www.everyactioncounts.org.uk
Communities, climate change and sustainable development – do your actions count?
A new Community Sector Coalition programme helping community groups lead the way to a better future.
We all want to live happy, healthy and prosperous lives. We want the best for our children and grandchildren in the future too. For this to happen, we need to make our world a greener, cleaner, fairer and safer than it is today. The good news is that more and more people are seeing that there is plenty we can do to help achieve this. Development Trusts already understand that ‘sustainability’ means more than ‘where’s our next bit of funding coming from?’ By working together through local groups and in our communities we can make more environmentally friendly choices and a bigger impact to protect and improve not only the environment but local communities and economies too.
But there’s still much more we can do…
Every Action Counts is a new Community Sector Coalition initiative to encourage and support community organisations to deliver sustainable development by tackling issues such as:
Energy, Transport and Climate Change
Waste minimisation and recycling
Local environmental improvements (‘Care for where you live’), and
Fair trade and ’ethical shopping’
Every Action Counts could help your Trust:
- Save money or even generate some new funding
- Keep your existing members interested and perhaps attract some new ones
- Raise the profile of your group in your local community and show them you care
So what can we do? There are 3 simple things you can do to get involved…
Recruit a community champion
Hundreds of local volunteer community activists are needed to lead change in their own groups and neighbourhoods. A community champion will encourage local community groups, clubs and societies to take small actions that support 'one planet living', by creating an action plan to for a more sustainable future.
All Champions will receive free recognised and accredited training with an opportunity to access more. Experience working with community groups, clubs and societies on sustainable development supported by the UK's leading organisations in community involvement and development. They will receive resources and support for their work.
So if you know someone who can help change the world, one group at a time, get with your Regional DTA staff team for more information and a registration form. Don’t miss the deadline for registrations - January 2006 and April 2006!
Get your community/regeneration worker involved
A good quality environment helps improve local health, education and the local economy as well as promoting safer and stronger communities. Encouraging local involvement in environmental activities can empower excluded communities. People coming together on environmental issues can strengthen community cohesion and build bridges between communities. Any local Improvements we make now on health, security and prosperity will only last if we take action now to protect our precious environmental resources on which we all depend – and tackle dangerous climate change. There are many good reasons for being involved.
Through Every Action Counts the Federation for Community Development Learning (FCDL) will, among other things:
- Train 800 community development workers in how best to make the links between environmental issues and community development work
- More than 200 community organisations will be provided with informal training materials and support on sustainable development to help make every action count
- Dedicated training materials have been developed ranging from informal sessions and tasters to new resource packs and a new Community Work Skills Manual on sustainable development.
See http://www.fcdl.org.uk/ for information about the courses and free taster materials. Please note the courses are booking up quickly!
Develop your own sustainable development action plan
Every Action Counts can help you develop a plan for your Trust to progress towards improving its environmental performance, in contributing to sustainable development and to a long-term goal of ‘one planet living’. There are a number of ways we can help:
- A Community Champion can tell your group about Every Action Counts, help you take stock of what you are already doing and help you decide which of the actions can take forward and make your plan for action. Ideal for developing your own environmental policy!
- There are lots of ideas and resources on the excellent Every Action Counts website www.everyactioncounts.org.uk – log on and promote it to groups you’re in contact with!
- And here’s the really fun bit… log your actions through the website on the Every Action Counts evaluator to assess how future friendly your DT is and plotting your progress. The evaluator is an at-a-glance, on going guide to show how close your trust is to reaching its target – the magic bit is that it will automatically calculate how much CO2 you save through your actions!
Don’t wait until a funder asks you - do it today!
Contact your regional DTA staff team for more information.
