Climate Challenge Fund Final Report

Transcription

1 Climate Challenge Fund Final Report Name of project, organisation and CCF number Amina, the Muslim Women s Resource Centre City wall House, 32 Eastwood Avenue, Glasgow, G41 3NS Starting Point The initial idea and inspiration of Save Energy was based on the success of our consultation during our Community Development Grant October 2013 to March 2014 The Development Grant has helped us to identify the following: The interest of Muslim/BME communities in engaging with energy saving and climate change Issues and needs of Muslim/BME women and community regarding energy saving and climate change The development grant success has inspired the Save Energy project to have a confident starting point as we already know our clients needs and how to tailor our service to suit their needs Based on our learning and service users interests we put the forward the following outcomes: 1. Reduce the CO2 of 100 Ethnic Minority families from South and North Glasgow by

2 10% 2. Reduce the fuel poverty of 30 families from north and south Glasgow by increasing their income and help them to save money 3. Change the attitudes and behaviour of 200 members of community groups from Muslims and BME communities in the north and south 4. Improve community sustainability by having a lasting project legacy from training community volunteer in energy saving practices Our outcome proved to be the right outcomes for our work. No change in our outcomes, however our work highlighted greater need for support to fuel poverty sufferers, supporting them will help reduce their energy consumption, make their houses more efficient and at the same time it will improve their financial situation. Headline achievements Amina s Save Energy project has been an inspirational project for the project team, BME communities and it s volunteers. Through the project we have been able to bring disadvantaged and isolated groups together to contribute to combating climate change, fuel poverty and improve their families financial position by following the project learning. We have helped built the communities capacity and improve their sustainability by training community members and volunteers to continue to implement the project legacy. We have also used the Islamic teachings that promote the conservation of natural resources, encouraging people to look after the planet and plant trees as ongoing good deeds to people. We made a15% reduction of CO2e. This is an achievement which we are extremely proud of Our total lifetime (7 years) carbon emission saving from our energy efficiency work amount to: Tonnes CO2 Our work with communities to offer energy saving advice and support for people living in fuel poverty has revealed to us the shocking numbers cases of isolated people struggling with very high and unaffordable energy bills due to lack of awareness about energy efficiency measures and of where to ask for support. This has encouraged us to monitor and record these cases and to refer them to support organisation such as Home Energy Scotland, Gheat, Citrus Energy, Scottish Power Hardship fund and Scottish Power Social Enterprise. The project has helped fuel poverty clients to wipe out debt of To help the project s lasting legacy we have produced 4 videos during the past 19 months year, the videos highlight several areas: January 2014 page 2

3 1-Grow your own food and buy local produce 2-Wind energy as a renewable and clean source of energy 3-Fuel poverty awareness 4-The final video is a highlight of our whole year s work but has also brought some new issues about having communities champion talking about how they benefitted from the project learning and advice, Links to the 4 videos is as follows: 1-Visit to Milton Community Garden: 2- Amina Goes to Whitelee Windfarm: 3-Amina Save Energy Project Highlights: 4-MWRC Fuel Poverty Awareness: We were successful in training 82 climate volunteers from a wide range of communities and groups in energy saving and climate change awareness examples of communities and groups are Somali, Sudanese, International women group, Unity Sister, Hemat Gryffe group and Islamic Association Women s Group Outputs We successfully delivered: Intensive direct help to 115 clients to reduce their carbon foot print, 66 of them were intensive home visits, 49 is one to one consultation 24 workshops on climate change, energy efficiency measures and low carbon life style and behaviours to 303 community members in north and south Glasgow. 6 of the workshops were delivered by our partner organisations (Cifal Scotland and Workers Education Association, WEA) 8 volunteer training sessions, (2 of them delivered by our partner Home Energy Scotland) to improve community sustainability by having a lasting project legacy from the project learning of energy efficiency advice and measures. As a result of the training we have recruited, and offered shadowing services to 82 climate January 2014 page 3

