Significant energy efficiency measures in Dundee community space. Improving the efficiency of an 1888 building through insulation (both attic and underfloor), secondary glazing upgrading, installation of destratification fans (to better direct the heat towards the colder floor level from a 7m height) , solar PV panels and heat distribution measures to reduce carbon emissions by 34% and reduce heating output by 25-30%. The benefits of each have been detailed in an audit for the building. Our peak usage is also in the evening, when most of our classes take place. Battery power will allow us to generate and store during quieter daytime sessions to then allow for storage and use in the evening. Insulation will have a direct effect on the cold pool we have in the centre of our main practice space. Radiator heat goes straight up into our 7m vaulted space. With both insulation and 6 destratification fans, we could move an even heat to the lower levels as seen in the Dundee Rep. With soaring energy costs, we would be better able to direct resources towards maintaining our rich family and outreach programme providing a warm, welcoming and comfortable space.

With soaring energy costs, and reduced household income, and the organisation's core funds coming from community classes, we cannot put up class prices without increasing the pressure on our clients. With outreach classes 6 days a week, our free programmes also feel the effects of comfort and well-being in our space. Sharing our message about energy would also be a large part of our comms for the duration and after the project, as the most significant project we have taken on since our inception.

A partnership between Hillcrest Homes (who have a multi award winning energy advice team - HEAT) and the Stobswell Forum to deliver tailored energy advice and support to all residents (of any tenure) in Stobswell.

Advice and support to individuals on all aspects of energy saving and efficiency.

The project will purchase a thermal imaging camera and will be out in the community actively looking for properties where there is heat loss to see where improvements can be made for residents.

Liaison advice and support to landlords on energy efficiency measures that will improve the energy efficiency of their properties therefore benefitting the tenant.

Upskilling of local community groups and volunteers to spot and signpost residents for support.

Raising awareness of climate change and energy efficiency with young people through schools and other youth services.

Professor Fionn Stevenson is a recently retired world renown expert on housing performance evaluation who wishes to give back to the city she studied and lives in as a volunteer. She is a member of the Stobswell Forum community and has carried out numerous projects like this in the UK and abroad as an academic researcher while at the Universities of Dundee, Oxford Brookes and Sheffield from 2000-2022. She has particular skills in facilitating community engagement with housing performance evaluation, and has worked in the past with Scottish Homes, various local authorities, housing associations and national private housing developers such as Stewart Milne and Barratt Homes. Fionn will contribute her time on a voluntary basis to support some of the activities detailed in the original bid, there is no requirement for additional funding for this specialist expertise.

Douglas Food Cupboard are a Local Community Group who are providing a local response to tackling food waste and food insecurity in the East End. 

We would like a grant to support our membership, which consists of local residents, to reduce their energy consumption. We would do this by providing 80 of our regular members with an air fryer and 10 LED energy saving lightbulbs each. While this would have economic benefits for our members, they would also be positively contributing to the aim of reducing energy use as both devices are more energy efficient than traditional ovens and lightbulbs. 

To accompany the air fryers we would also provide some ingredients and recipes to encourage our members to increase their confidence in using the device. 

Wellbeing Works is a local mental health charity based in the Wellgate Centre.  The Community Toolbox is their new project.  It is a library of things people in and around Dundee can borrow instead of buying for decorating, DIY, gardening, outdoor events, cleaning, baking, entertaining and more.  This means that people who can't afford to buy these tools and equipment are able to access them, and as a community we are reducing our carbon footprint by borrowing instead of buying items that ultimately end up in landfill sites. We are also building a culture where we share our skills and resources.  Check out the Community Toolbox at dundee.myturn.com 

Watch our VIDEO to learn more about the project here

Campy Growers are transforming a derelict space into Dundee's biggest community food garden: the Vegetarium, with the potential to produce tonnes of fresh, local food to benefit the whole city.

As food costs increase, we need to build resilience, security and the skills to grow our own food, in response to the worsening climate crirsis.

We are both mitigating emissions, as well as adapting to future food shortages and at the same time boosting biodiversity.

