Transition Sebastopol — Mapping The Community

Sebastopol recently became the 9th official U.S. “Transition Town.” The Transition Culture movement started in the town of Totnes, U.K as “a grass-roots, all volunteer, bottom up response to the challenges of Peak Oil, climate change, and global financial instability.” Transition Sebastopol kicked off things with talk about the Totnes experience in February, followed up by a Community Mapping event on March 11th. A large group gathered in the Community Center to brainstorm and capture many ideas, opportunities, resources, needs and visions of Sebastopol. The evening began with exercises to help define the interests and overlaps within the group, which appeared to run the gamut of economic and social philosophies, and political leanings (albeit mostly to the left of center). Then the group got down to the business of capturing as many resources and perceived needs in variety of areas ranging from arts to emergency preparedness. The conversation continued in a second mapping meeting on March 21st. One of the goals was to put together a comprehensive list of transition/relocalization resources for Sebastopol. These will eventually be available from the Transition Sebastopol website.

Transition United States recently opened their office in Sebastopol, adding to the interesting list of nonprofits calling Sebastopol home, ranging from the Post-Carbon Institute and PublicResource.Org. Though the Transition Sebastopol is an autonomous group under the Transition umbrella, it’s great to see so much local activity in this area.

iWalk Sonoma

Sebastopol is joining other Sonoma County cities and organizations launch the “iWalk Sonoma,” the first phase of Health Action — A 2020 vision for Sonoma County, which aims to make the county the healthiest in California by 2020. The May 16 kickoff will feature events all across the county to promote walking as an easy way to promote health. Health Action, created by the Board of Supervisors in 2007 as a coalition of health care providers, the County Health Services and others , notes:

“For many people in Sonoma County, the basic conditions that support health and well-being seem to be out of reach. Many families struggle to make ends meet and over 25% of our youth do not graduate from high school on time, thus reducing their chances of becoming productive and healthy adults. Sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy eating contribute to increasing levels of obesity and overweight in our community, yet many residents lack access to affordable healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity. Other unhealthy behaviors, such as tobacco use and substance abuse, and lack of access to health care services further contribute to preventable illness and death in our community each year.”  –Health Action’s Action Plan (2009-2012)