Highlight of my year: Power Up - book now for this great training weekend

Shilpa Shah

09 June 2011

Just imagine for a minute...

You hear on the radio that your local market is going to be knocked down and replaced by a 30-storey block of flats.

Or your nearest airport is planning to build an additional runway.

Or that Tesco is planning to open a new store in your area.

Or you see a tiny planning notice pinned to a lamppost telling you that an incinerator is to be built in your neighbourhood.

You might have concerns - about noise and air pollution affecting your family's health, about not wanting to lose the friendly local shops. Or about extra carbon emissions contributing to climate change. But what can you do?

How do you get involved in these big decisions? Decisions that often involve huge corporations, complex planning and legal procedures and council officials who seem too busy to be able to give you the help or information you need.

Thousands of people across the country, including lots of people in Friends of the Earth groups, are part of powerful and creative community campaigns to protect valued local areas.

Our Power Up 2011 training weekend in July is for anyone involved in such a campaign.

It's one of the best weekends of my year - and the Rights and Justice team is currently flat out working on it.

At Power Up people take part in workshops - from explaining planning and legal tools to making films to get their campaign message across. And they get to network with each other and swap tips.

I'm coordinating the event and running training sessions. I always come away having learnt loads from the amazing people who come and share their experiences.

We're taking bookings now for Power Up 2011 - I can't think of a more rewarding way to spend a weekend.

Don't just take my word for it - find out more and hear from people who've been before. 

Shilpa Shah, Rights & Justice Team