world leaders, and an awareness of the urgent need to address the terminality of our lifestyle was mainstreamed and transferred to government from the pages of earnest but obscure scientific publications and the meeting agendas of environmental groups. However, it was inevitable that the structural causes of our crisis could not be effectively tackled by political processes that had developed to foster and protect the systems now being challenged.
How the Site Works The website takes up Agenda 21’s community participation approach to the necessary lifestyle changes. It also takes forward some of those hitherto much neglected opportunities the Rio Earth Summit created to explore new ways of working. Somehow people have failed to appreciate that those of us involved in sustainability have had a very different role to play since the UN and world leaders eventually acknowledged our unsustainability back in 1992. So, the site’s main objective is to bring together two communities of interest – the people now involved in Local Strategic Partnerships and associated participation processes (especially representatives of the third sector and education services) and the supporters of those third sector organisations involved in other sustainability related work. A secondary objective is to provide an arena to promote a wide range of S&P concerns, such as, current legislation, employment opportunities, events, funding and information / resource accessibility. In doing so hopefully the site will also aid sector capacity building – while many national organisations have huge support bases, at local level there is invariably precious little contact between their their members. The site’s concerns mirror those of Agenda 21 so, while encouraging participation in local decision-making, it promotes sustainability issues such as climate change, transport, waste and recycling, pollution, social justice, local economic stability and biodiversity. Other sustainability movement concerns – such as arms sales, sentience, globalisation, corporate v human rights, spirituality, overpopulation and holism – are not prioritised, though they’re certainly not excluded. Also using Agenda 21 as a guide, LINKS site input aims to be non-confrontational.
Bringing Together Sustainability and Participation Where You Live At present this site contains a number of pages and items specifically relevant only to the Coventry and Warwickshire sub-region. Such local content is flagged throughout these pages by a narrower Arial font and text layout. It’s hoped that eventually this material will be moved over to a separate site, which will become just one of a network of linked local sites run by people wishing to bring a similar approach to their own grassroots S&P work. Such involvement in local decision making is a long-overdue aspect of the sustainability agenda. Please make contact If you’d like to become involved. In the meantime .you can download and photocopy any of this site’s content to any colleagues or contacts you feel may be interested. The LocalLINKS’ key pages will therefore be of more general interest to anyone wishing to raise the profile of our global unsustainability in local participation processes elsewhere. The pages hyperlinked here show how to raise the local profile of our global unsustainability, outlining some sub regional successes and how key issues can be factored into grassroots decision-making. 1. For a summary of sustainability initiatives taken in Coventry and Warwickshire – and of the sub region’s LSP responses to lobbying on sustainability concerns see: C&W and S&P – An Introduction 2. To see how LSP lobbying can bring sustainability perspectives into LSP and related participation processes see: C&W LSP Accessibility 3. An assessment of how areas’ Sustainable Community Strategies are and should be addressing S&P concerns can be seen on the C&W LSP’s Community Strategies page. 4. The C&W Letters Page creates an opportunity for local comment, discussion and wider involvement in areas’ Sustainable Community Strategy / LSP concerns and processes. 5. Visit the C&W Polling Station to see how local participation could come to embrace grassroots sustainability decision and provision making. 6. Such involvement in local democratic processes is a long-overdue aspect of the sustainability agenda. Such involvement in local democratic processes decision making is a long-overdue aspect of the sustainability agenda. Please make contact If you’d like to become involved.
Making Your Input Please include your name and contact details. Your contribution will be credited on site, unless you request otherwise.
