Blog
Better Lives Receives Holywood Trust Climate Change Grant
Wed, 1st Sep 2021Better Lives as an organization has been successful in applying for the Holywood Trust’s DG Youth Protecting Our Planet grant to run a new educational initiative.
The Holywood Trust was seeking to support young people locally who are interested in Climate Change and was looking to fund initiatives which engage young people in Dumfries & Galloway. This applies to individuals, groups of individuals and organisations supporting young people such as Better Lives Partnership. As part of our Bridge to Employment Project, we are introducing a new accredited environmental course to highlight the impact that climate change is having on the planet and to explore the ways that we can raise awareness, take positive action, and educate others to respect and preserve planet earth.
The delivery of this course will include visits to specific areas of environmental interest, the creation of resources and events to ‘spread the word’ and invitations to guest speakers to help inspire and enthuse ourselves and others. We hope to engage with specific businesses and organisations, recycling and upcycling centres and individuals with expertise in environmental issues.
Using the ASDAN ‘Environment’ accredited course as a framework to support this project, we would attach an additional wide and diverse range of activities and experiences to extend the scope of the course and to allow for a ‘local’ flavour to be approached across our Stranraer, Dumfries and Castle Douglas locations. This will allow for flexibility and opportunism as young people will navigate through the course, making choices based on their own areas of interest and aspiration.
The funding has been imperative in enabling our young people to actively get involved in the planning and delivery of local environmental projects to help protect the planet. Under the umbrella themes of sustainable food production, recycling / re-use, and investigations into alternative energy solutions. Specifically, within Dumfries they will be running a block of ‘grow your own’ gardening sessions, up-cycling furniture projects, and organizing litter picks for the community. While Stranraer will be seeking research and participation in sustainable food production on land and sea, linking in with Loch Ryan Oyster Company and local organisations such as Barsolus as well as Young Farmers, organic and vegetable growing and composting with use of Stranraer Academy’s polytunnel. Finally, in Castle Douglas the group will be setting up a weekly lunchtime Environment group through the Environment ASDAN, make trips to weather station, hydro-electricity station, recycling plants and windfarm and work within the Social Media group to design an environmental awareness campaign.
Throughout this project we will prioritise co-operation and collaboration in order to bring our young people together to share ideas and knowledge and to capitalize on their experiences of engaging with the climate change project, and funding would allow us to consider the delivery of an end-of-project event to disseminate outcomes, reflect on what we have all learned and celebrate successes.
We would like to thank the Holywood Trust for their invaluable support in making this project possible.
