What can any of us do to prevent flooding or stop our neighbourhood losing any more of its wildlife and natural habitat? With everything else life throws at us, we often feel powerless to deal with these big problems. But in an era of climate change and a population with growing needs, urgent answers are called for.
A new project launching in Hull will enable local people to be part of the solution by using their passion and local knowledge to help the city to thrive in a changing world.
The starting point is simple: people living with climate risk should be involved in the decisions that affect them.
Community Climate Stewards is a new Rights Community Action project supporting communities on the edge across the East Coast of England to shape local responses to climate risk. Working with partners in Hull, Skegness and Lowestoft, the project will support residents to share their experiences, build a collective voice and make change happen in their local areas.
The project is rooted in a simple idea: people have a right to be heard, to be involved and to decide what happens in their own communities. Their knowledge, priorities and ambitions should help shape what happens next.
Thanks to National Lottery players, Rights Community Action’s Community Climate Stewards project has received funding over five years from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest community funder in the UK.
The Hull project will officially launch on 14 July, bringing together local residents, community organisations, academics, councillors, local authority officers and other partners to reconnect, share learning and explore how communities and institutions can work with each other to respond to climate change and build a more resilient future for Hull.
One of the first opportunities to put this approach into practice comes as Hull City Council begins consultation on its new Local Plan this week (15th July), setting out the long-term vision for how Hull will develop and change up to 2045, including where new homes, jobs and infrastructure should be located. Community Climate Stewards will encourage residents to contribute their knowledge and experience as part of this wider conversation, alongside many other opportunities over the next five years for communities to help shape how their places respond to climate risk.
To help local people get involved, the project is running a series of community mapping workshops around the city. The first will take place on 8 and 10 August at Ground Gallery on Beverley Road, with residents invited to take a walk around the local area and think about and discuss the community’s environmental resources and challenges, share local knowledge and identify priorities for the future.
Kate Macdonald, joint coordinator of the project in Hull, said that local people know their communities best, so it makes sense to involve them in decisions about their future.
“Local people know where flood water gathers in their areas. They know where the green spaces are that need protecting. More than that, they have a stake in their neighbourhoods – it’s where they work and shop, and where their children go to school. But all too often, people think that decision making is out of their control.
We want to change that – to recognise that local people are the experts and to show them how they can get involved in these important decisions that are shaping their communities’ futures.”
Louis Dorton, joint coordinator, added: “I love Hull – the land, the people, the rivers. For me this project is about collaboration, across political, economic and even species divides – we all need to be involved in decisions about our future.
“A lot of us have had our heads in the sand when it comes to floods, droughts, housing, food – all these connected issues. This project is about our right, as the people who live here, to look after the place we call home, building skills and processes to survive, thrive, adapt and be healthy, and to shape the world we want to live in.”
One example of the kind of conversations Community Climate Stewards hopes to support is already taking place in North Bransholme, where residents and friends are exploring ideas for how their area could respond to future climate challenges. Their discussions include affordable low-carbon housing, opportunities for food growing and community energy.
These are locally generated ideas that reflect the project’s aim of supporting communities to share their knowledge, priorities and ambitions, helping to shape what happens next in the places they call home. Community Climate Stewards is creating the space for these locally led conversations to be explored and shared as part of wider discussions about the future of the area.
Group member Andrew Dorton said: “We really want it to be affordable, and if people are involved in building their own home, that’s one way to lessen the cost. We’d also want to plan in as much electricity generation as possible, to make the houses environmentally efficient and just have one area for parking, rather than cars being all over the place.”
For further information about the mapping workshops taking place at the Ground Gallery on 8th and 10th August, or if you are interested in hosting a similar event in your community, please email info@timebankhullandeastriding.co.uk or text 07545 696007.