Transforming Our Futures

In this Podcast we interview Georgia Ellliott Smith on what a “green business” is and how you can make business green

A green company claims to act in a way which minimises damage to the environment. As global warming continues apace and becomes an increasingly prevalent topic amongst world governments, many companies are doing their part to become environmentally more responsible or “green".

But how green are they in actuality. Many companies has adopted the banner of corporate social responsibility but it is sometimes just a tick box operation and not embedded in the whole of the companies operations.

To ensure that a business is “green” with a minimal carbon footprint then what must it do and how can we ensure it does what it says on the label?

This is the discussion we will be having with Georgia who is an active member of Extinction Rebellion but also has a consultancy company that works with businesses that genuinely want to be sustainable and lower their carbon footprint - and with her colleagues she develops strategies to help them do that.

In this Podcast Interview Katy Davies speaks to Rev Mark Meatcher about the aims of the campaign and his personal experience of helping families preparing for and dealing with bereavement.

Death is a subject that many of us prefer to avoid at the best of times but in a time of crisis where close friends or family are at risk of becoming seriously ill it is pushed to the forefront of our minds.

11-19 May is Dying Awareness Week which strives to make the topic more accessible and help people have those important conversations with loved ones.

In this Podcast we discuss with Iboro Otu from Nigeria how the Covid 19 pandemic has affected the African Continent and especially Nigeria.

In the UK and much of Europe we have had basic infrastructures like health services as well as an active voluntary sector ( as in Enfield) and although hugely under strain they have coped in the most difficult of circumstances.

But what happens in countries where that infrastructure is not there and where water is not always available and on tap. How do countries with widespread urban as well as trial communities enforce lockdown and social distancing. And how do Governments both cope and respond.

These are some of the issues that we will discuss in this podcast which is one in our “Conversation Across Borders” series done through a collaboration of Travesdreams and GlobalNet21

In this Podcast interview we look at discussions between some voluntary Friends of Parks in the London Borough of Enfield to create a common approach towards climate change.

We will be interviewing Kim Lumley from the Friends of Broomfield Park - an attractive Park in the London Borough of Enfield about his ongoing discussions to collaborate with others to develop a strategy for Parks in the Borough.

Here we will focus on the potential benefits of Urban Parks and the Friends plan for Broomfield Park with the idea that collaborating with other Friends of parks and Greenspaces groups being raised as a future proposal. Doing this would great potential both for actions but also engagement and increasing involvement with volunteers and the community.

At present their focus is on their actions in Broomfield Park and they are in the early stages having carried out a review before moving on to an Action Plan for the Park to agree with the Council for the coming year. So we will discuss the ideas that Kim and his colleagues have had and are having with others, how he views sustainability and local bio diversity and how a strategy can be developed the would involve others

You can visit Friends of Broomfield Park Here … https://www.friendsofbroomfieldpark.org/

The Covid 19 emergency has shown that there is such a thing as society and that the community can organise at great speed at a time of crisis. But can it do that with the even bigger crisis that will affect us all this century - climate change.

Emma mobilised her local community in Enfield almost immediately the corona virus went global and within days she had assembled 600 volunteers. She has also mobilised volunteers to run community safety patrols around schools where students had been mugged. Adam also organised volunteers to help those in need because of the corona crisis in his local are. As well he has run a campaign with others to get Enfield Council to divest from fossil fuels.

So how important will this type of mobilisation be as the climate change crisis unfolds on us and how can the community become involved. What can they do and how can they help us all to adapt to this crisis and mitigate some of its effects.

In this Podcast we talk to Dr Rosalyn Sarah Miller a doctor who works in General Practice and believes that we should try to stay positive at this time of crisis. In the webinar she will tell us about the importance of this.

And she will do this not just in words but in song as well as Ros is a singing GP and you can see both sing, talk and give advice about being positive.

So Ros will give us the medicine of song and not just words to make our day have a smile and underline the need to remain positive at a time of crisis.

In this Podcast we discuss with Marie Elisabeth Mueller the power of storytelling in the digital age and how the news we hear can be democratised by the power of story telling. This is one of the interviews we are doing jointly with Tracesdreams as one in the series of Conversations Across Borders.

Stories have been used to hand down learning and knowledge for thousands of years. A good story engages our curiosity, emotions and imagination. Stories are the way we understand and make sense of the world we find ourselves in.

But in the digital age story telling takes on a new form that involves text, graphics and video and makes the power of story telling something that crosses borders. And when so much news on the media is manipulated by the powerful story telling can provide a platform for all of us to correct the balance.

When people connect to political issues through personal stories, they see them in a different way. They don’t just see democracy in the abstract, they see ‘my democracy.’ The transformative potential of storytelling is written into the fabric of our lives.

Dr. Mueller who was born in Duesseldorf holds a Ph.D. in Digital Storytelling, Media Science from the University Constance. She has been teaching interactive multimedia, crossplatform storytelling and trends in the media industry since 2014 at the Stuttgart Media University in Germany I work with people at the intersection of emerging technologies, digital literacy and communications.

Marie has been able to constantly grow her professional skills and experience in hands-on training and learning together, developing new media products and leading diverse teams within a wonderfully diverse network across borders.

In this Podcast we discuss the opportunities and problems of working from home. As businesses close down their offices many people are having to work from home and this often brings new problems as well as opportunities.

In this webinar Katy Davies interviews Hannah Dyson and Francis Sealey. Hannah had just got a job working at the Royal Free when the Corona virus struck and she then faced working from home. So how much of a cultural shock was that and how did she adapt. Francis has worked from home for many years and can talk about his experiences of doing that.

What we hope is that this webinar will help those now working from home by looking at the experiences of those who have - one recently and one for many years. What have they leaned that makes working from home easier and with less stress.

In this Podcast we interview Leonie Campbell where we will be discussing how can we deal with isolation and how do we cope with our anxieties and you are invited to make comments and ask questions in the chat box of the webinar.

Leonie Campbell - a BPS chartered and HCPC registered counselling and occupational psychologist, and is the founder of Psychology For Success.

Many people will be experiencing socialisation at this time and many will be doing it alone. Others will feel anxious and concerned about themselves and their families.

We discuss how those facing social isolation can cope positively

In this Podcast we discuss how we can develop resilience as we go through this crisis of Covid-19

Resilience is something that most people need to make it through the rougher times of life. Everyone will experiences difficulties in life, and some people will even experience traumatic events that create an upheaval in their lives. Resilience is not a character trait - it can be learned by anyone, but learning it does require time and effort.

Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.It also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.

To help us with this we discuss both resilience and mindfulness with Katy Davies and Harriet Piercy. Katy has studied resilience and run some course on this and Harriet is a life coach and mindfulness is an approach that she encourages especially when people are anxious and worried.