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End of Project Report

April 2015-March 2016

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Organisation West of Scotland Regional Equality Council

Address Napiershall Street Centre 39 Napiershall Street Glasgow G20 6EZ

Contact Number 01413376626

E-mail admin@wsrec.co.uk

Website www.wsrec.co.uk

Project Name Cook, Grow, Sew Together

Project website http://cookgrowsew.wsrec.co.uk

Funded By: Keep Scotland Beautiful - Climate Challenge Fund

CCF Unique Reference 3963

Project Start Date: April 2015

Project End Date: March 2016

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Contents Pages

Chapter 1: Organisational Profile 4-6

1.1: Organisational Aims

1.2: Current Projects

1.3: Background on WSREC’s Climate Change Journey

Chapter 2: . Let’s Cook Grow Sew Together: Project Overview 6-13

2.1: Key Outcomes

2.1.1 CO2e Outcomes

2.1.2 Community Outcomes

2.1.3 Activities

2.2 Headline Achievements

2.3 Some interesting facts from the project

Chapter 3: Carbon Outcomes 14-21

3.1Energy Reduction

3.2 Growing

3.3 Waste

3.3.1 Refurbishing

3.3.2 Zero Waste Food

3.4 Data Gathering for CO2e Reduction Outcome

Chapter 4. Community Outcomes 22-23

4.1 Awareness raising on energy efficiency

4.2 Awareness raising on recycling

4.3 Awareness raising on eco driving

4.4 Awareness raising through marketing of the project

Chapter 5. Learning 24-25

5.1 Learning and Reflection

5.2 Unexpected Outcomes

Finance and Administration 25

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1. Organisational Profile West of Scotland Regional Equality Council (WSREC) challenges discrimination, reduces inequality and promotes good relations between all communities. Based in the Glasgow, we are the largest Regional Equality Council in Scotland due to the number of projects we deliver and also the number of diverse communities that we work with both quantatively and geographically.Over the years we have received accreditation from the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and Investors in People (IIP).We are also an accredited SQA Centre and have achieved our Healthy Working Lives award at Bronze Level. Currently we are working towards our Scottish National Standards for Information and Advice. WSREC’s vision is that we see an inclusive society free from discrimination. 1.1 Organisational Aims -The elimination of discrimination in all of its forms -Promote good relations between all communities - Promote a culture of human rights and reduce inequality WSREC works with a range of equality organisations and individuals with a particular focus on minority ethnic communities living in the West of Scotland. Around 70% of our users are from the city of Glasgow where the minority ethnic population is largest and approx 10% of the total population (60,000 people) and the remainder are from the West of Scotland. The focus of our work is to respond to calls from communities for support and identify gaps in service. Some of the pressing needs that we have seen within our communities are, unemployment, welfare reform, immigration, access to further learning, skills acquisition, civic participation and good quality advice and information.

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1.2 Current Projects

Good Community Relations Project: Funded by the Scottish Government the GCRP project delivers a range of initiatives including challenging hate crime through practitioner training, provision of advice to Central and Eastern European migrants and working with to build a minority ethnic community structure in the Renfrewshire local authority area.

Roma Youth Project: Works with Roma young people from Slovakia, Romania and Czech Republic living in Glasgow with a focus on soft skill support and community empowerment

Living Equality Project: Funded by the Scottish Government to advance understanding of the Public Sector Equality Duty and supporting the Equality Response Forum

Minority Ethnic Employment and Training Project: Funded by the Big Lottery Fund to run an employability training and job search programme for minority communities in Glasgow

Embrace Project: Funded by the Young Start Fund and delivers an arts and music programme to Roma young people living in Glasgow

Branching Out: Funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, Heritage Lottery Fund and the Gannochy Trust to engage minority communities in Scotland’s natural heritage

Roots Scotland: Funded by Historic Scotland to engage minority communities in Scotland’s historic environment

Lets Cook, Grow, Sew Together: Funded through the Climate Challenge Fund, this project increases awareness of methods and tools to use to reduce carbon footprint in minority ethnic communities.

Challenging Sectarianism Across Generations : focused on intergenerational working challenging sectarianism – Funded by The Scottish Govt

1.3 Background on WSREC’s Climate Change Journey WSREC’s climate journey began with the Warm’N’Dry Project in 2012-2013. Funded by the Scottish Power Energy People Trust and in collaboration with intermediary organisations such as G-heat and Solas, the project supported the Polish, Somali and Slovak Roma communities in Glasgow to become more knowledgeable about energy efficiency in their homes. The impact of this project was that members of these minority groups not only demonstrated an increased knowledge of how to become energy efficient, but also became aware of where and how to access support for their energy needs. A need was identified to develop this information project even further, which was then taken forward with a CCF Development Grant. The CCF Development Grant allowed us to engage with the Polish, African and Middle Eastern communities in the West of Scotland on the reduction of carbon emissions. While the Warm’N’Dry project focussed on individual impact by influencing behavioural change through becoming more energy efficient, the CCF Development grant took this further by looking at the wider benefit of carbon emissions reductions. Activities included energy efficiency advice, cooking and sew classes From our survey with minority ethnic communities on carbon reduction awareness and taster workshops on growing and sewing we became aware that we have an eager group of people willing to become more engaged in carbon reduction.

