Building sustainable, resilient communities

Cincinnati may be venturing into the winter season, but civic and eco-groups are doing their part to keep our community green. This fall and winter the Women’s City Club, the Social Justice Committee of the First Unitarian Church and the city's Office for Environmental Quality team up to present “Fixing the Future: Building a Just and Sustainable Economy,” a Friday night lecture series focused on ways to ensure both a strong economy and a healthy planet.

The series is open to the public and features experts in topics ranging from Peak Oil and building community resilience to building transition towns, and includes lectures, documentary screenings, and open discussion.

The third installment in the series, “Building Transition Towns and Intentional Communities” occurs Friday, Jan. 6, 2012. It includes speaker Nancy Sullivan from Enright Ridge Ecovillage and takes place from 7-9 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 536 Linton Street.

Sullivan’s lecture on building transition towns explores proactive ways that communities can build resilience within their local economies to deal with changes to daily living caused by Peak Oil. “Things we take for granted will change as the price of extraction for oil becomes more expensive,” says Sullivan. “It starts with understanding what is likely to happen, and determining where people’s interests lie in terms of awareness of transition and change.” Things such as utilizing farmers’ markets, natural building materials and repurposing materials contribute to resilience. Jeanne Nightingale, president of the Women’s City Club says, “It’s about creating an economy of abundance rather than an economy based on scarcity.”

Founded in 1915, the Women’s City Club of Cincinnati is on a mission to “secure a more just and livable community for all.” The WCC encourages citizens to become active members of the community on a broad range of topics. Upcoming topics covered in 2012 include a town forum on Cincinnati Public Schools’ community learning centers, urban farming and local food economy, the Cincinnati premiere of the documentary “Growth Busters,” and an examination of green housing and infrastructure, to name a few.

Do Good:

• Attend: “Building Transition Towns and Intentional Communities” on Friday, Jan. 6, 2012 from 7-9 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church at 536 Linton Street.

• Shop local.

• Become: a member of the Women’s City Club of Cincinnati.

• Tour: Enright Ridge Ecovillage the fourth Saturday of the month from 9-11 a.m.

By Deidra Wiley Necco