Kiama FutureCare Update

We had another meeting of the [Kiama FutureCare](http://kiamafuturecare.org) group last night – a big thanks to Edwin from [Little Blowhole Computers](http://www.ironstone.com.au/) for once again offering up his home as a meeting place.

Kiama FutureCare is a grass-roots group of motivated community members interesting in promoting the concept of sustainability in the Kiama area. We are modelling the group off the highly successful [Jamberoo FutureCare](http://jamberoofuturecare.googlepages.com/) in a neighbouring town, and while we will be a separate group we are planning to pool resources and collaborate with them as well as other local organisations.

Last night’s meeting was focussed on planning for our upcoming launch event. The group will be officially launched by Kiama Mayor Sandra McCarthy on **5 June 2009** – World Environment Day. We are in the process of finalising a venue, and I’ll post details as soon as I can.

For the launch event, we’re planning to have a couple of brief talks by various people to discuss what sustainability means for Kiama and what the Kiama FutureCare group is trying to achieve. Then we’ll have a fairly short (under 1 hour) workshop activity, gathering information from attendees as to what they see as the main local sustainability issues and how they might be addressed.

While we’re hoping to attract members to the Kiama FutureCare group, we want anyone with any interest at all to attend so we can get a wide range of viewpoints. We’ll be using the output of the workshop activity to guide future projects and events. We’ll also be providing people the opportunity to sign up for our email distribution list where we’ll announce future events and provide local sustainability information.

We’re inviting local businesses to set up display tables around the room to show off their environmentally-friendly products and services for a small donation ($20). This will defray the costs of organising the event, and should give us a small amount of money left over to get the group up and running and to bootstrap our first project. It should be a good opportunity for the businesses, too, with an expected audience of 50-100 motivated and environmentally-conscious locals.

I’m finding it really interesting to be involved with such a diverse group of local people with a shared concern for the future of our community, all working together to get something happening to address it.

If you’re doing something similar in your community, please let me know about it in the comments below. Any tips and advice are greatly welcomed! I’ve been following [Gavin](http://greeningofgavin.blogspot.com) for a while, who is in the process of setting up a [similar group](http://meltonsustainablelivinggroup.blogspot.com/) where he lives in outer Western Melbourne.