Transcript Robert Proctor - Renew Wales Overview

‘People supporting
people to take
enterprising action
against climate
change’
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What we set out to achieve?
Support community groups across Wales by developing the
capacity and capability of these groups to take action on
climate change.
We want to accelerate change in Wales through Peer
Mentors and a network of like minded groups and
organisations.
Renew Wales is supported through the Sustainable Steps programme delivered through the Big Fund
and funded by money from dormant bank accounts.
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A bottom up approach developed by
community based practioners?
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Renew Wales can support any type of
climate change project?
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25 Local Co-ordinators hosted by local
community based organisations
They register groups, support them to complete an action plan
and identify appropriate support.
http://www.renewwales.org.uk/about-us/coordinator-profilesregions.asp
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A diverse pool of over 50 Peer Mentors from existing
Community Organisations and Social Enterprises
They provide mentoring, training and technical support to
community groups from people with first hand experience of
delivering community projects.
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A growing network through Social
Media, local connections and events
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What has Renew Wales achieved so
far?
• 25 co-ordinators recruited from a diverse range of organisations
throughout Wales
• A pool of 60+ Peer Mentors with a wide range of knowledge, skills
and experience
• Over 400 community groups signed up to receive support from
Renew Wales
• Over 250 of these have developed an action plan detailing what
they want to achieve.
• Over 200 of these have received or have identified support via peer
mentors and other support organisations to take their projects
forward.
• Over 50% of Renew Wales funding goes directly to support the
work of grass roots community based organisations and social
enterprises through our co-ordinator and Peer Mentor network.
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Key Findings?
• Over 50% of the groups signed up to Renew Wales have not been
involved in an environmental project before.
• 80% of groups felt Renew Wales had helped stimulate ideas
• 85% felt the support was good or very good.
• 75% of groups felt their organisation was supported to develop and
Renew helped their project to develop.
• The amount of resource provided by Renew Co-ordinators is the
equivalent to 3 or 4 Development Officers. Would it have been
possible to reach such a diverse audience using a Development
Officer model.
• In 3 and a half years we have demonstrated that Renew Wales is
effective at engaging groups and supporting an interesting range of
community led projects.
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What are the types of Groups Renew
Wales has Supported?
• A diverse range of groups receiving support from Renew
Wales including:
Sports Clubs
Youth Groups
Community Councils
Faith Groups
Community Transport Associations
Schools
Co-operatives
Development Trusts
Community Centres
St John’s Ambulance
Social Enterprises
Scout Groups
Local Action Groups
BME groups
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Renew Wales Model
• Community groups will engage and learn more from their peer group –
people from other communities who have travelled the same road – than
they will from local government or full-time development officers.
• Peer mentors should be rewarded (paid) for their commitment and
support through their host social enterprises.
• The programme is distributed – with the key Coordinator role fulfilled by
experienced practitioners deeply connected within their locality.
• Community activists are an underused and untapped resource for
community empowerment and can reach beyond the “usual suspects”
• It is community led - supporting the needs and aspirations of communities
to make lasting change through their own efforts.
• Sustainable Development is at the heart of everything we do and
underpins all our activities. We support the Future Generations Act and
will aim to support all groups to consider their role in achieving the seven
(7) wellbeing goals.
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Types of Projects
• Community energy – A large variety of
these projects are receiving valuable
support to take these rewarding projects
forward
• Corwen Community Hydro Power is in the
early stages of development has recently
launched a pioneer Community Share Offer
to take this project forward.
• Renew Wales is also providing a piece of
technical support to Canton Community
Gardens. They have received funding to
install PV’s but need to resolve a legal issue
around the lease of the roof. Renew Wales
is supporting them to resolve this.
• Renew Wales has provided support to a
number of community share offers
collectively raising £1.75 million. 13
Types of Projects
• Community Building Improvements
• The largest groups of projects are those seeking to
make improvements to existing community buildings.
As well as structural improvements many of these
audits include a recommendation to increase use of the
building, the more it is used the more efficient it
becomes.
• We have also supported a number of groups that are
taking on the management of new assetts. For
examples Swimming Pools in Narbeth and Harlech have
received a wide range of mentor support from looking
at renewable heating, energy efficiency, raising finance
through community share offers to support on
increasing use of the facilities.
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Types of Projects
• Awareness Raising
• These are projects that were seeking to bring
awareness of climate change and environmental
projects to a new audience.
• The O-Sum and Sprout project worked with a small
group of young people to develop an animation and
articles on climate change. They had mentor
support for the film making and understanding
some of the key issues and opportunities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vpbiUFYDHw
&list=UUP5C3NWhxJC_8uXCgyMhiog
• Renew also supported Pontyberem community
council to develop an Energy Policy.
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Types of Projects
• Community Action
• These tend to be ambitious projects with several
different elements to them. It can include an energy
generation aspect, community enterprise and direct
action to prevent loss of habitat.
• Examples include Maindee Action Group who are
tackling food poverty and fuel poverty and have set
up a food re-distribution project through Fareshare
Cymru.
• Friends of Castle Meadows are looking at making
this area of land more resilient to climate change
through, improving biodiversity, better access
through the site and options for using the land for
coppicing, food growing etc.
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Types of Projects
• Food Projects
• These include community, school and enterprise
projects to provide access to local food. One of the
interesting projects in the early stages of
development is Merthyr Real Food, who wish to
establish a community shop. Renew Wales is
providing advice and support around management
structures and supporting the groups development.
• Edible Ely is a project that is working with local
people to help create a new edible garden.
Through the Renew Wales mentor they have made
links with other local organisations such as Cardiff
Transition to support this project.
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Types of Projects
• Transport Projects
• A group from the Knighton and Presteigne area
have enquired about setting up a car sharing club
accessing expertise from Mentors who run and set
up existing schemes.
• Waste Projects
• The Green Glyncoch Community kerbside recycling
project will receive valuable mentor support from
Newport Wastesavers a social enterprise who
deliver Newports Kerbside recycling service along
with a number of other projects
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Types of Projects
• Marketing and Publicity
• Renew Wales is able to support existing initiatives
and help re-invigorate them.
• In the case of South Powys LETS, a Renew Wales
Mentor produced a report highlighting the features
of successful local currency schemes. This led to the
group looking at a more local model of delivery.
• For Bikeability, Renew Wales is supporting the
group with their business planning and marketing.
.
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Types of Projects
• Adaptation
• Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association want to be a
trained and equipped volunteer force to be able to
respond quickly and effectively to the effects of
climate change on communities e.g. flooding.
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Types of Projects
• Collaborating
• Egni Wales first PV Co-operative.
• 11 of the projects involved in Renew Wales have
worked together to develop a PV cooperative in
South Wales raising £155,000 through a community
share offer. Seven community buildings are part of a
Share Offer to install PV panels, providing free
electricity to the groups involved and providing an
income for the cooperative. Renew Wales has
provided a key part of the support. This has
involved completing Energy Performance
Certificates for each of the buildings involved,
supporting the development of the website and the
share offer itself.
.
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What next?
•
Renew Wales has been awarded a further 2 years of funding to continue to
deliver support to community groups and organisations until the end of March
2018
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During this time Renew Wales is aiming to engage a further 180 groups and
support a number of existing groups with more mentor support.
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Build on the success of Renew Wales and share learning to ensure the long
term support of community led support for local action on climate change.
•
Join our online network and help share the good work you are doing with
other organisations in the Network.
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Robert Proctor
Programme Director/Cyfarwyddwr Rhaglen
02920 190260
07805 924558
[email protected]
www.renewwales.org.uk
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