ClimateYouChange featured in Newham Council’s People Powered Places press release
- Celia Wain-Heapy
- Dec 22, 2023
- 2 min read
Thank you to Syed Haque, the Community Neighbourhoods Area Manager for Plaistow and Green Street, for putting ClimateYouChange forward to be considered for being one of the three People Powered Places projects featured in their press release of the same name.
Having been successfully chosen for inclusion, we can now be found online, in Newham Council’s press release announcing the ‘winning projects’ for their People Powered Places programme.
Here is the coverage we received for our initiative ‘Sustainable fashion and living + Newham’s first food forest:
In 2023, community assemblies were re-launched as People Powered Places. Newham's participatory budgeting programme has since gained new momentum and reached more residents and voluntary, community and faith sector organisations than ever before.
One such group, is local climate change education initiative, ClimateYouChange. Their focus is on community sharing of knowledge about changes all of us can make to lower our carbon footprint, as individuals, community groups and together with the decision makers at a local and national level.
Founder, Celia Wain-Heapy said: “We are a group of extremely concerned individuals, worried about the future we will leave our children and the suffering already being experienced in parts of the globe on the frontline of climate change.”
Among the projects the group will undertake are a range of sustainable cooking, growing and fashion upcycling, community workshops and Newham’s first ever Food Forest.
Celia said: “We will lead workshops in the Katherine Road Community Centre and establish Newham’s first food forest in the centre’s front garden. This will be used as an educational tool and a food source for the local community.
A food forest is a perennial, layered food-growing system with a wide variety of plants providing natural ecosystems and ease of management. This can produce a huge amount of food in a smaller footprint, with fruit trees, fruit bushes, ground cover and understory plants, including perennial vegetables, low-growing fruit and leafy greens maximising space below trees.
“Food forests provide a host of great benefits. They are low-input, organic systems, designed to repel/treat pests without toxic, powerfully warming, greenhouse gas emitting pesticides. They improve soil health, sequester carbon dioxide and are an important tool in creating future food resilience.”
Resident-led working groups will monitor the groups who have been awarded funds alongside council officers to check on their progress and offer support. Newham residents will have an opportunity to follow the progress on Newham Co-create and at the next People Powered Places event in the summer 2024.
See below for the full article:
