News Blog

Burners Without Borders (BWB) had a productive trip to the European Leadership Summit (ELS) last month. We deepened our connections with European Regionals, introduced BWB-style civics to a well attended workshop, and have been continuing to have engaging follow up conversations since the event concluded.

One of the highlights of the event was the workshop, ‘Kickstarting Local Civic Projects’,  hosted by Christopher Breedlove on Saturday afternoon.  It was well attended by conference participants (about 40 people) and also included some BMorg staff including Tomas McCabe, James Hanusa & Ray Allen who all added their experience to the conversation.  We also debuted an updated version of our ‘Kickstarting Local Civic Projects’ resource sheet at the workshop, which seemed well received and a helpful tool to use as a handout.  (http://bit.ly/1Go97RIa).

Some of the key take-aways from the workshop:

– European Community Leaders are very interested in the idea of Civics & BWB.

– More than once it was mentioned that people wish there was a “way to find active projects to join”.  We do host a map on the BWB website- but maybe we need to promote it more.  A conversation followed that spoke as to how BWB is a Community Initiative Organization, rather than a volunteer organization.  BWB is here to help you gather resources and start your own project, not usually there to connect you with a volunteer spot.

–  There was particular interest from Nowhere, AfrikaBurn, & Borderlands into how civics could be adapted into the local communities that host their regional events.

– One participant was particularly interested in working with marginalized communities, like the Roma, that live directly outside of some of the bigger European city-centers.

– There was interest amongst 3 particular workshop attendees in being able to give presentations to schools about the work that BWB was involved in.

– Good conversation with someone working with TFT and what parallels and possible collaborations exist between TFT & BWB.

We are excited to see how this inspiring event will manifest civic projects in Europe this year.

-Christopher Breedlove