It’s your CAN
The Community Action Network at the heart of Stroud’s five valleys
A CAN is the people in a place (its Community) coming together (making a Network) to solve the problems (taking Action) in their place in the way that best uses their talents, and best fits the place where they live. A Community Action Network.
No two CANs are the same, because no two communities or places are the same. The massive problems of the natural world that we face as a planet unite us all, and we pretty much agree in our ideas for how we deal with those, but the exact way in which we go about putting them into action will be different each time, in each place.
Starting a CAN is not like opening a McDonald’s.
CANs are as diverse and unique as the communities they grow from. Every CAN comes from the efforts, skills, experiences and imagination of the people who create it, and that’s why every CAN needs everyone it can get, people of all backgrounds, experiences, abilities and points of view.
Are you here?
That’s Stroud over there. The area covered by the Town Council, from Bowbridge at the bottom, round through the woods on the hill-tops, along past the top of Salmon Springs and Stratford Park to Callowell, then down around Paganhill and Archway to meet the canal near Tricorn House and follow it back to Bowbridge.
If you live here, study here, work here, play here or just depend on Stroud in any way (the library, the hospital, the parks, the churches, anything), then we’re for you.
If you’re keen on a fair future world with a safe climate where we live sustainably in communities that love nature and don’t harm it, then we’re for you. If you want to roll your sleeves up, or put your ideas and skills to good use, to make Stroud a better place to live, then yes, we are, as we’ve said, for you.
If you’re not here, you might want to find a CAN nearer you, but if you are… we need you.
Now you come in
We need everybody.
We need everybody to change their lives in the best ways they can. We need everyone to pitch in, there’s masses to do. Change needs to happen everywhere and right now. National, regional, and even County governments are too slow, and too big, and too clueless to go into every community and say, ‘This is what you do here’.
And we wouldn’t want that sort of central control. It’s how Incinerators get built.
It’s up to our communities themselves to have the ideas for what will work best for them, then do it (and also shout to the government for the tools and support that they need when they need it).
Interested? We need you:
To tell us your stories of making a difference, so we can share them with others.
To give us a shout on facebook or twitter or email when there’s something happening we should know about.
To offer help where you can.
To volunteer.
To start projects of your own.
But most of all, we need you to tell us what you need us to do to help you deal with the climate, nature, and sustainability crises we all face.