How do I go about forming a local Earth Protector Town group for my town?

1. Check our register of towns to see if there is already an Earth Protector Town group that you can join. If not:
2. Invite other Earth Protectors in your town to form a local group. If you don’t know of any Earth Protectors in your town you could post a call out in the Stop Ecocide Volunteers Facebook Group. First sign up as a Volunteer and include Earth Protector Towns as an interest and then you’ll be invited to join the Facebook Group.
3. Approach your like minded friends and people in local environmental groups and talk to them about Earth Protector Towns. Ask them to sign up as EPs and to help you form a town group.
4. Once you have a couple of people, have a first group meeting and work on expanding the group and moving into helping the town become part of the movement
5. Please let us know if you have formed a local EPTown group so that we can add you to the register by emailing us at hello@EarthProtectorTowns.earth

How do I help my town become an Earth Protector Town?

Step 1: Form a core group of EPs locally. Good to have people that are highly motivated,diverse and team players. This team will help with the large amount of work in networking and focusing on different aspects of the regenerative culture we aim to create. It’s morefun as well! We found that 5 to 8 people is good for a core group. Less and its too much work, more and its difficult to manage.

Step 2: Familiarise yourselves with the EPT concept, aims and process because you will need to convince the City Council and a variety of groups that its the way to go.

Step 3: You don’t need to do step 3 – read below: Model and guidelines on targets and processes. This is being developed in Stroud as a pilot programme and will be available to all end of April. For the process of creating a model for global use we have formed different EP teams, from 5 to 8 people. These are focalised by members of the core group (step 1), and are: NGOs, Education, Health/Wellbeing, Business. These teams are working through the pilot to create the model and guidelines as they evolve. You don’t have to go through Step 3 with big teams as we will keep you up to date with the pilot and assist you through the model. We are also creating a dedicated website to create a place where you can find solutions, ideas, experiences etc and a communications hub – this should launch by the end of the year.

Step 4: Approach the Town/City Council and ask to present the idea, a global movement of Cities/Towns/Communities to protect the Earth. We ask Councils to vote and agree on a Declaration https://www.stopecocide.earth/ep-town-declaration. If they vote for the Declaration, we ask them to appoint a Council person to sit in the core group meetings and to liaise with us and other groups. Significant relationship. If the Council does not want to get involved in the EPTown movement, then ignore them for now and continue with Step 5. The co-operation of the Council is useful but not necessary.

Step 5: Approach local NGOs and begin the process of identifying the key groups. We found that the timing is right and there are already ‘clusters’ of groups forming in all these areas. For example here in Stroud a group of 30 NGOs having to do with the land came together recently and we approached them as one group. Networking is the key here as you are looking to be inclusive and representative, and also to work on the principles of ‘not re-inventing the wheel’, and forming partnerships beyond ‘organisational ego’. The Climate and ecological crisis is bringing people together..

Step 6: Invite the key groups to form a core networking action group. We called it the Stroud Climate Action Network – StroudCAN, to facilitate interface with local and regional Climate Action initiatives and funding. Discuss and draft the aims of this core network group and the principles. We included at first 4 NGOs (some representing many organisations), EPs, City Council and Youth (a representative from the youth movement). This will be the first core group in Stroud and will be hosted by the City Council (neutrality). This core group will then decide who to invite from Education, Business and Health groups. We plan to meet regularly and also to have every 6 months or so a meeting of all individual organisations (could be up to 70-80 here in Stroud).

