From the Common Dream to the Common Future

Translation of this article in Russian:

This story started about a year ago when Lyudmila Valentinovna Gerasimova, a resident of the Usolye District and an employee of the district administration, learnt at one of the educational seminars of the "Wave" (Baikal Environmental Wave - BEW) about the concept of "sustainable development of the communities", and that the idea of sustainability is inseparably linked to the idea of local self-government.

And so a few months later a small delegation from the town of Mishelevka appeared in the office of the "Wave". Mishelevka used to be famous for its Khaitinsk porcelain factory, but now goes through difficult times as thousands of other towns and small communities in the vast Siberian land. Five residents of Mishelevka, inspired by Ms. Gerasimova, turned to us with the request to help them make the first step on the path to the revival and sustainable development of their community - to organize a citizen's conference in the course of which they could openly and constructively discuss their "future life".

One could hardly find a better case suited for the method of organizing general conferences on the subject of the "Search for the Future" that our colleagues developed. Soon after reaching an agreement on the cooperation between the Initiative Group and the "Wave", preparation for the conference started, and lasted for almost half a year. There were doubts, difficulties with overcoming the scepticism of the pessimists, organizational problems. But the enthusiasm of the organizational committee got over all these.

Thirty six representatives of the six key groups of the town's residents took part in the conference: local government, business, health services, housing and communal services, education sector, and the public (social organizations). For two days, for about 20 working hours, the participants went from the review of the past, through the understanding of the present and the creation of a picture of the desired future, to the real plans that would allow them to make the first steps towards the revival of their community.

"The spirit of commonality and inspiration became one of our main gains", "We have not imagined that we would be able to talk to each other about our problems without accusing each other, but cooperating ...", "We have looked on ourselves and on our town with different eyes ..." - these were some of the words that could be heard after the completion of the conference.

And one would think that this became the main result of the whole event. Because the changes in the reality start with the changes in the people's consciousness, and so from the bottom of our hearts we wish the residents of Mishelevka the courage and the will to realize their common dream.

Photographs from the conference by Grigory Sobchenko:
Photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4, photo 5, photo 6, photo 7, photo 8, photo 9.
The banner seen e.g. in the last photo reads: "Sustainable economics is an economics oriented (based) on the community and the the ecosystem."

Tatyana Brook, "BEW"