COMMUNITY ACTION: MK

Transition Town Milton Keynes, a local group promoting action on low-carbon living, run a popular programme of film nights. They would like to invite anyone with interests and passion for environmental issues to join them at the next film night that will take place on Thursday 15th February: 6-8pm at Central Milton Keynes Library. They will be showing ‘The Soil Solution to Climate Change’ film, exploring the soil’s potential as a biologically based solution to the global climate crisis.

The event is free, although small donations towards the cost of refreshments will be welcome. See more details below:

Contact or follow Transition Town Milton Keynes at the details below:

E-mail: transitionmkinfo@gmail.com

Website: transitionmk.com

Twitter: @TransitionMK

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/TransitionMK

Neighbourly, a social platform connecting community and charity projects with helpful people and companies, have partnered with Starbucks UK to support 210 brilliant local charities this year.

From the 29th November to the 20th December 2017, 210 charities and their supporters nominated by Starbucks partners and customers around the UK will be raising awareness of important local causes.

Cheer for Good will celebrate the hard work of charities and community groups by inviting friends and supporters to cheer for them on the Neighbourly platform and Twitter to raise their ‘cheer score’.

All participating charities will receive a £500 grant from Starbucks and the thirty charities whose supporters cheer the loudest will get a £2,000 grant.

Get involved by nominating a charity you want to cheer for by 15th November to: starbucks@neighbourly.com #CheerforGood

Find out more at: https://www.neighbourly.com/cheerforgood.

 #CheerforGood

Women from Milton Keynes at the forefront of social innovation.

MK Women Leaders Awards 2017 ceremony took place on Friday 13th October at Doubletree by Hilton, MK Stadium. Padma Cheriyan, Ros McFadden and Franzi Florack have all been nominated for the awards. We have been very lucky to work with them through our Citizen Innovation programme as part of the MK:Smart project and the Our MK crowdsourcing website.

Padma Cheriyan won an outstanding contribution award for her active role and campaigns to improve lives of the visually impaired people in and around Milton Keynes.

Franzi Florack has received a female entrepreneur award, being recognised for the fantastic work that she has been doing in promoting the local and independent food scene in Milton Keynes through MK Food Revolution and the social enterprise businesses that she has started, MK Biergarten and Stony Beer Bear.

And finally, Ros McFadden, a founder of the Breastfeeding Hub MK and the breastfeeding app MK has received nominations in three categories: public services, community impact – voluntary and science and technology. Although Ros didn’t win an award this year, we are incredibly proud about her nominations at this early stage for the Breastfeeding Hub MK.

We’re also thrilled for Kathy Howard at YMCA MK for winning in the community impact – charity category!

We would like to congratulate all of the finalists and winners of this year’s awards, a full list of which can be found here. In particular we’d like to congratulate Padma, Ros and Franzi for their amazing contribution to the citizen-led voluntary, social and technology action in Milton Keynes!

Padma Cheriyan

Ros McFadden

Franzi Florack

Our colleagues at The Open University have teamed up with a number of partners, including ZTE and Fronesys, in a new project funded by ERDF, the European Regional Development Fund.

The City Labs project aims to provide opportunities for local SMEs (and well as local citizens with ideas that could be turned into business enterprises) to get involved and receive support with product development, training and funding. City Labs is  all about promoting research and innovation in the digital economy.

You can find out more from the leaflet below and register on the project’s website:

http://www.citylabs.org.uk

City Labs will be launching through an event held at the at The Open University on Thursday 19th October. If you are interested in finding out more about the project and/or participating in it, you can register for the event here.

Join the debate on MK’s existing and new transport strategy

This event, open to all, will be dedicated to reviewing the existing Transport Vision & Strategy in Milton Keynes and feeding into the new 2018-2036 Transport and Mobility Strategy that is currently being developed.

Thursday, 12th October at The Project Space at MK Gallery.

Find out more and book your ticket here.  Have your say and be updated on stay vital area of MK’s development!

If you are interested in finding out more about transport plans and other issues related to the future development of the city, have a look at the MK Futures 2050 Connectors project that Community Action: MK are working on in collaboration with Milton Keynes Council. Click here to learn more about this initiative. If you would like to attend our next meeting on 10th October, dedicated to transport and what role it plays in reducing inequality in Milton Keynes, click here.