The Five SustainabilityLINKS Menus The Networking menu’s intended to be of interest to all those involved in sustainability work, and to encourage wider information sharing, capacity building and input into local S&P processes. Live / Input Please! An open discussion forum bringing together sustainability concerns and participation processes. Live / Input Please! S&P’s version of the popular newspaper feature – and an opportunity for us all to raise questions and share what we know. Live / Input Please! For convenience why not print out these diary dates and add your own? Live / Input Please! An A-Z of green contacts and data; Advice, Banks, Books, Bicycles, Broadcasting, Children, Crafts, Computers, Democracy, Economy, Energy, Food and Drink, Funding, LA21, Legal, Mail Order, Places to Visit, Periodicals, Presentations, Procurement, Recycled Items, Venues, Volunteers. Live / Input Please! An A-Z of Education for Sustainability contacts and data: Advice and Support, Books, Broadcasting, Courses and Learning Opportunities, Energy, Funding, Periodicals, Places to Visit, Presentations, Procurement, Qualifications, School Age Education, Speakers List, Teaching Resources. Live / Input Please! The WorkWise page will have four sections. 1. Job Shop 2. S&P Related Work Proposals 3. Resource Availabilities 4. Funding News Under Construction – this Page Requires an Editor / Input Will be Needed Shortly The Parliamentary Watch page is divided into three sections. o About Parliamentary Bills o Recent S&P Related Legislation o S&P Bills and EDMs Currently Before Parliament Live / Input Please! Every so often mainstream entertainment and leisure offers up some material that’s an inspiration for those working on S&P. Send in your reviews – and give others an opportunity to be both entertained and inspired. 20 Or So Things You May Or May Not Know About Community Strategies, LSPs, etc Live / Input Please! A chance to blitz your ideas on culture change. Live / Input Please! Please send LINKS 2 sides of A4 about your organisation, current project, etc. This menu brings together topical reports of interest to Community Strategy process participants - particularly representatives of the third sector, education and sustainability groups. Online soon/ Input Please! The Report service summarises information from a range of sources, including the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development (and associated UNEP and UNED and Stakeholder Forum); from key national players, such as Urban Forum and the New Economics Foundation and the Environment and Resource Information Centre; from Government founded organisations such as the Sustainability Development Commission; and from wide support base campaigns like WWF, Campaign for Better Transport, Friends of the Earth , Soil Association and Jubilee Debt Campaign. Live / Input Please! An ongoing record of climate change news items together with a look at whether nuclear power is an option. S&P News National CVO Projects Update Live / Input Please! A round up of key national third sector S&P programmes.
ParticipationLINKS is the real focus of this website, showing how sustainability thinking and doing can influence local decision making. The Participation menu suggests ways in which communities can input into those local participation processes originally proposed in Agenda 21. Sustainability and Participation, Strategies and Partnerships Live / Input Please! To advance its own, often quite incompatible, agenda current policy making redefines what ‘sustainable’ means; this ongoing redefinition serves to both belittle the true nature of our plight and create an impression that we’re addressing the hitch. As a consequence remedial thinking and doing is often absurdly off beam – and will ultimately prove ruinous, This website reclaims the concept’s true meaning – and this brief look at recent history shows what good company LINKS is working in. Also see ReferenceLINKS’ Helpful Websites, Key Documents Website Links and Useful Local Lobbying Aids pages. Making Requests for LSP Information Live / Input Please! The Freedom of Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations 2004, making other information requests, a dummy letter and websites giving further guidance. S&P Information Resources for LSPs Live / Input Please! This page contains some essential reading if you’re involved in any of your area’s LSP processes. Books and other resources are grouped into the topic and action themes identified by many Community Strategies Live / Input Please! A Partnership version of the Nottingham Declaration, a sustainability mission statement and Fairtrade Area Status and Sustainable Communities Bill resolutions. Please send LINKS copies of any other sustainability-related resolutions that could be considered by our Partnerships, including details of the source (eg LSP / council). Best Practice and Policy Making Live / Input Please! A round up of commendable practice and policy making initiatives from LSPs around the country. The information on this page is split into three sections. Sustainable Community Strategies, LSPs, Councils, etc Local Climate Change Action Bibliography Model Sustainable Community Strategy Live / Input Please! If Local Strategic Partnerships addressed the concerns as originally intended by Agenda 21, this is what our Sustainable Community Strategies would be like. Community Strategies and the Third Sector Live / Information Only National third sector advice on local CVO involvement with Community Strategy processes. Note that the paper serves to illustrate one way in which the concept of ‘sustainability’ is so misunderstood and ill-served; such a narrow perspective and piecemeal incorporation of sustainability into our existing individual agendas simply does not add up to a remedy for global unsustainability. The Reference Section includes details of official documents and other authoritative information sources that may assist site visitors in their S&P work. Live / Input Please! Why not print out the page for easy reference? Live / Input Please! The jargon Buster page is divided into two sections. o Abbreviations o Glossary Live / Information Only The need for NGOs and communities to address sustainability and participation was recognised and legitimised at the 1992 Earth Summit. This page gathers together some of the paragraphs most helpful to those working with our communities.. Live / Information Only Many local authorities have demonstrated their commitment to climate change action by signing up to the Nottingham Declaration – why not our LSPs too? Live / Information Only This page will feature official information published specifically to aid local participation in democratic processes. Documents highlighted at present are: 1) ‘A Sustainability Stocktake for Local Authority Chief Executives’, guidance published by the Local Government Management Board on behalf of several national local authority organisations, and 2) ‘The UK Local Government Declaration on Sustainable Development’, which was published by the five national local authority organisations – ADC, ALANI, AMA, COSLA and ACC Environmental Committee. These were published ten years ago – have our councils risen to the challenge Live / Information Only A listing of the most important S&P guidance from a range of sources, such as the UN and UK local government bodies. This site includes hyperlinks to the sites where seminal documents such as Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Declaration, Kyoto Protocol, Earth Charter, People’s Earth Declaration and Convention on Biological Diversity can be viewed. Live / Input Please! Where to find out more about just some of the organisations working on different aspects of S&P. Live / Input Please! This is an ongoing compilation of details about those third sector organisations working on S&P concerns. Some of the national voluntary organisations listed here will simply not be represented in local Strategy and Partnership work – even though all will have members and supporters living locally and many will have active local contacts or groups. This is clearly an untenable situation, as S&P just happens to be the very focus of these organisations’ work. Perhaps voluntary and community sector representatives should be more actively encouraging and supporting input from these colleagues Live / Input Please! Details of magazines covering sustainability topics, together with contact details for the national dailies letters page information to help you raise the profile of S&P concerns. Government / Public Bodies Working on S&P Under Construction – this Page Requires an Editor / Input Will be Needed Shortly This will come to be a comprehensive listing of world, European and national organisations. Please let LINKS have any details for inclusion. Live / Information Only Programme rationale and statements, plus some messages of support – please add yours.
Full menu details of the these local pages are given in a separate Contents located in the LocalLINKS section. Although the LocalLINKS pages are of particular relevance to work being undertaken in the Coventry and Warwickshire sub region, they’ll also be of interest to people wishing to work through local participation processes elsewhere. The LocalLINKS page outlining some catchment successes shows just how sustainability issues can be factored into local decision making. Anyone wishing to undertake similar work in their own area and network with other area S&P initiatives can get in touch!
Page Index Directories ESD Directory Government / Public Bodies Working on S&P Green Pages Helpful Websites Key S&P Documents Website Links National CVOs Working on S&P Periodicals C&W Address Book C&W ESD Directory C&W Green Pages C&W Members Contact Details Documents Agenda 21 Chapter 27 Community Strategies and the Third Sector Nottingham Declaration Local Lobbying Aids Features Guest Pages Glossary Abbreviations Serious Entertainment 20 or so things… WorkWise C&W Abbreviations C&W Guest Page C&W Local History Newspaper Letters Page Notes and Queries S&P News – Climate Change S&P News – Clippings Folder S&P News – Current Issue S&P News – Last Issue S&P News – National CVO Projects Update What’s On C&W Letters Page (including Notes & Queries) C&W News – Current Issue C&W News – Last Issue C&W Small Ads C&W What’s On Participatory Democracy Best Practice and Policy Making Making Requests for LSP Information Model Resolutions for LSPs Model Sustainable Community Strategy Parliament Watch S&P Information Resources for LSPs C&W and S&P: An Introduction C&W Council Accessibility C&W Council Information and Initiatives C&W LSP Accessibility C&W LSPs Community Strategies C&W LSPs – Information and Initiatives C&W LSP Log of Approaches C&W Planning Process Involvement C&W Polling Station SustainabilityLINKS About LINKS LINKS Website Contents Programme Rationale: Sustainability & Participation, Strategies & Partnerships C&W LocalLINKS Contents
LINKSdisk The contents of the disk supplement that of the website. Once the site is launched and running perhaps the disk idea will enable LINKS to bring a more personal and informal service to those who visit the website more regularly. S&P News: Back Issues The largest of the disk’s sections collects together SustainabilityLINKS news reports, in their various incarnations since 1996. It contains material such as; a summary of the Strong And Prosperous Communities White Paper a briefing on local protest action a copy of Sustainable Community Strategies and the Third Sector a critique of libraries’ worrying failure to respond to S&P Previews This disk previews the content of forthcoming website pages. Easy Print Outs Including – Letters to Send, Abbreviations List, Website Contents, Launch Papers. Acknowledgements and Thanks From LINKS
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Please contact us with any information or feed back: E-mail - info@sustainabilitylinks.org.uk Post - SustainabiltyLINKS, 3 Park Road, Bedworth CV12 8LH |
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The spring
2008 edition of