Don’t wait, start!

“A journey of a thousand li starts beneath one’s feet.”

Chapter 64 of the Dao De Jing, credited to Laozi

This Chinese proverb has become so familiar to us that we never really pay attention anymore to how true it is: every journey has to start somewhere, with one single small step, with us, with you.

We’re asking you, we’re asking everyone, to do one thing to make our communities more sustainable. We’re calling this our A Thousand Actions Campaign, and if everyone living or working around here does one thing, then between us we’ll have done over five thousand.

And if we all do another thing each, we’ll have done five thousand more.

“But I would walk five hundred miles,
And I would walk five hundred more,
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door.”

I’m Gonna Be by The Proclaimers

Our aim is to get at least one in five of the people living around here to make one new commitment to help fight climate change. If we achieve that, that’ll be #aThousandActions

Whatever you do, we’d love you to tell us about it! By sharing your actions with us, you can help us build a bigger picture of what’s happening around here, and better still, you could inspire others to take action themselves!

Be one of #aThousandActions

We set up Minch CAN to support and speak for everyone in our communities. The more people talk to us, the more people take part, the better we do that, the more of what needs doing we can get done. Let your opinions, ideas, and needs be heard. Be part of the dialogue:

• Take part in #aThousandActions start making a difference today! Tell us what you’re doing and how it’s working.
• Consider taking part in one of our projects.
• Get your family, friends and colleagues involved. Get talking about why this matters.
• Add to our website – share your climate action positivity, knowledge, achievements, images, words, stories, events, reviews – we welcome everything, and share anything we think will help.
• Post your comments on this site, write us emails, follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook and say ‘hello’.

When you’ve done all that, maybe you could help…

Start the next #aThousandActions

A mending cafe, a library of things, habitat restoration, a farmers market, electric vehicle sharing, community food growing, community power, warmer homes… What’s next? What role could you play? What can you contribute? What do our communities need?

Ideas, we want ideas and enthusiasm, and if you have some to spare we want your time. It doesn’t matter if you feel like you’ve nothing to add – we promise you, there’ll definitely be a part you can play.

Whether what you’ve got is a simple tip that we can add to the ideas we suggest, or skills, experiences and knowledge that’d be helpful to others… perhaps you’re ready to roll your sleeves up and join in with whatever needs doing, maybe you’re part of another local group and you could help us spread the word… Maybe you have an idea for a project you’d love to try out if only you could get the support of other people who can see its potential… if any of this sounds like you, or even if it doesn’t, please get in touch and tell us where you stand on climate change.