PACT: Penrith Action for Community Transition
Penrith Action for Community Transition (PACT) is an active local transition group with Action groups covering Buildings and Energy, Education, Energy Descent Action Plan, Food, and Resources and Waste.
Formed in 2008, PACT covers Penrith and the surrounding area in Eden District, Cumbria. PACT has a constitution and bank account and is led by a Steering Group which meets every two weeks. The autonomous Action Groups provide the main focus of activity on each of their topics, calling on the general membership and wider community for support. The Steering Group brings everything together by obtaining funding, raising the organisation’s profile, establishing local networks and organising events such as film evenings and ceilidhs.
PACT’s action groups have taken the lead in various arenas, proposing a Plastic-Bag-Free Penrith, organising a Cumbria Green Build festival event and helping build community ovens, not forgetting quite a few litter-picks around town. PACT has produced a series of films of its activities, , and its successful calendar is now in its second year of production, available to buy online at the PACT web site.
PACT’s strength has been to forge alliances with other groups – and now has the credibility to help with the Vitality of Penrith project. From Bluebell bookshop, Vista Veg, Watermill, Impact Housing and other local traders through to the local council, Freegle and Newton Rigg, PACT’s network of friends has grown over the last two years, providing important links, synergy and impetus to get projects going.
PACT has received funding to run various events and projects, in particular a recent successful Heritage Lottery Fund grant for its Story Giants of Eden project which will bring out stories and traditions in local schools, culminating in a May Day Parade and museum exhibition in 2011.
PACT has sent delegates to the annual Transition Network conference in the UK for the last two years.
Penrith has a population of almost 15,000 with the total Eden District population just over 50,000.