Environmental Change-Makers has served as the "initiating group" for Transition ideas for many areas of Los Angeles.  At the same time, Environmental Change-Makers has cultivated many local neighborhood gatherings and activities within our own backyard, the Westchester community.  These latter gatherings and activities will --in time-- become the foundation of

• General meetings are held the fourth Thursday of each month.  At present, they are one and the same with the meetings of the Environmental Change-Makers.  All are welcome to attend.  See calendar here.
• Reskilling events - "Reskilling" means learning the basic skills necessary for everyday life which we have so eagerly and effortlessly outsourced in the past 50 or so years (such as growing food, cooking, pickling and preserving, sewing clothing, craftsmanship.)  Reskilling events take place regularly throughout the year, nearly one per month. These include the ongoing Organic Vegetable Gardening series at the Community Garden, as well as reskilling on other topics as described on the calendar of the Environmental Change-Makers.
• Core team meetings specific to Transition Westchester have not yet begun (as of January 2009).  Contact us if you are interested in joining the core-team-in-formation.

• The Community Garden at Holy Nativity.  A joint project of the Environmental Change-Makers, Holy Nativity parish, and Urban Farming, this project began in January 2008 when we ripped out 1,250 sq ft of lawn in the side yard of Holy Nativity church and planted a vegetable garden.  The garden has become a gathering place for local neighbors, area Permaculturists, Holy Nativity parishioners, members of other local churches, and people who simply love to garden.  The garden has facilitated local reskilling through a free Organic Vegetable Gardening class series given one to two times per month.  Its artful presence on a busy street corner has boldly inserted the issue of front-yard vegetables into the local scene.  Side aspects of the project, such as a rainwater harvesting demonstration garden, have brought other environmental and sustainability issues to the fore.  Additionally, it has gotten many sustainability-related articles into mainstream publications.  Produce grown in the garden is distributed to local needy families via LAX Food Pantry.  Community Garden blog
• reskilling classes in bread baking, rain-gutter-to-rain-barrels, canning & pickling, solar cooking (watch calendar)
• Backyard harvest sharing program, mapping backyard fruit, organizing fruit harvest parties, and directing excess fruit to the food banks (under formation)
• Weekly community potluck (under formation)
• "Sustainability Collection" of books maintained at Los Angeles Public Library Westchester/Loyola Village branch (in process)
• a directory of neighborhood skills (under formation)
• Joint purchases of bareroot fruit trees
• Joint purchases of rain barrels
• We have a weekly farmer's market in Westchester, bringing fresh California-grown produce (much of it organic, much of it <200 miles) right to our neighborhood.  Support it!

The decision to create official Transition groups in Los Angeles was made in December 2008.  As of January 2009, the core-team-in-formation for Transition Westchester is still very much intertwined with membership of the Environmental Change-Makers and the core team for Transition Los Angeles.  Given time, the distinction between the groups will settle out.

Read about the structure for Transition in Los Angeles and understand how Westchester fits into the big picture.