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February 25, 2020

Grass roots resilience

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in 2017 and was the worst natural disaster to hit the island in recorded history.The power grid was completely destroyed leaving millions without electricity. In the absence of any other government assistance, a group of survivors in one of the towns – Caguas – began a community kitchen to help feed others. It gradually developed into a network of self-help organisations committed to re-powering the island – both in a civic and electricity sense. The story of this extraordinary tale of community resilience will be told next Saturday at an event in Yoker.

Glasgow Eco Trust

From Australia’s bush-fires, to Puerto Rico’s hurricane and UK floods, when a crisis hits, stories of mass destruction often dominate the headlines, but we also see the extraordinary power of communities coming together

WHAT IS THE EVENT?

Join Glasgow Eco Trust along at Yoker Community Campus for our latest Community Environmental Forum where we will explore how communities pull together in the face of emergencies and hope emerges in unexpected places.

The event, which is the next in our series of Community Environmental Forums, will start with a film screening of “The Response: How Puerto Ricans are restoring power to the people” introduced by Tom Llewellyn, leader of The Response Project for Shareable.net

This 30-minute micro-budget film from Shareable.net, an award-winning non profit media outlet, action network, and consultancy. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, a quiet revolution has been percolating on the island of Puerto Rico. What began as an impromptu community kitchen meant to help feed survivors in the town of Caguas quickly grew into an island-wide network of mutual aid centers (Centros de Apoyo Mutuo) with the ultimate goal to restore power — both electric and civic — to the people.

WORKSHOP

The film screening will be followed by a Q&A and workshop with Tom Llewellyn exploring how we might reimagine existing community spaces (churches, community centres, gardens, etc.) as “Resilience Hubs”.

WHO IS IT FOR AND WHY SHOULD I COME?

This event is for community activists and organisations, charities, community centres and hubs including churches as well as all those interested in exploring ideas for community-led resilience in emergencies.

TIMINGS

Registrations will open at 9:45am with the event starting promptly at 10:00am. Light refreshments and lunch will be provided. The event will finish by 1:00pm.

BOOKING

The event is FREE to attend but we ask that people book in advance –  book tickets.

SHAREABLE

Shareable is an award-winning non-profit news, action and connection hub for the sharing transformation.

What’s the sharing transformation? It’s a movement of movements emerging from the grassroots up to solve today’s biggest challenges, which old, top-down institutions are failing to address.