Calendar of Events
| Our circle of Environmental Change-Makers holds monthly meetings in the Westchester area of Los Angeles. We offer speakers and topics promoting real life actions to bring society (and our city) toward a more Sustainable existence. | ||
| Our regular meeting date is the 4th Thursday of each month, however we offer lots of special events and workshops. | ||
| Most of our events are free. Donations are welcome, and help us continue our work of environmental outreach. Additionally, Holy Nativity Church encourages you to bring canned food for donation to LAX food pantry. | ||
| Our regular meeting place is in the Community Hall of Holy Nativity Church, 6700 W. 83rd, Westchester (LA 90045) (Map) (Bus/Light Rail directions) |
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last updated June 2009 |
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| Detailed Listing: | ||
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June 11: Thursday 7pm Andy Lipkis of TreePeople |
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Andy Lipkis, founder and president of TreePeople, talks about the role of community in making Los Angeles more resilient. Lipkis will tell us about TreePeople’s vision for a “functioning community forest,” and he’ll describe TreePeople’s next steps in retrofitting Los Angeles’ homes to create a more sustainable water system. What could adaptation to climate change and peak oil look like in our city? Together with Joanne Poyourow, cofounder of the Environmental Change-Makers, Lipkis will explore ways TreePeople has been successful in engaging positive action. |
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Cost: free Site: Holy Nativity Church, 6700 W. 83rd, Westchester (LA 90045) |
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June 20: Saturday 9am Water Wisdom in the Garden |
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| Make sure your water goes to your plants, and isn’t wasted to evaporation. Learn tips and techniques about how to make the most of your watering. | ||
Part of the Organic Vegetable Gardening class series Cost: free Site: Community Garden at Holy Nativity Church, |
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June 25: Thursday 6:30pm Solar Cooker Crafting Workshop |
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Celebrate the summer solstice with solar cooking! Experience the different kinds of solar cooking in operation (yes, folks, that means we'll have yummy treats!). Local author Joanne Poyourow - who regularly cooks using solar cookers - will share recipes and tips. And those of you who want to may BUILD YOUR OWN SOLAR COOKER! |
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If you wish to build a panel solar cooker, please RSVP by June 21 so that we have enough craft materials - we'll supply reflective auto windowshades and other construction items. Materials fee will be $12, payable in cash or check at the meeting. No RSVP or fee required if you just want to listen & watch. RSVP here If you plan to build a cooker, please bring what you have of the following: matte knife or exacto blade, scissors, measuring tape, white glue, and large (24"x36") sheets of scavenged cardboard. Check out photos from our 2007 event here. |
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Cost: No RSVP or fee required if you just want to listen & watch. Site: Inner parking lot of Holy Nativity Church, 6700 W. 83rd, Westchester (LA 90045) |
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July 11: Saturday 9am Good Bug / Bad Bug |
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| Who's good and who's not? Learn about the bugs in your garden, how to identify friend versus foe, and how to do pest control organically. With John Tikotsky, landscape architect. | ||
Part of the Organic Vegetable Gardening class series Cost: free Site: Community Garden at Holy Nativity Church, |
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July 22: Wednesday 9am (optional) July 23: Thursday 6:30pm Cooking from our Local Foodshed |
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Learn about our local foods - what's in season now, where to get it, and how to prepare it. Our "local foodshed" is the foods which are grown locally -- within an immediate radius of our neighborhood or city. The term was borrowed from the water folks, to whom "watershed" refers to all the territory which collects water to drain into a single stream. Our Los Angeles foodshed includes farms to the north in Ventura, Santa Ynez, and Lompoc, as well as farms in inland places such as Apple Valley, and south to Irvine and Oceanside. Where do you get all those marvelous local foods? Our local farmer's markets, of course! Our event will begin with an optional session on Wednesday morning at the Westchester Farmers' Market (near corner of Lincoln and Manchester). Look for the Environmental Change-Makers t-shirts. We'll browse the market and gather fresh local foods. On Thursday at 6:30pm we'll walk the Community Garden at Holy Nativity and discuss what's fresh and in-season. Then at our regular 7pm meeting time, we'll cook together. We'll turn those local foods into delicious dishes and have a mid-summer harvest feast. The menu will be determined by what's available within our "local foodshed"! |
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Cost: suggested donation $5 (no one will be turned away for lack of funds) Site: Community Hall of Holy Nativity Church, 6700 W. 83rd, Westchester (LA 90045) |
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July 25: Saturday 9am Attracting the Good Bugs |
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| Learn which flowers to plant to attract and retain the “good bugs” in your garden. With John Tikotsky, landscape architect. | ||
Part of the Organic Vegetable Gardening class series Cost: free Site: Community Garden at Holy Nativity Church, |
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July 25: Saturday 1-5pm "Transition Tales" workshop |
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| In Transition Town Totnes (one of the very first active sites within the UK, and within the Transition movement as a whole), they have a project called "Transition Tales."