So, over the next year, we will:

• Expand our growing space for food production.
• Provide fresh produce to community projects.
• Deliver workshops to teach people across the local area how to grown food.
• Deliver cooking skills classes, lunch clubs and other food and health-based activities.
• Inspire, excite and welcome families to connect with vibrant, fresh, local food.
• Produce vegetable seedlings to support Dundee residents and other community gardens to grow veg.
• Grow high-quality, nutrient-dense food using sustainable agro-ecological methods.
• Minimise carbon emissions and maximise carbon absorption through shortening supply chains, composting onsite waste and building soil carbon.
• Enhance biodiversity, soil restoration and carbon drawdown.
• Guide individuals throught their horticulture journey by upskilling and training  them.
• Regenerate the soil, which has been neglected and compacted ovber the years, with the use of green manure and manual tools.
• Help connect poeoplpe with their local food grower. Increase knowledge of and participation in environmentally sustainable land activities buy providing opportunities for peopole to be involved with the site, such as Community Supported Agriculture membershio, volunteer days, pick-your-own, open days and stalls.

As a volunteer-led organisation, over 2 growing seasons, having rejuvenated the soil, we have produced approx 3 tonnes of vegetables that have been donated across the city to individiuals, families and charities.

We are looking to employ a full-time gardener and opart-time Project Coordinator to develop this work and allow us to reach our full potential for the benefit of the whole city.

We are also seeking funds for the propagation of our vegetable seedlings and the upcycling of two abandoned shipping containers into usable storage.

Our success supports the success of other food projects across the city.

Wee Feed the World is a unique and far-reaching photographic initiative celebrating the small, family farmers, fisher-people and hunters who provide 70% of the world’s food in ecologically and socially just ways, despite the many challenges they face. Led by The University of Dundee Botanic Garden and the Gaia Foundation, the initiative seeks to support the global food sovereignty movement and to raise the voices of the urban and peri-urban farmers whose work both locally in Dundee and Globally demonstrates the vital importance of agroecology and food sovereignty for building a climate change resilient food system.

Over more than two years, 50 farming communities across six continents have worked with 40 award-winning photographers, including Rankin, Martin Parr, Nadav Kander and Gabriela Iturbide, to document their lives, celebrate their work and to highlight the challenges they currently face- from climate change to mega-mining. The funding this project seeks will add to that with urban and peri-urban farmers in and around Dundee to bring the world of food, acting locally while thinking globally to multiple venues across the city.

The photos will be exhibited in a diversity of food and drink connected places across Dundee from October 2023 crossing formal gallery boundaries to connect the growing spaces and their potting sheds to centres of faith, to community hubs and with bespoke formal gallery’s. Through the power of making the unseen seen, the stories of the men and women who truly feed the world will reach a much wider audience. The light will bring focus to those who are working hard behind the scenes to help feed Dundee in an environmentally sustainable way, with local examples of soil to plate that embed environmentally sustainable practices with reduced food miles and enhanced freshness.

We hope that shining a light on local growers and producers, with artisan food producers both near and far, will bring into the spotlight and help engage our community in conversations that will help inform a transition in the local food system. Food after all is the human story, linked to our sedentary transition and agrarian tradition. Its sharing will help the city to aspire for a city where fresh, local, sustainable produce is available and affordable for all and where good food is a celebrated part of our culture.

Globally, young people rate climate change as the most important societal issue (Ojala, 2018), and 77% think the future is frightening, 66% are very or extremely worried, and 45% reporting that their feelings about climate change affects their daily life (Marks et al., 2021). A concept that attempts to capture the psychological impact of climate change is ‘eco-anxiety’, which has diffused into public discourse (see BBC, 2019). Eco-anxiety contains common features of anxiety, such as uncertainty and lack of control (Pihkala, 2020; Stanley et al., 2021) and is conceptualized as a manifestation of the impact of climate change on wellbeing. In a study of adult students, Schwartz et al., (2022) found that engagement in collective action decreased the symptoms of depression related to climate change anxiety. However, Schwartz and colleagues (2022) did not address what it is about collective action that functions as a buffer for climate change anxiety.

