Virtual meeting every Saturday 2pm offering community support
Saturday 28th March saw the Horsham Climate Cafe pop up for the first time as a virtual gathering to discuss how people can continue to connect, support our community and share ways to save money through the anxieties and challenges of the COVID-19 lockdown.
In these precarious and uncertain times, we are all having to rethink our lifestyles and our priorities and are finding new and resourceful ways to adapt and form communities. These initiatives all feel very relevant to how we hope to approach the other global catastrophe of our times – the climate crisis. For this reason we feel that it is important that our plans for tackling the two are connected and that we continue to support one another to live environmentally conscious lives in the light of the current situation.
Although the Horsham Repair Cafe is no longer able to meet as a community, the refill service for cleaning products is still running with new social distancing measures in place learn more here https://www.horsham-refill.com.
The Horsham Climate Cafe will take place via Zoom every Saturday at 2pm for about one hour anyone is warmly welcomed to join the virtual space, it is free and requires no software download. It will offer the opportunity to check in with the Horsham community and chat informally with some environmentalists who have particular expertise and insights they can share. Some Saturdays there will be a pre-advertised speaker (seen here and on Sussex Green Living Facebook page), talking informally about their area of expertise, there will be lots of ideas around making use of materials around you, upcycling, saving money and helping the planet.
Saturday 4th April there will be informal conversations about frugal living and zero waste lifestyle by Fiona Hamilton who runs Earthkind – a plastic free 
food refills service which pops up at the Horsham Repair Cafe. On Wednesday 1st April we will publish a blog about this which you might like to read first, then email in any questions or ask on the day. Helen Whittington will talk about the new Horsham Repair Cafe cleaning and personal product bottle refill service she is offering during lockdown. Carrie Cort, founder of Sussex Green Living will talk about a saving money through switching energy providers https://bigcleanswitch.org/sussexgreen/.
Saturday 11th April there will be informal conversation by Carrie Cort about an educational eco art competition ‘Clean up and create a bright new future’ which Sussex Green Living and the South Downs National Park are running with 16 x £150 prizes to be won. It is a great way for children and young people to use their imagination and creative thinking to visualise the world they deserve and can have. Also conversations around art as a therapy to rewaken our ability to think positively about the future. Carrie would love to chat to some of the youth eco artists out there!
Saturday 18th April’s theme is ‘grow your own’, with encouragement and advice for families taking advantage of having more time at home to plant in their gardens or on their window sills – creating a cheaper and greener source of food. Lets have some discussions around garden sharing, seed and plant swapping and food swapping in the growing season.
Saturday 2nd May’s meeting will be a chance to talk to Tony Whitbread, president of Sussex Wildlife Trust. As we humans radically change our lifestyles, are we giving the natural world a chance to recover? What has nature ever done for us? How money really does grow on trees!
We hope these virtual gathering will enable the Horsham community to connect, to share learning and encouragement in a time of fear, and to reflect on how our actions at this time can make a difference not only to the health of people but the health of the planet. Please feel free to bring a cuppa and a cake to your computer screen for a true Climate Cafe experience! So at 2pm any Saturday until further notice join the meeting using this weblink https://www.zoom.us/join and these meeting details:
We are currently planning initiatives for both the coming weeks and the rest of the year to come as we emerge from the pandemic into an altered economic 
and social landscape. Ideas that we are keen to develop are mostly based around communities and the exchange of skills and services:
The continuation of the Horsham Climate Cafe with themes relevant to life in the corona pandemic and its aftermath.
Set up a Horsham Local Exchange Trading Systems or Schemes (LETS). A LETS scheme is a local community-based mutual aid networks in which people exchange all kinds of goods and services with one another, without the need for money, through which people swap services within the community on a money-free basis. https://www.
Consider setting up a library of things https://
A seed, plant and food swap for anyone growing food at home. This would either be held virtually and then by drop off or in person once interactions are less restricted. Or could take place at the Horsham Repair Cafe and or the Horsham Climate Cafe when they are running again.
A high quality pre-loved clothes shop in partnership with local clothes recycling charity Bags of Support and a food refills pop-up shop in one of the empty spaces in Swan Walk or the high street.
After each Horsham Climate Cafe we will add ideas to this page, but we do need local people to help set them up.
Anyone is welcome to join our Horsham Climate Cafe weekly virtual meetings. If you have skills or expertise you would like to offer to these discussions or other green initiatives to share do contact .
Want to get involved?
This is your Sussex Green Living! We would love to hear from you or just come to the next Horsham Repair Cafe session or the Horsham Climate Cafe on the first Saturday of every month.
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