>> Develop the skills to tackle sustainability issues in your local area
>> Learn how to organise and run planning events in your community
>> Get advice on how to utilise local skills and ideas

This Earthcast will present practical guidance for people who want to help make their communities more pleasant and sustainable places in which to live. The speakers are all authors in our Tools for Community Planning series, and will focus on ways to improve communities through improved communication and the effective implementation of local ideas and skills.

Wendy Sarkissian, Nick Wates and Nabeel Hamdi will draw on many years' experience in running community planning projects across the world, to offer advice for anyone seeking to make a difference to their local environment.

Nick Wates is the author of The Community Planning Handbook and The Community Planning Event Manual, He is director of the community planning consultancy Nick Wates Associates and site editor of www.communityplanning.net

Wendy Sarkissian is the author of Kitchen Table Sustainability, SpeakOut and Creative Community Planning. She is a speaker, planning practitioner, academic and workshop facilitator.

Nabeel Hamdi is the author of The Placemaker's Guide to Building Community and Small Change and is currently Professor Emeritus at Oxford Brookes University. In 1997 Nabeel won the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour for his work on Community Action Planning.