4 volunteers Produced 4 awareness raising videos Organised 4 trips to environmental sides Helped 35 fuel poverty clients from North and South Glasgow to be out of fuel poverty or improve their financial situation, we also helped them to understand energy efficiency measures and low carbon life style Trained 82 community climate volunteers in understanding climate change and energy efficiency Please take a look at our project video (Project highlights in the link below: January 2014 page 4

5 Outcomes Amina Save Energy Project 4 outcomes are: 1-Reduce the CO2e of 100 Ethnic Minority families from South and North Glasgow by 10% 2-Reduce the fuel poverty of 30 families from North and south Glasgow by increasing their income and help them to save money 3-Change the attitudes and behaviour of 200 members of Muslims and BME communities in the north and south 4-Improve community sustainability by having a lasting project legacy from training community volunteer in energy saving practices Outcome 1 In our first outcome we successfully exceeded our carbon emission targets by achieving 15% reduction in emission per year for our 100 clients instead of 10% target reduction that we have said in our CCF application in Our initial lifetime (7 years) carbon emission target was tonnes CO2e Save Energy Project carbon made15% reduction of CO2e, our total lifetime (7 years) carbon emission saving from our energy efficiency work is Tonnes CO2e We have exceeded our target by Tonnes CO2e Outcome 2: Reduced the Fuel Poverty of 30 families from North and South Glasgow by 5% through increasing their income and help them to save money. In this outcome we have exceeded our target where we helped 35 clients to reduce their energy consumption. Through our work in the Saving Energy Saves Money project, we focused on reducing the energy consumption and carbon foot print of our service users within the minority ethnic community and we came across shocking cases of silent fuel poverty sufferers living in severe social and housing conditions. These service users do not have any awareness or access to advice and support, As part of our monitoring and evaluation we have identified a high rate of fuel poverty among BME families living in the north and south of Glasgow in areas that are dominated by refugees and asylum seekers and hard to reach groups and isolated communities. Following from the project awareness of large numbers of cases of severe fuel poverty we carried out a Fuel Poverty Awareness survey for a random 74 families from north and south Glasgow After analysing our Fuel Poverty Awareness survey, we highlight the following findings: January 2014 page 5

6 Fig a Fig a shows that 69% of the respondents are living in fuel poverty Fig b Fig b shows that 56% of respondent are using less energy than required due to high energy cost January 2014 page 6

7 Fig c Fig c shows that 49% of respondents said they are not aware of any support available Fig d Fig d shows that 73% suffered from stress which affected their wellbeing Outcome 3 Change of attitudes and behaviours of 200 members of community groups from Muslims and ethnic minorities in North and South Glasgow towards reducing their energy consumption Save energy project has used tailored approaches of delivery to help accommodate and engage the disengaged communities in the project efforts to combat climate change, improve service users energy consumption and cost, and offer tips and advice to ensure that people will January 2014 page 7

8 make a positive change to their attitudes towards having a more sustainable lifestyle and have the confidence to pass the project legacy of sustainable life style to their families, friends and the generations to come. Throughout the project (Sep 14 to March 16) we have achieved the following: We have exceeded our target by Engaged with 303 members (exceeded our target by 103) 40 of the 303 members represent community organisations (25 from South East Integration Network and 15 representative from North Glasgow Integration Network, they contributed to the discussion and took our tips leaflets which helps changing attitudes and behaviours to low carbon life style behaviours Engagement with the hard to reach and isolated communities (e.g. Somali and Sudanese) is a major achievement of our project. We have been successfully engage with groups who normally find it difficult to engage (e.g. our engagement with the Unity Sisters group an organisation of refugees, and also our engagement with Hemat Gryffe the Glasgow BME Women s Refuge) As part of our campaign for low carbon lifestyles and behaviours was our Radio Ramadan programme that we delivered in July 2015 to Muslim Communities. We engaged with people by talking about Islamic advice in terms of looking after the planet to save its natural resources. We also participated in Muslim Big Eid Celebrations in September 2015 as part of Eid in the Park event in Polloksheilds Burgh hall. We organised a stall to distribute our leaflets and tips, the event was attended by around 1000 Muslims The project environmental sites trips have been a fantastic addition to our achievement in terms of raising awareness about climate change and getting community together to share the learning experience in a friendly atmosphere To widen our impact we teamed up with Cifal Scotland a UNITAR fellow (Edinburgh based project), to organise two workshops in community climate resilience. The workshops focus was in the 4 main areas of food, energy, recycling and transport This outcome has widen our strategic partnerships by working with wide range of organisations including National and International organisations Like Workers Education Association (WEA), Oxfam and Cifal Scotland the UNITAR fellow, we also worked with Glasgow Integration Networks in the North and South and through them we linked with many small grassroots organisations such as. Somali Association in Glasgow, Unity Sister, Hemat Griffe Below are some photos capturing some of our work: January 2014 page 8

