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Every Action Counts

Who's involved in the programme

Find out more about who is involved in our Every Action Counts training programme and hear from some of our trainers.
Click on the names below for interviews with the following people:

• Barbara Hancock, TWICS
• Judy Best, NEA
  
• Dhara Thompson, freelance community development worker and community activist
• Dr Rennie Johnston, consultant in lifelong learning and community research
• Linda Robinson, freelance trainer
• Susi Miller, Training Development Officer, FCDL
  

How to run a successful 'Go Green Fair'

Barbara Hancock, Training Co-ordinator for Southampton-based charity, Training for Work in Communities (TWICS), explains how she became involved in the Fair and helped to make it a success.

"My husband's church was keen on becoming an 'eco-congregation' and wanted to run a community event as part of this," says Barbara. "Part of my role at TWICS is to help groups plan events, and we're also keen to promote the aims of Every Action Counts." So, Barbara was able to represent TWICS on the green fair planning committee, and at the same time maintaining domestic harmony by giving practical support to her husband's project!

The event, which happened in November 2007, took about nine months to plan. The co-ordinating group included individuals, and local groups such as Friends of the Earth, cycling campaigns, churches, and the local Sustainability Forum.

"As well as stalls and activities, we also wanted a political element at the Fair," says Barbara. At the event, there was a question time session with the local MP. The Oceanography department gave a presentation about the impact of climate change on sea life. There were also many stalls displaying a range of green options, such as how to compost, recycle a computer or join a car club, as well as some selling goods.

The group managed to get good publicity through articles in the local press, posters in community centres and by circulating leaflets. "We wanted to make sure we didn't just attract the 'usual suspects' who go to Green events," says Barbara. She says the broad based co-ordinating group, with links to many community networks, helped attract support.

On reflection, Barbara says it could have been better to have more people selling goods and to make a feature of this in the publicity. "I think that would have attracted people looking for Christmas presents who might have come to shop but also found out about Green initiatives."

Even without this incentive, nearly 400 people came to the event. Each visitor was handed a programme, which also had an evaluation form on the back, asking them what actions they might take as a result of visiting the fair. There was a prize draw to encourage people to hand in their forms. The feedback shows that visitors were keen to make a difference by saving energy or travelling more wisely, for example, walking more often or joining car clubs. One of the stallholders who delivers organic vegetables said his sales went up dramatically the following week.

Barbara says: "Overall, it was hard work but worth doing, it shows that there is a lot of interest out there."

Website: www.twics.org.uk

Judy Best is an Energy Adviser, working for the charity, National Energy Action (NEA). NEA develops and promotes energy efficiency services to tackle the heating and insulation problems of low-income households. It works in partnership with central and local government, utility companies, housing providers, health services and consumer organisations. NEA aims to eradicate fuel poverty and campaigns for greater investment in energy efficiency to help those who are poor or vulnerable.

NEA has its headquarters in Newcastle upon Tyne and currently operates 20 projects at 10 offices in England and Wales. Judy's job fits with three of the Every Action Counts aims, namely: Save Energy, Save Our Resources, and Care For Your Area. Her work includes helping people throughout Coventry to save money and energy in their homes through grants for insulation and heating measures. She also gives advice on a one-to-one basis, as well as presentations and talks in the community. If people have debts with the fuel suppliers, she negotiates a payment plan to suit the client's needs.

She says she finds her job very satisfying "as people are warmer and healthier in their homes and can inform family and friends of grants available".

Judy jokes: "I am known as 'the light bulb lady', because I have good ideas but always remind people about energy efficiency and its savings. Most people we help pass on our details to others and sing our praises." However, Judy is aware that there are other people who do not instantly absorb the information and who require a more gentle approach or people who feel they know all there is to know about energy efficiency and are not willing to take on board the constantly changing landscape of environment and energy.

She adds: "You need perseverance and patience when dealing with people in the community." She also admits that some agencies who help with fuel debt provision may not have time or resources to follow up and see the whole process through with the client.

