Inventory of local groups & orgs.

Please add the name, phone, email & key contact for any local groups & organizations that are doing work we might want to know about!! (You have to Log In and go to Edit Posts to do this. We are trying to organize in categories alphabetically according to the groups forming in our TTO open forum meetings. For more information please send an email to transitiontownorillia [at] gmail.com)

i.e.
ENVIRONMENT Couchiching Conservancy - Gayle Carlyle - 326-1620
ENVIRONMENT Kids for Turtles - Bob Bowles, Elaine Proudfoot - 325-5386
ENVIRONMENT Lake Simcoe Stewardship - 725-7514
ENVIRONMENT Trails for Life Committee - Bob Bowles, Committee Chair
ENVIRONMENT South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Source Protection Committee - Drinking Water Source Protection - http://www.ourwatershed.ca/
ENVIRONMENT Waste Management Committee - Janet Nyhof - 325-2108
FOOD SECURITY Orillia Community Gardens - Jacob Kearey-Morland
FOOD SECURITY Ontario Farmland Preservation - Noel Boucher - nboucher@hatch.ca -
http://www.ontariofarmlandpreservation.org/
FOOD SECURITY The Sharing Place Food Bank - Don Evans - 327-4273
HEART & SOUL Aging at Home Programs - North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration Network -
http://www.nsmlhin.on.ca/
HEART & SOUL Canadian Mental Health Assocation Simcoe County Branch - Connie O'Neill, Volunteer Co-ordinator - 726-5033
HEART & SOUL Emergency Management Simcoe County - http://www.simcoemuskokaemergency.ca/
HEART & SOUL Information Orillia - http://www.informationorillia.org/ - 326-7743 Handy Numbers http://www.informationorillia.org/Handy%20Numbers_Summer2010.pdf
HEART & SOUL Mariposa Grandmothers - Myrtle Gordon - 538-2243
HEART & SOUL Ontario Early Years Centre & The Emergency Baby Needs Depot - 80 Colborne St W
HEART & SOUL Orillia First Aid & Safety Training - 705-325-3640 - http://www.orilliafast.ca/
HEART & SOUL Quota Club of Orillia - Susan Smith - 705-325-1660
HEART & SOUL Safe Place Project - Kevin Gangloff, Director of Orillia's downtown Youth Centre
HEART & SOUL Simcoe County Alliance to End Homelessness (SCATEH) - Joyce Ward - 329-2184
HOUSING Orillia Housing Resource Centre - 325-3883
POLITICAL/POLICY ACTION  A.W.A.R.E. (Action Watch Affecting Residents Everywhere) - Letty McNeil - 812-0643
TRANSPORTATION Orillia Freewheels Cycling Club - Murray Wood - Let's Share the Road project
TRANSPORTATION Transit Advisory Committee - Janet Nyhof - 325-2108

Transition Orillia - an introduction

TRANSITION TOWNS ~ have you heard about them? Do you want to know
more and consider how Orillia could move forward?

The worldwide Transition Initiative is inspired by the international
Transition Town movement that has been growing rapidly from its early
beginnings in Kinsale, Ireland and Totnes, England since 2005.

The Transition paradigm is not one of prescriptive solutions. Instead,
it offers a model for how a community can be engaged to find local
solutions by drawing on local knowledge and talent using a positive,
solutions-focused approach. Consideration is given to building a
better sense of community in the process of bringing people together
to address the problems we face together. In this, the Transition Town
model views these challenges as an opportunity.

Increasing resilience is a core theme of Transition. Resilience
describes the ability of a system to absorb shocks without
catastrophic consequences. Economic resilience is enhanced by
localization of the production of essential goods thereby reducing the
potential impact of transportation problems due to oil shocks. It is
enhanced by teaching people how to grow more of their own food and by
educating people how to make choices that increase energy efficiency.
It is enhanced by teaching people how to become more self-reliant and
to reduce the cost of living by re-discovering old skills
(“re-skilling”). An economically and socially more resilient community
will be better able to handle the challenges that lie ahead.

Transition Town Peterborough was officially recognized by the
Transition Network as Canada’s first official Transition Town, with
official recognition by Peterborough City Council in May of 2009.
Similar efforts exist in a growing list of Canadian Communities
(Barrie, Guelph, Dundas, Oakville, Ottawa; Victoria, Richmond, Nelson,
BC). There are many who believe that the City of Orillia should be
included in this growing, progressive movement.

On Wednesday, May 26th at 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s United Church’s
Wisdom Circle gathering, everyone is invited to come and learn more
about Transition Towns and to discuss steps to move forward.

St. Paul’s is on the NE corner of Coldwater & Peter Streets with the
entrance off Peter Street closest to the parking lot.