Step 7: The network group assists the Council to make plans and evolve projects to achieve its aims and the Councils EPTs declaration.It assists in the formation of partnerships and cluster of working groups on the different areas, such as Carbon Neutrality, Education/Awareness raising, Health/wellbeing, Green Economy/business. Here are the draft aims of the Stroud CAN networking group: The aim of the Stroud Town Climate Action Network (Stroud Town CAN) is to bring together community organisations, businesses and other institutions within Stroud Town working to tackle the climate and ecological crisis, in order to:

• Exchange information, experience and learning about initiatives and projects
• Explore the scope for joint projects that reduce carbon emissions, promote regenerative practices, and community resilience
• Inform Stroud Town Council’s approach to tackling climate change
• Assist the Town Council to fulfil its pledge as an Earth Protector Town
• Link into the Stroud District Local Climate Action Group Forum
• Liaise with the Carbon Neutral 2030 Partnership Board

It is envisaged that a Stroud Town CAN core group will be convened by Stroud Town Council and meet several times a year – possibly to include six monthly open meetings for all the developing network of organisations in Stroud addressing the climate and ecological crisis. Somewhere along the line, and surely by step 7, you need to start thinking of applying for funding to make the projects arising a reality, so a need for someone to focus on this.

My town doesn’t have a Council, how can I help promote the Earth Protector Town movement?

In some places, Councils at the regional or County level govern the towns in their area, and the towns themselves have no separate Council. In this case, we suggest the following:

1. Start a local EPTown group – check our register of towns. Familiarise yourselves with the Declaration and flyer.
2. Talk with local businesses, educational institutions, health centres and local environmental and other organisations about the EPTown movement.
3. Identify already existing initiatives, such as climate change action 2030, transition towns, etc, and arrange a gathering with all involved to identify how you can act together at the town level.
4. Approach other local towns, groups, and work together to invite your regional Council to vote on the Declaration and join the EPTown movement. That would then apply to all towns in the region.

For Town Councils that want to join the Earth Protector Town movement

What does the Town Council have to do to become an Earth Protector Town?

The pilot programme:

Model and guidelines on targets and processes. This is being developed in Stroud as a pilot programme and will be available to all end of April. For the process of creating a model for global use we have formed different EP teams, from 5 to 8 people. These are focalised by members of the core group, and are: NGOs, Education, Health/Wellbeing, Business. These teams are working through the pilot to create the model and guidelines as they evolve. You don’t have to go through this step with big teams as we will keep you up to date with the pilot and assist you through the model. We are also creating a dedicated website to create a place where you can find solutions, ideas, experiences etc and a communications hub – this should launch by the end of the year.

Process so far:

Step 1: We ask Councils to vote and agree on a Declaration https://www.stopecocide.earth/ep-town-declaration

If they vote for the Declaration, we ask them to appoint a Council person to liaise with us and other groups. Significant relationship.

Step 2: Approach local NGOs and organisations involved in addressing the climate and ecological crisis and begin the process of identifying the key groups. We found that the timing is right and there are already ‘clusters’ of groups forming in all these areas. For example here in Stroud a group of 30 NGOs having to do with the land came together recently and we approached them as one group. Networking is the key here as you are looking to be inclusive and representative, and also to work on the principles of ‘not re-inventing the wheel’, and forming partnerships beyond ‘organisational ego’. The Climate and ecological crisis is bringing people together..

Step 3: Invite the key groups to form a core networking action group. We called it the Stroud Climate Action Network – StroudCAN (draft name), to facilitate interface with local and regional Climate Action initiatives and funding. Discuss and draft the aims of this core network group and the principles. We included at first 4 NGOs (some representing many organisations), EPs, City Council and Youth (a representative from the youth movement). This will be the first core group in Stroud and will be hosted by the City Council (neutrality). This core group will then decide who to invite from Education, Business and Health groups. We plan to meet regularly and also to have every 6 months or so a meeting of all individual organisations (could be up to 70-80 here in Stroud).

Step 4: The network group assists the Council to make plans and evolve projects to achieve its aims and the Councils EPTs declaration. It assists in the formation of partnerships and cluster of working groups on the different areas, such as Carbon Neutrality, Education/Awareness raising, Health/wellbeing, Green Economy/business. Somewhere along the line, and surely by step 4, you need to start thinking of applying for funding to make the projects arising a reality, so a need for someone to focus on this.