9 Community Climate Resilience Workshop in Partnership with Cifal Scotland in Glasgow March 2015 Somali Community Event in Partnership with Home Energy Scotland, Glasgow South Jan 2015 January 2014 page 9

10 Save Energy Project Trip to Milton Community Garden in North Glasgow Community members from south Glasgow enjoyed their opportunity to learn about how wind energy works as part of Amina Save Energy Project trip to Whitlee Wind Farm Outcome 4: Improve Community sustainability by having a lasting project legacy from trained volunteers in energy saving practices In this outcome we have exceeded our target by successfully training 82 volunteers from different communities and in particular from disengaged communities The project was successful in creating strong links with a wide range of organisations to train their members to be climate champions or volunteers. Examples of the communities we have engaged with and trained their volunteers: Unity Sisters (asylum seekers and refugee women) Saheliya glasgow, North Glasgow,Sighthill, a BME women organisation works mostly January 2014 page 10

11 with refugees and asylum Seekers International Women s Group (north Glasgow, majority refugees and asylum seeking women) Somalie Association (south Glasgow) Women Friendship Group (south Glasgow) Saheliyia Climate Champion training North Glasgow Feb 2016 We also worked with Workers Education Association (WEA) to train our climate volunteers as part of their programme Counting on a Greener Scotland (CoGS) in partnership with Glasgow Science Centre Volunteers Training in Partnership with WEA at Glasgow Science Centre January 2014 page 11

12 Save Energy Project Volunteers training South Glasgow Volunteers training, South Glasgow International Women s Group Volunteers training, Sighthill North Glasgow Learning & Reflection The project s four trips have been a great way of learning as it has helped to build community capacity in environmental knowledge and offered the opportunity to share experience between community members in a pleasant and happy environment Amina Save Energy Project has been a valuable service addition to our organisation. BME communities in the North and South Glasgow became gained confidence in dealing with energy matters and they had become more open about their energy issues. Community January 2014 page 12

13 members are now using our project messages and advice in their daily life and they know they can contact us anytime for advice in energy saving or efficiency. The need for our help has not stopped from the start of the project. Although we were not successful in securing funding for 2016/17 however we are still receiving calls for help and advice. We give initial advice and refer them to other partner organisations Throughout our 19 months project we were keen to know about behaviours and attitudes of BME towards energy saving and efficiency and to understand what kind of help is needed and how we can tailor our support to ensure that they benefit from our service. Monitoring and evaluation has been the most valuable indicator for the project. Through feedback and issues highlighted, we were been able to understand many of the issues that have been a concern for us regarding families with very high energy consumption According to the analyses of our monitoring and evaluation we believe a lot needed to be done to help reducing families carbon foot print and improve their fuel poverty situation. In total 156 service users/families responded to our energy efficiency survey: According to the survey we can highlight the following : 63% of the families we dealt with live in flats 26% are still in single glazing and 70% in double glazing 64.8% use gas central heating and 30.5% use electricity central heating In terms of how service users heat their homes, we found that 63.5% turn heating on only at certain time, 13.5% their heating is turned on high all the time during the cold period, and 20% have heating turn on low all the time In terms of using the programmer to control their heating we found out that only 42.4% use programmer or thermostat, 42.4% do not use thermostat or programmer whereas 15.2% use manual setting. In terms of loft insulation 57% do not have loft insulation, only 35% have loft insulation In terms of affordability to pay energy bills, 48.8% said they are struggling to pay bills whereas 40.7 % said they are managing to pay their bills 50.6% said they do not heat their houses when they are struggling to pay their bills, whereas 49% said they heat up their houses despite their struggle to pay their bills. Surprisingly 65.5% of service users live in fuel poverty (Fuel poverty defined by UK Fuel Poverty Strategy statement in Nov 2001 by UK government as when house energy cost is more than 10% of their income), 18% live in severe fuel poverty (where their energy cost is more than 20% of their income) 77.9% of the respondent they set their machines 30-40degree centigrade January 2014 page 13

