Sources of Transition Training
By Philipp Grunewald 7th June 2023
In 2023 we are re-energising and re-developing the ways in which you can learn about Transition. We will be offering new courses, accessible online as well as offline, and develop the support we provide to those teaching and facilitating Transition related learning journeys. As we are very excited about this work we like to introduce you to the origins of this work.
Transition Training leadership
The work we are doing on training at the international level is led by our wonderful International Training Coordinator, Don Hall. Here is Don introducing themselves:
“For those of you who don’t know me well, I’m Don Hall. I’ve been involved in the Transition Movement in a wide variety of capacities over the past 15 years. I was first involved with a statewide hub here in Colorado, then founded a local initiative in Sarasota, Florida, and have been a Transition Trainer since 2010. I previously worked for Transition US, becoming its Executive Director, and a couple months ago, I was hired on as international Training Coordinator. I feel extremely grateful for the opportunity.
Leadership training has been a huge passion of mine and continues to be. I think it’s extremely important for this movement that we share our learning with each other, that we identify best practices. Even though Transition looks different in every place, there’s things that we can learn from each other, and if we can pass that on, we’ll be more successful in our work. We’ll have stronger, thriving initiatives, and a stronger movement overall. So I’m happy to be serving in this capacity.”
A tiny history of Transition Training
As we develop the work on Transition Training we want to acknowledge all the work that came before. Don offers us a brief history.
Transition Training “was founded by Sophie Banks and Naresh Giangrande back in 2007. The first training that they designed was aptly called Training for Transition. As other trainings were developed, it was renamed to Transition Launch. It teaches how to set up and run a Transition Initiative in your community.
They also, very early on, developed a Train the Trainers course to train other trainers to deliver Transition Launch in different places around the world. As a result, it’s now been offered hundreds of times in dozens of countries, and has also been adapted into an online format.”
A couple of other essential courses were developed:
- Transition Talk Training, which is how to present the Transition movement and ideas to others,
- Transition Thrive, which Don describes as “the sequel to Launch. Once you’ve got your initiative up and running, how can you broaden, deepen, and scale it up? Transition Thrive is full of all sorts of tools to help people do that.”
Beyond the above, other training has been developed. For example, about Inner Transition, REconomy, Effective Groups, and Municipalities in Transition. Starting about five years ago, Sophy and then Naresh started focusing on work outside of Transition Network. Since then, we have been working to revitalise this important aspect of the international Transition Movement. It is exciting to see this work happening and we are very happy that Don is supporting us on that journey.
If ever you like to reach out to Don please do so using training@transitionnetwork.org
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This article is part of the Transition Training series. In June 2023 we are sharing four short pieces that make transparent where Transition Training is at; this is post 1 out of 4. There are many forthcoming developments in Transition Training and many more opportunities to engage with our Training offerings, as participants as well as facilitators. If you are curious about what is going on check out the other posts in the series.
- Sources of Transition Training: a brief exploration of the origins of Transition Training and its current leadership at the international level.
- Transition trainers – who are they? An introduction to Transition Trainers and how to find the right trainer for you.
- Training communities in Transition: an explanation of the work that is underway at the international level to support Transition Trainers.
- Developing our potential for leadership: considering the way forward for Transition training at the international level