Website: www.nea.org.uk

Dhara Thompson is a freelance community development worker and community activist.

To help promote the aims of Every Action Counts, he has written course materials and delivered training to community development trainers and workers. The course is based on the EAC themes and is part of the Federation for Community Development Learning's work under EAC.

This work has involved helping people to identify how social and environmental issues are linked and to develop local stories to illustrate these links.

Dhara says: "While it might feel like yet another layer that community and voluntary organisations are being asked to add to their already full work load, the impacts of increasingly severe weather chaos need to be understood from a social and environmental perspective, both locally and globally."

He adds: "People with experience of collective working need to get their heads round these issues now while there is time to implement meaningful changes."

The way forward, Dhara believes is not by preaching, but by giving people information and being honest about the context we are working within. "It isn't all about focusing on individuals and communities, government and industry have responsibilities too, but we can't rely or expect them to get their act together."

To this end, there needs to be a two-pronged attack, finding points of leverage where communities and small groups of people can work on practical solutions, as well as challenging those in positions of power to affect far wider change.

Dhara says some of the discussions on the courses have increased people's awareness of the necessity for action and increased their ability to lobby for change both within their organisations and in the work they do with communities.

People who came on the course can now do anything from making a community centre more sustainable to working out the processes involved in setting up a community food group.

However, Dhara believes there is still a big gap between people who are having an impact and those who deny the necessity of facing up to the huge structural changes that climate chaos will bring. "The former are getting on with doing things quite often in spite of government initiatives, while the latter are waiting for the Government to take more of an initiative."

Dhara Thompson, Freelance Community Work Trainer
Email: equalitystreet@post.com
Associate - Federation for Community Development Learning

Dr Rennie Johnston is a Consultant in Lifelong Learning and Community Research, based in Southampton. His background is in community adult education and community development, working from a university base. He became involved in Federation for Community Development Learning (FCDL) training after attending a conference workshop on climate change. "I wanted to do something about environmental issues, so I took some FCDL training on linking community development and sustainable development and read up a bit more about it."

After some initial training to deliver FCDL materials, he was asked to conduct a one-day workshop on 'community development and sustainable development' for adult education development workers and tutors from the Community University of the South-East in South Wales, where he used some FCDL and EAC materials.

At the one-day workshop, Rennie gave an initial talk on how to engage with sustainable development and climate change issues in communities. The audience was comprised of about 14-16 development workers and tutors from the WEA plus one active environmentalist from Glamorgan University.

"We then went into workshops looking at different materials including FCDL's taster packs no. 3 (Climate Change Communications) and no. 5 (Community Development and Environmental Action)." He says the WEA in that part of South Wales (around Newport) found both of these materials helpful, with no. 5 very useful in trying to work out what they should do as an organisation. They were also very interested in the EAC Third Sector Declaration. "We exchanged lists of resources on sustainable development and climate change."

The second part of the day was devoted to working out an Action Plan for the group and local WEA. This concerned issues such as working with groups and collective organisational behaviour.

Rennie says: "When teaching sustainable development, a top-down and often too individualistic emphasis on pushing the five EAC categories is not all that useful.

"All I've read and my experience tells me that local people, groups and communities need to address the questions for themselves and own the problems and possible solutions that emerge, rather than have to follow some prescribed agenda or prescribed categories."

On the home front, Rennie is trying to cut his carbon footprint by recycling more, reducing emissions through better insulation and travelling more wisely, using the car less often and walking whenever possible. Rennie is originally from Scotland but has lived and worked abroad in Finland, Germany, Tanzania and Australia. He travels abroad regularly for work and likes visiting other countries. He admits to using aeroplanes too often. "I'm very conscious of this and am trying to travel as much as possible by train."

Dr Rennie Johnston,
Consultant in Lifelong Learning and Community Research
Email: rennie@tinyonline.co.uk

Linda Robinson is a freelance trainer in the voluntary and community sector. You could almost say she has green blood, such is the extent of her involvement in environmental issues. She is also a volunteer with many roles, including being Secretary of Harrow Agenda 21, which has Action Groups to match all of the aims of Every Action Counts.