14 85% use dish washer in full load whereas only 15.6% uses dishwasher in half load 66% of them they use open air drying, only 23.8% use tumble dryer 73.5% use soap and rinse under running water rather than using dish washers 30% keep the lid on the saucepan while cooking, 91% switching off lights when leaving the room Only 46% use energy saving bulbs 71.9% turn appliances off when they are not in use 72% recycle plastic bags when they go to supermarket. Only 35% buy locally produced food 54.7% recycle always, whereas 27.7% recycle sometimes and 17% never recycle, This indicates a need for more work to be done to increase recycling among client base 67% use public transport, where as 23% use cars. Evidence of need for more work in climate change awareness:: As a result of the analyses of 198 respondent gathered during our events and workshops ast of our energy saving project we have highlighted the following: The awareness level of the causes and effects of climate change are generally low amongst our community groups. It is particularly low in terms of the knowledge of measures and practices needed to be done to reduce carbon emissions which came as 5% (an average from all the groups we worked with in the South and North of Glasgow). Awareness about Green House Effect is 7%, Carbon Foot Print is 8%, and awareness about ways to save money on energy bills and about locally produced food are both 10%. Recycling came the highest among the issues been explored which stands as 19%.among the other items explored (As evident from the survey results the awareness level and knowledge on these issues are very low). January 2014 page 14

15 Please see Fig 1 in supporting information section From analysing the results of North and South Glasgow individually we found that the level of awareness is generally higher amongst communities in the North compared to the groups in the south (please see Fig 2 in the supporting information section ). The north Glasgow groups comprises predominantly of refugees, and we believe that this difference of awareness is an area which needs to be explored further Finance & Administration After the project s complete set up and development we found out that we need more staff time to help in working with different community groups in advising and supporting clients and keep the project momentum going. We solved this problem by applying to Community Jobs Scotland, we were successful in getting two part-time community jobs trainees. To widen our project impact on improving community resilience to climate change we have teamed up with Cifal Scotland a UNITAR fellow (Edinburgh based project), to finance two workshops about community climate resilience, we have jointly applied to Glasgow Science Centre as part of their science week fund to get funding to deliver the two workshops, we were successful in getting 500 towards the cost of our climate resilience workshops Supporting information Evidence about impact of our help and advice to improve energy efficiency and reduce fuel poverty from Case Studies Case Study 1: Mrs K.A. (Glasgow North) Mrs K.A is a lone parent living with her two children. One of her children has mental health issues. Mrs K.A moved to her flat in Feb 2014, we conducted a home visit to her house accompanied by Gheat advisor. Mrs KA has storage heaters and a prepayment meter in her house hasn t been set properly to allow her to feed in her money. She was unknowingly using the credit meter. She wasn t aware of how to set up her storage heater and also wasn t aware that the heater has an expensive day tariff and a cheaper night tariff, we explained this to her and the GHeat advisor set up the storage heater for her and we showed her how to set it. After 4 months of using her credit meter she got a debt of 900, she started to put 200 pounds per month towards the debt, but the debt January 2014 page 15