We propose a project that would examine ways to engage communities and especially young people around climate change. We believe that this type of engagement will not only raise awareness but also improve resilience and well-being as it relates to the effects of climate change. One important aspect of engaging communities to mitigate climate change is that acting together – and seeing others act – can really affect wellbeing, thus encouraging continued action. Acting together can reduce climate anxiety and create a sense of empowerment, a feeling that in working together, people really can create change. 

We will use a qualitative approach to understand what factors harm or improve people’s psychological wellbeing in the context of climate change, focusing on the roles of identity, intersectionality, collective action, and direct and vicarious (dis)empowerment. Speaking with students and activists, we propose to conduct focus groups with non-activists to explore how their understandings of climate change relate to their wellbeing and empowerment. We will also conduct individual interviews with climate activists to ask people what it is that gets them motivated to make changes in their own lives and also in trying to get others motivated as well. Speaking with both non-activists and activists will provide contrasting perspectives on shared community, identity, and wellbeing. We will partner with local organisations to share this information and find ways to encourage young people in local communities to take part in climate action.

Outputs for this work will come in two forms: community-focused output and academic output. In terms of community-focused output, the project’s primary aim is to provide local stakeholders and local young people the opportunity to discuss their experience of participating (or not) in collective action for climate change. This work will ideally find out ways to better connect these groups, first through a workshop for local organisations, and then through an event that would allow young people in Dundee to connect with those organisations. It could also be beneficial to bring this information to the local council and other local government bodies, and we would do this by preparing a lay report that can be shared publicly. The academic output would involve carrying what we learn in the interviews and focus groups to conferences and academic publications so that further research can be carried out in the future.  

£1612 - total salary for a project assistant to help organise and coordinate interviews, focus groups, and workshops with local stakeholders. Cost calculated for 7.5 hours per month for 12 months, starting 1 June 2023.

£980 - travel and accommodation for project consultation from Dr Sara Vestergren. Dr Vestergren will participate in workshops with local stakeholders.

£1032 - Transcription (group interviews - 5x120min)

£1800 - Transcription (individual interviews - 20x60min)

£600 - Participant incentives (40x15)

Total: £6024

Our Coldside ward extends from the edge of the city centre north over the Dundee Law, with historic communities including  Hilltown, The Law, and Coldside itself among many others.  It is an area of great beauty and variety, with a friendly and vibrant community spirit, but it is also a place where many, especially families and older people, endure poverty and acute need.

Enthusiastic and committed volunteers from within the ward work long hours to meet those needs, through local projects including a food cupboard, meal clubs and the community food larder based at Hilltown Community Centre. The larder opens on two lunchtimes every week, providing a range of food, including fresh fruit and vegetables, bread, milk, and chilled and frozen goods to local community members for a small payment. The larder is a lifeline for many, and more and more people are joining as the cost of living crisis intensifies.

But to meet increased demand for this and other essential services, our volunteers have to travel in private petrol and diesel vehicles to shop, collect donations and pick up other resources. The volume of food that is needed is much more than could be carried on foot or by bike, and too much to take on a bus. Just at a time when the people of Dundee are growing more and more aware of the climate and biodiversity emergencies, and the urgent need to phase out fossil fuels, we are having to use petrol and diesel vehicles to meet our community’s essential needs.

We are therefore asking for help from the Climate Fund to decarbonise our volunteer transport, by leasing an electric vehicle for food and community support projects. There is already a plan for an electric car charging station at our base in the community centre, which we could use, and the vehicle would be available to all volunteer groups working to support and help the people of Coldside ward. Having an electric vehicle for these essential shopping and other journeys would not only reduce our carbon footprint and impact on the environment, but would also raise awareness of climate change and biodiversity loss, building capacity and engaging the community in our shared work to build a better, cleaner and fairer future.