At Harrow Agenda 21, Linda says: "We are adopting a 'Green Procurement Policy' to give our volunteers guidance to good practice when making purchases, on the basis of sustainability and whole life cost, including environmental cost."

This initiative has been successful in raising awareness of waste, transport, climate change and green consumerism issues. The membership of Harrow Agenda 21 has also increased.

Linda is a trustee of the Friends of Bentley Priory Nature Reserve and a member of Woodlands Community Association. These both fit into the EAC aim of "Care For Your Area".

Linda is also a member of Harrow Friends of the Earth and Harrow Green Party - both concerned with all of the EAC aims.

On top of this, she delivers training to all sorts of voluntary organisations and community groups about community development, regeneration and how to get people involved.

As well as her work, on a personal level, Linda also pursues EAC aims. She explains: "My gas fire turned faulty and I needed to make a decision about buying a new fire. I looked up papers and Internet material on comparative energy efficiencies of gas and electric fires. I spoke to people in my groups who are supposed to know about such things. I rang Harrow Council's Energy Efficiency Line, which goes through to the Energy Saving Trust. Finally, they recommended an electric fire as more energy efficient, so I ordered one and had it installed at considerable expense. Afterwards, other energy experts told me that I'd made the wrong energy efficiency decision for the planet. Who knows? At least I tried! And at today's fuel prices I should save some pennies in the short term at any rate. Maybe one day I will be in a position to generate my own electricity."

In conclusion, Linda says: "Every Action Counts material can be a useful tool. However, getting people and organisations interested, and finding out what is the greenest thing to do in any given circumstance is still fraught with difficulty. Perhaps these are some of the reasons why Community Champions has not been as successful as we all hoped."

Email: linda_robinson@lineone.net

Susi Miller, Training Development Officer for the Federation of Community Development Learning, talks to Lucy Jaffe about how she became an activist and her hopes for a sustainable future.

Susi Miller was born in Sheffield and brought up in Barnsley. Her parents came to Britain from Jamaica in the early fifties. Her father was a clay miner but following redundancy, went on to make tools in Sheffield. Her mother was a nursing assistant. Both her parents experienced racism at work. Physical and verbal attacks were a common experience for the many African Caribbean people, who had recently arrived in the UK.

Susi says: "My dad took positive action in the face of racism. He was among a number of African Caribbean people who set up meetings in Sheffield to tackle the issue." Susi inherited this activism role when she was a teenage parent. She became involved in a parent and toddler group and started to help run it. "We organised more interesting outings, and provided a more diverse range of information to people of African and Asian backgrounds."

Her work experience now spans nearly 30 years. Most of this has involved various aspects of community development, including a strong interest in using the arts to develop communities. She used to work for a community arts centre called Common Ground and has been with FCDL for the last six years.

"I am interested in community development work because it challenges inequalities, which harm us all, but especially those who have least.

"When I train people, I like to use games and visual images to give people space to think and absorb the lessons. This brings more meaning to training delivery."

When Susi goes back to Jamaica, she feels humbled by their sustainability agenda and how far behind we are in the UK. "People reuse bags not because they want to but because they have to! They make much more careful use of many resources, which we take for granted."

She says her aunt apologised for offering her a crinkly fruit from her garden but Susi pointed out to her: "People pay lots of money for that in Britain - it's called organic. Most working class, low-income families aren't really given the option to buy affordable organic food in England. We should be challenging the pricing hierarchy."

In the FCDL office, staff use recycled office products and recycle old IT equipment, use both sides of the paper and the two-sided printing option is a default on the printer settings. All paper and cardboard is recycled.

At home, Susi recycles bottles and paper, which are collected from the kerbside. She also takes all her plastic to the local recycling centre and drives an LPG car.

Susi comments: "In the future, I would love to work on embedding environmental actions, so that poorer communities are able to do things to make a difference, at their own pace, in ways that deal with their own priorities."

Email: susi@fcdl.org.uk

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