C-Change kicks off
Young people aged 18-24 are generally are less likely to be aware of climate change, less likely to believe that they are affected by it, and less likely to express concern about the impacts of it than other sections of the population according to Government research. Youth in the under-18 age group also show similar attitudes towards the issue, and these worrying facts have sparked a new initiative from the Woodcraft Folk.
“We are sure that young people within the Woodcraft Folk have learned a lot about climate change through their group activities and at the organisations big camps,” said Paul Fleming, a Leicester Woodcraft Folk leader and Professor of Energy Management at De Montford University. “But unfortunately this is not reflected in the wider population of young people, many of whom are either ignorant or apathetic towards the issue.”
“We know that the Woodcraft Folk can be very successful in raising awareness, and changing the attitudes and behaviour of young people and the new C-Change project hopes to take the message outside of our movement to under-25s in the wider community.
The C-Change concept – using the skills and experience of Woodcraft members, through peer education, to spread the word about the problems created by global warming – found favour with the DEFRA and has won a £250,000 grant to put the project into action.
The first steps have been the recruitment of a Steering Committee of young people and the appointment of two staff to run the project. Postcards were sent out to members in the 13-25 age group. “We asked young people who wanted to get involved with the project to send back their ideas about tackling climate change on the back of the postcard,” said Lloyd Russell-Moyle, one of General Council’s representatives on the Steering Committee. “The successful candidates were picked for their understanding of the climate change issue and ideas for putting the project into action. We have a really dynamic team, with young people from the whole age spectrum, from different parts of the country, and with different backgrounds and experiences” said Lloyd.
“But there will still be lots of other ways for people to get involved. We will be looking for volunteers from Woodcraft groups around the country to help us put the ideas into action.”
The Steering Committee met for the first time at the end of October and spent a weekend getting to know each other, learning more about the science of climate change, and making initial plans for the events it will hold during 2007.
“We need to find ways of communicating the climate change issue to other young people who don’t know much about it,” said Emily Ashton-Hughes, a steering committee member from Wales.
“The people we have to get the message across to are those who don’t have much political or environmental awareness already. One of the ideas we are working on is to run ‘club nights’ where VJs (video jockeys) will show what global warming is doing to our world and how people can do something about it, to a background of suitable music.”
Other ideas which were generated during the weekend include a film festival, a ‘Battle of the Bands’, a graffiti art contest, something at a big music festival, a carnival, a 24-hour ‘weather programme’ broadcast over the internet, and a drama project.
The C-Change project will be run by a partnership between the Woodcraft Folk, the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Machynlleth, and De Montford University. CAT will contribute technical expertise and have many years experience in getting sustainability issues across to the public. De Montford will concentrate on evaluation of the project – to show that it is making a real difference to young people’s attitudes. Ann MacGarry, Education Officer from CAT, will represent the Centre on the project management committee but is equally well know as a Woodcraft leader from Machynlleth district. “This project offers the opportunity to share our professional experience alongside our Woodcraft Folk involvement,” said Ann
Two appointments have just been made C-Change’s staff: Julie Thorpe will be the project’s co-ordinator, and Kirsti Davies the Project Assistant.
“Our role is to support the Steering Committee and do all the practical jobs which are needed to help them put their ideas into action,” said Kirsti. “I am so excited about working on this project which brings together all the things I believe in – empowering young people and tackling climate change.”
“C-Change offers the Woodcraft Folk the possibility of getting our message out to a lot more young people in wider world. It will be a really interesting pilot project all sorts of other possible projects in the future.”