Feeling Strong’s Sythensis Climate Project will be a year long project which raises awareness on climate change, eco-anxiety and how we can use nature as a tool to improve the mental health of young people in Dundee. Feeling Strong exists to make sure that every young person aged 8-26 in Dundee who has experienced a mental health or wellbeing challenge is supported to reach their full potential. We deliver projects, services and campaigns in the community to tackle stigma, build confidence, develop resources, create networks and most importantly support the positive recovery journey of our young people. This 12-month project has a total project budget of £16,572 spent over the year. We will engage young people by: 

1. Building knowledge of the positive effects being in nature can have on our mental health and how young people can develop creative responses to the climate crisis. We will do this through a series of art-making workshops leading to the development of works will be exhibited publicly in Dundee

2. Raise awareness around the negative impact climate change can have on our mental health by asking young people to create an interactive, playable game about the top 4 endangered animals in Scotland, as well as supporting our young people to produce and film a documentary about local climate activism and eco-anxiety in Dundee

3. We will also host a mini-COP style conference at the Feeling Strong Hub, focussing on climate issues that impact young people, highlighting the voices of young speakers locally and create pathways for young people to be further engaged in climate activism

4. Getting young people out in nature via an outdoor interactive art trail that raises awareness of the importance of conservation and how engaging with nature can have a positive impact on our wellbeing and ensuring young people's creative responses are highlighted across Dundee 

 Workshop Phase 

 In this phase, we will invite young people to attend creative and climate activism workshops based at our Hub. These workshops will be free and accessible to anyone aged 12-26 who is in Dundee. This would include life drawing, poetry, zine making, activism, documentary making and planning for sustainable futures. 

Game Jam

We will host a Game Jam with Dundee University Archives. The prompt will be the impact climate change has on mental health. We will ask the participants to create a game inspired by one of the most endangered species in Scotland. 

Exhibition

We will host an exhibition of participants' creative outputs from the workshops responding to climate change, endangered species and climate activism. This will be open to the public, raising awareness of climate change and young people’s voices.

Nature Trail 

We will install a Nature Trail in Dundee’s greenspace. There would be 12 QR code points on this trail where people can see art made during the project, and it would encourage young people to get out and use Dundee’s greenspaces. If they collect all the QR codes, they can come to Feeling Strong to receive a custom pin badge.

Conference

We will host a mini-COP conference at the Feeling Strong Hub, where young people will have localised discussions with decision-makers about mental health and climate change. The outcome of this event is to create a Manifesto that would feature testimonies of young people. 

End of Year Showcase and Release of Documentary

Alongside our Climate Conference, we will host a final exhibition showcasing all creative outputs made during the project, with a documentary featuring interviews with local figures discussing the impact climate change has on our young people's mental health.

Find out more about the amazing work we do at Feeling Strong: https://www.feelingstrong.co.uk/

We partner with others at home & abroad, supporting people to have more control over their lives. While much of our work over the past three decades has focused on overseas programmes, since 2006 we have grown our Scottish activities to include sustainable education workshops and more recently a food security & food waste programme from our base at The Roundhouse, a former social work building in Whitfield, Dundee.

Our vision is for the Roundhouse to be a hub for sustainable learning and living here in Dundee - a place to provide people with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate changing, uncertain times and the confidence and resources to meet the challenges they face.

The Roundhouse café & Community Kitchen addresses hunger while reducing food waste through education & repurposing of surplus foods. Last year we captured over 8 tonnes of surplus food from 17 local supermarkets, businesses, & farms, using much of it to produce and distribute through local foodbanks more than 10,000 meals using 1,750 volunteer hours.

We want to shift the focus away from simple provision towards education & self-sufficiency through transformed behaviours & improved skillsets around ideas of food & sustainability. Our café (which supports a pay-it-forward scheme & gives away surplus food ensuring everyone can eat) is becoming a gathering place for locals & community groups, addressing social isolation, food waste, and hunger simultaneously. Our garden and allotments are tended by a volunteer community gardening group, producing fresh produce for use in the Roundhouse Community Kitchen café and meals.

Informed by community feedback and experience we are seeking to expand our work growing food locally and inspiring others to do similarly. This project has the aim of improving the health and wellbeing of Whitfield residents by empowering them to make informed, healthy choices. Employing a part-time member of staff and supported by volunteers we will run a series of workshops tailored to different groups within the community, supporting people to have the skills, confidence, and means to grow their own food - however much or little! - and cook using fresh and budget food items.