Something new and exciting for neighbourhoods

Fall 2012 is here and it’s time to learn something new, meet some new friends – and you will be able do it all either in your building, or in your neighbourhood, if you live within the area of the Yonge-Wellesley Neighbourhood Campus in downtown Toronto.

It's not a grade school or a university.  It’s more like a vocational school that includes an enterprise for the production of goods and services in a local economy. 

Together we will increase our imaginations, collaboration, self-awareness, and use of on-line tools.  And at our free public sessions we are looking to see what each of us wants to contribute.

We aim to make the neighbourhood more resilient during times of economic uncertainty.  We’re building the strength and resources needed so that it’s easier for participants to be fulfilled in whatever they choose to do. 

Each month we will be offering a range of practical and exciting paid courses designed to expand people's choices and horizons starting with arts-based career options.  We will award educational credits in return for work to bring about positive social change.

We’re also the go-to place to find suppliers or other entrepreneurs to collaborate with. We’ll save participants money on purchasing supplies and decrease their time on commuting and business travel.  

And there will be inspirational and engaging events that enrich life in the neighbourhood. 

Have you noticed that no-one in your neighbourhood seems to know what other entrepreneurs and organizations are doing?  Well, maybe a magazine could help address that.  

We’re already using the Social Creator blog to give updates and information on local organizing.  Our marketing department will use the magazine to promote the campus.  The magazine will also provide campus participants with a means of expression and connection.  

Our school enterprise organizes amongst neighbourhoods based on film and TV production departments - catering, acting, singing, script writing, props design, set design, cinematography, sound engineering, video editing, marketing, promotions, events logistics – you name it!  To keep up to date on developments the magazine will feature columns by each department head.  

We will be asking local retailers how they would like to see our neighbourhoods promoted – this will lead to growth of the client-base services that participants will offer citywide.

I am looking forward to collaborating, learning, and having fun in the neighbourhood, and wishing you were here too.

What is a Community, now and in future?

Have you ever wondered what community is?  Its an interesting topic.

It is a topic that has become increasingly important now that we are running out of resources which sets limits on growth.  The old economic ideas are just falling away.

The first ten minutes of this video challenges the basis of today's economic philosophy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8ZJCtL6bPs

Professor Al Bartlett makes a strong case for the end of capitalism two minutes into this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNN9BvNUsIU&feature=related

A community can be a location such as a neighbourhood.  Members of a community can share a common sense of identity such as coming from Bermuda, or the Caribbean, or the West.

 
A community can also be people linked by-

A common set of practices. See medical associations, acting guilds, or knitters

Or shared interests. See physicists, book clubs

Or similar values and shared intentions. See ecologists; or the Intentional Communities movement – http://www.ic.org/

So identity, practices, interests, values and intentions attract people together. They bring a level of organization to society.

Ultimately life seems to be about coming together to resolve our differences of identity, practices, opinions, values, intentions - and do this in as conscious ways as possible.

Today, with the internet to assist us, life could be about coming together to find mutual fulfillment and strength through collaboration.

I believe the internet is here to help neighbourhood communities advance beyond old ways of doing things.  I believe these communities will continue to reorganize internationally around the internet.

Why do I think this?  The biggest losers in globalization were national governments.  National leaders have given away much of their power to unelected officials within international agencies.  This has been a trend since about 1995.  And this is exactly when the internet started to catch on.

So it's time for change.  Let's use the internet to spread solutions internationally.  And let's organize locally where we can have an immediate effect on how things get done.