16 keeps adding on, and she is now in debt of We conducted a home visit with G-heat, only to find out that it is the fault of her supplier that didn t set the prepayment meter correctly and put her on an unsuitable tariff. After discussing this with Scottish Power Social Enterprise Direct, an application has been put out on her behalf to the Scottish Power Hardship fund. The application was successful in November 2015 and her outstanding debt of was written off. She is now able to move forward with her current energy usage and paying into her prepayment meter. I am very happy and stress-free now that my debt is gone. Thank you so much to Amina and the help they gave, I have been telling all my family & friends about your help. So thank you so much! - (Mrs K.A) Case Study 2: Ms S.G. South Glasgow Ms S is 68 years old and suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes. Ms SG main source of income is Pension Credits. Ms SG lives in her own home, a 3-bedroom house and has 2 members of her family living with her. Her property is triple glazed, however her boiler is more than 14 years old, working inefficiently and needing replaced as soon as possible. Additionally her property requires insulation and new radiators to limit heat loss. Currently the client has no heating in her home which causing serious health issues. Kitchen waste is not being recycled, causing a great deal of food wastage. Ms SG was referred to Citrus Energy and Home Energy Scotland (HES) to the boiler replacement scheme, under the Affordable Warmth Scheme. She has also been advised to get a composter installed in the back garden to reduce food wastage. We later did a follow-up on Ms SG energy efficiency and fuel poverty situation in her home and discovered a great deal of improvement in her circumstances. She was accepted into the Affordable Warmth Scheme and was passed onto British Gas who carried out a survey in order to arrange the necessary work involved in improving her home insulation and heating system. She quoted the following : I am very pleased with the help I received from Amina, I got a new boiler in place and my bills have become low. Mrs SG January 2014 page 16

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18 Table 1 Do you spend more than 10% of your income to heat your home? ( for example if your income is 200 per week, do you spend more than 20 on heating) Fig 4 Table 2 Answer Options Response Percent Response Count Yes 69.0% 49 No 28.2% 20 Sometimes 2.8% 2 answered question 71 skipped question 3 If you struggle in paying your electricity or gas bills, are you aware of any support available to you? Fig 5 Answer Options Response Percent Response Count Yes 30.4% 21 No 49.3% 34 Don't Know 20.3% 14 answered question 69 skipped question 5 January 2014 page 18

19 Table 3 If you struggle to pay your fuel bills does this make you stressed which results in your wellbeing? Fig 6 Answer Options Response Percent Response Count Yes 73.3% 44 No 13.3% 8 Not Applicable 13.3% 8 answered question 60 skipped question 14 Name of report authors and date it was finalised: Asma Abdalla Nahrumah Haj The compilation of the final report should not be down to one person. The management committee/board members should be involved. Output Grid Please fill in only those outputs which relate to your project. More information about all of these outputs can be provided in other sections of the report these figures will enable us to collate some overall impacts of the CCF. How many advice/information centres regular drop-in centre, advice surgery etc. - is your project running? How many training sessions where skills and/or information were passed on e.g. composting training, cooking workshops, etc. has your project has held. How many events did your project hold, e.g. information fairs, open days, etc.? Do not include events held by other organisations which you have attended. How many staff, volunteers or community members have achieved qualifications through the project e.g. City & Guilds Energy Awareness, Trail Cycle Leader, etc How many people were directly employed by your project. Tell us the full-time equivalent (FTE) number of employees (e.g. 3 days per week = 0.6 FTE). Is the project is supporting the development of any long-term jobs which are not dependent of CCF Funding? How many? January 2014 page 19

20 How many people are actively involved in your project attending groups & workshops, using the project facilities etc.? How many people volunteer their time and energy to keeping the project going don t forget the members of your management committee or board How many schools are involved in your project? How many community-owned buildings have been refurbished? How many Home Energy Checks or similar energy efficiency reports have been carried out by your project? How many households have been referred on to other agencies or providers (e.g. HES, Green Deal assessor) for further action? How many households installed energy efficiency measures loft, wall or floor insulation, draft-proofing, double glazing etc. as a result of your project? How many households installed green energy generation measures photovoltaic panels, solar thermal panels, air or ground source heat pumps, wood fuelled heating systems etc as a result of your project? How many miles of car journeys have been reduced through the activities of your project? How many square metres (m 2 ) of community growing space (allotments, polytunnels, raised beds, community gardens) has your project brought into use? How many tonnes of waste have been diverted from landfill because of the activities of your project? How many kwh of energy has been reduced because of the activities of your project? January 2014 page 20