DaysE are delighted to be telling our story at one of the evening events being hosted across Ireland as part of the annual Convergence Sustainable Living Festival. Festival organiser, Davie Philip explains the aim of the evening sessions – to inspire increased engagement in, and cohesion between, community-led initiatives, social enterprises, climate actions and local wellbeing projects. At DaysE we take a collaborative approach to carbon emission reduction and tackling energy poverty and we see this as a great opportunity to scatter some daysE seeds. Grace Hamilton, DaysE’s project support officer will be present to give a brief insight into who we are, what we are working towards and how we can work together. Come along – she’d love to meet you!
While there are similar events in Tipperary, Galway and Dublin we are presenting at the event taking place on 19th September from 7.30 pm at Visual Centre, Carlow. The evening will begin with a short scene-setting presentation framing local action for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the opportunity of a collaborative approach at this time.
This will be followed by local projects pitching their own story. In each location 5 or 6 local stories will be heard. These are just a short overviews of the projects.
A café conversation will then be hosted where participants will be invited to discuss the common ground in each of the stories heard. Through these we aim to identify what enables or hinders local initiatives and determine what resources community champions might need to have more impact in their work.
The final element of the evening is a presentation from Paul Allen from the Centre of Alternative Energy in Wales and the editor of the Zero Carbon Britain report. He will share the lessons learned from that research in empowering citizens and catalysing change.
Davie emphasises “Our main objective of the event is to bring people together and to nurture synergy between different projects and sectors. We are listening for local stories that address the Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Targets as well as identifying what resource local change makers need to ensure the success of community-led and for-community-benefit initiatives.
Full details of all festival events are at http://www.cultivate.ie/convergence-festival