Session description coming soon.
Imandeep Kaur is a British social and civil activist, and the co-founder and director at Civic Square based in Birmingham, which takes a bold approach to visioning, building and investing in civic infrastructure for neighbourhoods of the future.
Labour's election defeat in 2019 brutally exposed the difference between success as measured by online engagement, and at the ballot box. As the tendency of social media to promote polarisation, echo chambers and antagonism becomes ever clearer, the question for the left becomes - can a medium constructed by corporations to harvest attention and sell advertising ever prove a truly effective route to positive change?
Daniel Stanley has a background in grassroots community organising, and a particular interest in finding innovative ways to inspire social action. He is a founding Director of Small Axe, a non-profit that builds social movements to change the world, and has MSc from the Institute of Social Psychology at the London School of Economics. He specialises in the use of Framing and Language to overcome communications challenges, and is a Fellow of the RSA.
Over two thirds of local authorities across the UK have declared a climate emergency. This is the new normal. But what does it actually mean? There is no clear pathway to follow, and a real risk that we are continuing a reliance on structures of power which will not bring the rapid change we need.
How do we ensure that declarations lead to transformational action instead of inertia? How can councils find their place in a wider response to climate breakdown? Join this discussion to hear perspectives from inside councils and from those aiming to hold them to account, and share your own thoughts and questions.
Peter Lefort is the Carbon Neutral Cornwall Sector and Partnerships Lead at Cornwall Council.
Lizzie Boyle is a town councillor for Frome. She runs her own environmental consultancy, and wants bring her experience as a sustainability expert and small business owner to improve Frome's future for both residents and employers.
Rachel Coxcoon is director of the Climate Emergency Support Programme at the Centre for Sustainable Energy, and a town councillor for Cotswold District Council.
Family farms and the value they bring to food systems are often not meeting local people’s needs, especially the food security need increasingly met by food banks.
This session will unpack challenges facing family businesses, hear from a pioneer in democratic land ownership and meaningful ‘exits’ for family farms, and share creative succession approaches for family farms and how this contributes to land reform.
The session will also gather ideas for tools to enable simple transfer of farms to democratically owned ventures that can improve farms’ role in food security.
Charlotte Hollins is from Fordhall Organic Farm in north Shropshire, England’s first community-owned farm, following a high profile campaign in 2006. Fordhall Community Land Initiative Now is a wonderful example of community spirit and real organic farming.
Sebastian Parsons is a founder of Stockwood Community Benefit Society - a former family-owned farm that has used investment from the public to enable both community ownership of Rush Farm and a successful succession of the family business.
Tom Carman is a member of the Real Farming Trust and business development professional with expertise developing projects, programmes, and new business for social enterprises, charities and co-operatives, particularly those working in areas of food and farming and land-based enterprise.
We all know about the challenges that face our present high streets but what are the opportunities that historic buildings can offer to enrich a sense of local identity and the social life of a town?
This session will be led by Josephine Brown, an experienced grant officer based within the Southwest, as well as a recent recipient of grant funding who can speak to the challenges – and rewards – of reusing a heritage building on a high street. This session will also introduce Transforming Places through Heritage, the Fund’s three-year programme to support community-led heritage projects on the high street in England.
Josephine Brown joined the Architectural Heritage Fund in September 2019 as the Transforming Places through Heritage Programme Officer for the South West of England, a position she shares with Louise Stewart. Prior to joining the AHF she worked as a heritage consultant, including a period as the in-house advisor to a conservation-accredited architectural practice, before establishing her own consultancy.
Her background includes architectural history and the management of change in the historic environment. Since joining the AHF in 2012 Josephine has provided support to a wide range of third sector organisations to deliver heritage at risk projects across the South West region. She has recently completed a three-year voluntary post as Secretary of the Association of Preservation Trusts South West group.
Join our morning magazine review panel with journalist Hazel Sheffield, exploring current stories and debates from alternative print periodicals.
Hazel Sheffield is a British multimedia journalist living in London. In 2016 she founded farnearer.org, funded by the Friends Provident Foundation and Power To Change, which documents communities experimenting with alternative economies during austerity and Brexit. In 2019, Far Nearer was highly commended in the Georgina Henry Award for Innovation at the Society Of Editors’ Press Awards.
More acts and speakers to be announced soon. We will be sharing updates via the site and through our newsletter as we proceed with organising the festival. Watch this space!
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