An unlikely group of organizations, brought together through a UC Berkeley Chancellors Fund grant, organized a beautiful event on December 11th that reaffirmed the need for community members to come together and talk about climate grief and solutions. The NorCal Resilience Network, Transition Berkeley, Green the Church, Berkeley Council member Cheryl Davila’s and UC Berkeley’s Student Environmental Resource Center are the leading organizations in this effort to organize Town Halls to mobilize Berkeley residents into action.
The kickoff event, held at Church by the Side of Road, featured keynote presentations by luminaries Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel and the lead organizations, as well as breakout sessions, songs and healing words of wisdom led by Reverends Ambrose and Ryan Carroll. Yesterday’s Mobilize Berkeley kick-off event was amazing and I just want to thank each of for your roles in supporting it! Special thanks to Ambrose and Ryan for making us feel welcome in their church and in supporting us in all the ways they did and Cheryl for her vision and leadership.
There was lots of inspiration and connection throughout the event and in the small circles.A woman in a small group said, “This is where hope starts. I am ready to do something!”
“What brings me hope is the power of our collective imagination.”
There was also sharing around climate impacts as well that included knowing people that lost their homes in the California fires and having direct impacts from the smoke due to asthma. Groups were also so very sad about our Bay Area people who are un-housed and are aware that this situation is likely to get worse, but many are ready to build our relationships and find ways work on these problems.
A few special “thank-yous” go to Paloma Paval and Carl Anthony for their generous role in the event, the SERC team.
One highlight was Berkeley Council member Ben Bartlett and his wife for joining the event and sharing the joy of their newly born daughter. This work is for their daughter and her generation. May the healing continue.
Thank you to Linda Currie for co-writing this article.