Transforming Our Futures

In this Podcast we talk to Kathleen Kelley about her work in LocalMotion “to support local people to address social, environmental and economic priorities selected and driven locally and derive as much learning as possible from that process”.

The circumstances facing communities and charities across the country are increasingly difficult. The long-term and continuing squeeze on funding to local government and for local services against a backdrop of long-established regional differences, has left charities – themselves resource constrained – increasingly having to pick up the pieces.

Kathleen Kelley is now working with a number of independent funders who have been investing and supporting charities to survive and adapt for a number of years but they know that there is more they should do to support and boost the potential of people and communities, and crucially to do so through a place-based approach.

Kathleen through her work is keen to understand how to be more effective collectively in supporting issues facing communities across the UK and how this might change practice

Kathleen has led the development of the National Lottery Community Fund’s partnership funding approach, establishing strategic partnerships across the charitable, public, private and funder sectors. More recently she was Assistant Director of Communities and Social Policy at Greater London Authority implementing the Mayor’s strategies on Social Integration and Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion. Previously she worked at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for 10 years

In this Podcast we discuss with Alex Rainbow of Cornwall County Council how they are adopting the “doughnut economics” model of Kate Raworth to create a sustainable county that can deliver services within the planetary constraints of sustainability.

Cornwall Council has identified the ‘Doughnut economics’ model as a useful framework to pursue the goal of meeting people’s needs within environmental limits, and has developed a decision-making wheel based upon the model which it is using to assess the impact of specific policy decisions or interventions.

The hope is that with this model Cornwall can develop a higher-level assessment of the current state of social and ecological conditions across Cornwall to inform progress towards agreed strategic priorities.

This requires the identification of appropriate indicators of progress across all of Cornwall’s service delivery and the metrics of this will form part of the discussion in this webinar

This is a model that is increasingly being adopted across the globe and Amsterdam and Brussels are two Cities working with Doughnut economic.

In this Podcast we interview Emmanuel Gotora the Lead Organiser of The East London Communities Organisation (TELCO), the founding Chapter of Citizens UK.

In this Podcast Alan whitehead MP the Shadow Minister (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) will be interviews by the young people of EnCaf Youth.

They will be discussing climate change, tackling waste and the future of energy. They discuss issues around climate change, the green new deal, incineration, community energy and more

In this Podcast we interview Nicola Peel about her work and campaign in the Amazon rain forests.

The Rainforests in the Amazon are one of the lungs of our planet absorbing carbon dioxide and helping us to combat climate change but they are under threat. But they are not just under threat because of deforestation. They are also threatened by oil spills. Nicola tells us,

'Where I work in the Amazon it is like heaven and hell. I can lie in my hammock and look one way at mango, avocado, coconut, sapote and it's paradise; look the other and it's huge gas flares and the oil industry. I've seen rivers running black with oil spills, kids covered in skin lesions and lots of sick people. When most people think about the Amazon they think of the deforestation but know nothing of the oil spills.”

In this podcast we will ask Nicola to tell her story and what lay behind her making of the film “Blood Of The Amazon.”

Nicola Peel, environmentalist and film-maker, has spent the last five years in Ecuador working on rainwater catchment systems for families whose groundwater is contaminated from the oil industry; while at the same time filming the unfolding ecocide for her latest documentary, Blood of the Amazon.

In this Podcast young people from the Enfield Climate Action Forum (EnCaf Youth) discuss with Lara Rudar form Dubai in the UAE the difference young people can make to tackling the climate crisis.

Lara Rudar is a 17 year old filmmaker, photographer and VR artist. She was also the official UAE Ambassador for Nature and Education Coordinator at the Re-Earth Initiative - a youth-led climate change organisation.

Lara was also selected by the Oxford Climate Society for the Hilary 2021 Cohort of School of Climate Change and joined 330 delegates representing over 140 countries for a Mock COP26 which helped produce a treaty for urgent climate action

At only 17 Lara is passionate about climate change as it will have devastating impacts in the Middle East.

Members of EnCaf Youth are also equally passionate about climate change and are developing ways to involve Enfield Schools in addressing this issue for young people.

So a cross border discussions like this is really exciting and illustrates that this problem is global and we must all work together.

In this Podcast we interview Lucy Stephens who was tired of ‘shoehorning’ pupils through tests. Her new school has no Sats, no behaviour policy – and an idea for a novel funding system

The New School, based in Croydon, south London, opened its doors in September. It has no Sats and no behaviour policy, and operates on a “democratic” decision-making model for pupils and staff. It can escape statutory testing because it is a private school – but one with no fees. It is funded by philanthropic company donations – £1m of seed funding this year – although Stephens hopes to move to a completely different funding model involving her local authority, believing she can offer a social partnership approach which could be copied by other schools that want to innovate.

The main aim is to create a mini democracy. Many schools have become focused on maintaining a hierarchy to control children’s behaviour, rather than listening to them or building meaningful relationships with them, she says. “We live in a democracy, but we don’t practise that model in schools. And then we expect young people to come out aged 18 and operate democratically in society.” The idea is for “self-determination within a community of equals”.

In recent months local authorities across the UK have been queuing up to declare a climate emergency but in the rush not to be left out have they really thought through what this means? They may have set net zero targets for the years ahead but have they gone beyond that or have the relied with on a conventional approach that is often consultant rather than community led.?

In this Podcast members of EnCaf Youth (Enfield Climate Action Forum) interview Georgia Elliott-Smith.

Georgia Elliott-Smith, a sustainability consultant who is fighting the expansion of the Edmonton incinerator, is seeking a judicial review of the omission of what legal papers say are “staggering” levels of CO2 emissions from waste incinerators. She is now waiting the decision of the Court.

Georgia has been a very brave person and this has been a David against Goliath story but thus far Georgia has been successful and has gained immense support from both citizens and professionals

In the UK, around 60% of our household waste ends up being burned in incinerators – even though most of it could be recycled if there were stricter government regulation. You know why there’s not? Because it’s cheaper to burn it.

Members of EnCaf Youth (sixth formers from Enfield schools) will question Georgia about her opposition to the Incinerator and why she felt it necessary to take legal action

In this Podcast we talk to Ben Hudson from Global Action Plan to discuss pollution and how localities can take action to reduce it.

Global Action Plan are the people behind Clean Air Day, the UK's largest air pollution campaign. They bring people together to inspire each other to go further and exert their voice to ensure policy makers and organisations play their part.

To breathe clean air every day we need to make rapid changes: adopting electric vehicles, avoiding millions of car journeys, slashing industrial and construction emissions and stopping buying products that cause pollution in our homes.

To see change at this scale requires us to work as a movement, with changemakers across the country modelling that change, and exerting pressure on government and major polluters.

Air pollution causes heart and lung disease and results in over 36,000 people in the UK dying each year. Clean air is essential for our health, and the co-benefits of clean air measures are also good for our wellbeing as well as being good for the planet.

We will discuss this with Ben Hudson in this webinar and also what action we can take locally and also what action local authorities should also be taking to ensure clean air for everyone.