Through this project, they use storytelling as a means of helping people visualize -- in a very positive sense -- what a post-petroleum lifestyle could possibly be. What might life be like as energy supplies become more constrained under peak oil? What might life be like under climate change? Storytelling is used to teach what Transition means, and to imagine the full potential of what it could possibly be. * Some of these projects have been done with schoolchildren and are viewable on YouTube. Naomi Waters works with the Transition Tales efforts in the UK. This May, Naomi participated in a full-day session on Transition Tales at the Transition Network's international conference in London. Naomi will be in Los Angeles in July, and on July 25 will share with us her experiences in using storytelling to convey the vast potential of the Transition concept, as well as what she learned at the conference. We welcome storytellers, writers, film industry personnel, and others to join us for this very special afternoon. 12:45 arrival and sign-in |
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Cost: suggested donation $10 to $20 per person; no one will be turned away for lack of funds Site: Sivananda Yoga Center, 13325 Beach, Marina del Rey |
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Aug 8 - Saturday 1pm Picklefest Westchester! |
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By popular demand! Erik Knutzen of Homegrown Evolution will lead a hands-on workshop where we make lacto-fermented pickles! It will be bring-your-own vegetables. A list of recommended vegetables will be posted here soon. |
RSVP will be necessary. |
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Materials cost (coming soon) will cover brine and canning jars. More information will come as the event gets closer. |
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Cost: No RSVP or fee required if you just want to listen & watch. Materials fee to do the pickling project $[to come], payable in cash or check at the meeting. RSVP required to reserve materials. (link to come) Site: Community Hall of Holy Nativity Church, 6700 W. 83rd, Westchester (LA 90045) |
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Aug 27 - Thursday 7pm Making Change |
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We're a society that is addicted to oil. How appropriate that -- in order to break out of this addiction -- we must look to addiction and recovery models in order to understand the journey ahead. As Change-Makers, trying to create change in our own personal habits, in our communities, and in society as a whole -- it is important to understand the psychology of change. In part 1 of this series (in May), we examined what "Change" meant to each of us individually. In this August session, Vidya Chaitanya will show us some models for creating change, including models used in the Transition movement. |
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Cost: free Site: Community Hall of Holy Nativity Church, 6700 W. 83rd, Westchester (LA 90045) |
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Sept 24 - Thursday 7pm Time Banks |
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| We'll hear from the founder of the Arroyo Time Bank about how they build relationships through service, share resources with one another, and empower their neighborhoods through their contributions. | ||
Cost: free Site: Community Hall of Holy Nativity Church, 6700 W. 83rd, Westchester (LA 90045) |
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Oct 24 - Saturday (time t.b.d.) Day of Climate Action with 350.org |
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| We'll be creating an event in conjunction with the international efforts of 350.org to raise awareness of global warming. Details T.B.A. | ||
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| photo credits: vegetables by Robbie Owen-Wahl, UK; Transition Los Angeles logo by Agnes Anderson; sunflower by Lynda Modaff. | ||
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meetings of the
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Transition Los Angeles
Reskilling
is the term for learning again the basic skills necessary for everyday life -- skills like baking bread, growing vegetables, sewing clothing, basic repairs and craftsmanship.
Over the past 50 to 100 years -- a brief period of energy surplus fueled by cheap, plentiful oil -- we have gleefully outsourced these tasks. But as we delve into the second half of our planetary oil supplies, we will no longer have that luxury. We must relearn these skills, and teach them to each other.
At the Environmental Change-Makers, we're relearning these skills, together.
Transition
is a term that refers to the time period we are going through -- a time period when we are transitioning from an energy-intense, high-consumption lifestyle, into something which is much more in line with the available resources of the planet.
Specifically, "Transition" refers to the international Transition movement, a grassroots effort to grow local resilience, our ability to flex and adapt in the face of great change -- the sweeping changes of peak oil and climate change.
The Environmental Change-Makers have been the initiating group for the Transition movement for many areas of Los Angeles. They are a part of Transition Los Angeles.
Read more about the past meetings of the Environmental Change-Makers.