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In 2103 WSREC applied funding for the ‘Cook, Grow and Sew’ project (CCF Project # 2777), which ran from January 2014 to March 2015. The main aims of this project has to introduce climate change and engage with Polish, African and Middle Eastern communities to activities on how to challenge climate change and look at the wider benefits of reducing carbon emissions. Activities included energy efficiency advice, cooking and sewing classes. WSREC’s own community garden was further developed, where we introduced ongoing gardening classes. Moreover, we also supported individuals in using alternative modes of transport through cycling workshops, which resulted positively with individuals having full time access to bicycles. The project was successful in highlighting the impact of climate change through our community champions and also engaging positively with the communities that we have engaged with. In 2014 WSREC applied for funding for the ‘Let’s Cook, Grow, Sew Together’ (LCGST) project (CCF project # 3963), which started in April 2015 and ended in March 2016. The LCGST project has built upon the work of the CGS project, where based on our learning from last year we have provided a more in-depth focus on understanding issues around climate change and influencing change in behaviours and attitudes. The following sections in this report give a comprehensive overview of the work done and the outcomes achieved within the LCGST project in the year 2015-2016. The first section of the report gives the organisational and project overview, followed by discussion of activities, learning and outcomes achieved in different strands. 2. Let’s Cook Grow Sew Together: Project Overview In the previous year the CGS project worked with Polish, African and Middle Eastern communities living in Greater Glasgow. Through our learning in the Warm’N’Dry and CCF development pilot within these communities, a further need of engaging on CO2e reduction activities was identified, which paved the way for the CGS project. Based on our learning from running the CGS project, it was identified that new communities were not being targeted currently due to language and cultural barriers, and lack of support from mainstream services. Active engagement is essential with harder to reach groups such as Chinese, South Asian and Roma communities, thus establishing need for offering environmental learning and behavioural change support through the Let’s Cook, Grow, Sew Together project. The project started in April 2015 and ended on March 2016. The project impact was divided into two main areas of delivery the hard or the carbon outcomes, and the community outcomes, which focussed on attitude and behavioural change. 2.1 Key Outcomes 2.1.1 CO2e Outcomes The overall CO2e outcome was to cut CO2e by 58.69 tonnes through ongoing support to individuals and families by saving energy both indoor and outdoor by learning new skills and encouraging behaviour change. These were further divided into the following strands:

Energy Reduction: Cut CO2e by 35.41 tonnes over lifetime of project by supporting individuals to save energy within their home and learning new skills and behaviour

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Growing: Cut CO2e by 1.1242 tonnes over lifetime of project by creating a larger green space to grow own food and support local communities and service users in developing their own green space.

Zero Waste (Refurbishing and Food): Cut CO2e by 22.1536 tonnes over lifetime of project by encouraging minority ethnic communities behaviour change in reduction of waste through food and other household items.

2.1.2 Community Outcomes

An increase in engagement and awareness of important issues and reality of climate change through introducing effective methods to reduce carbon.

Minority ethnic communities are committed to and have used their learning to change behaviour and are taking the lower carbon route.

2.1.3 Activities

Community Garden: A green space has been created in our building car park and planting has taken place with production of a good yield. We will extend the existing green space to allow more planting and create a learning zone to increase awareness on growing own food. Taster sessions will take place regularly and this activity will encourage volunteering.

Energy Efficiency: Weekly advice surgeries to engage with up to 200 individuals on reducing energy of which 60 are further supported with home energy advice visits

Refurbishing: 2 x 6 week blocks of classes teaching new skills to up to 20 individuals interested in refurbishing materials such as furniture.

Zero Waste: Community Champions are recruited to introduce an ongoing monthly awareness session delivered up to 60 individuals raising awareness on methods and tools to reduce household waste.

2.2 Headline Achievements

The overall carbon reduction outcome set for 12 months was 58.691 tonnes CO2 e. The project actual was 53.016 tonnes CO2e and was short by 5.6 CO2 e tonnes of the target. It must be highlighted that while all the deliverables were achieved in terms of engaging with the number of beneficiaries and number of activities, with the project exceeding expectations and targets on all community outcomes, as can be seen from Figure 1 the energy, textiles and gardening strands were unable to achieve their individual targets. This was partly because of optimistic estimation of the CO2 e reduction in energy and garden targets. The risk of low carbon outcome was managed through the driving, refurbishing and composting activities, which offset the shortfall of energy reduction and garden.

Figure 1: Achievement of Carbon Emission Reduction

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The total number of participants involved in this year’s activities across cross cutting strands was 1046. Please refer to Figure 2 for a breakdown on the community outcome(s) achieved or exceeded during the 12 months. The highest level of engagement was across Zero Waste engagement activities. 127 beneficiaries were engaged through workshops and 23 participants received further support on reducing waste in households. This active interest in Zero Waste was supplemented by participants wanting to learn more efficient ways of cooking, which has informed our cookery workshop for the year 2016-2017.

Figure 2: Achievement of Community Engagement

Based on the popularity of the workshops and feedback from participants, the project staff had various opportunities to promote the work of the project and engage in discussions with the community on public forums. Some of the highlights of these engagements were:

1. The Project Coordinator was invited to deliver a short workshop by OXFAM in September 2015 as a run up to the COP 21 to illustrate how community groups are taking action, and what kind of action they could take further against climate change. The feedback was that the community members were really interested in engaging with the project and they enjoyed the workshop.

2. The Activities and Engagement Officer and community champions were encouraged to build their capacity by joining the Ethnic Minority Environmental Network (EMEN), which is a network organised by CEMVO. The members of the network had the opportunity to participate in community conversations, which fed into ‘Fairer Greener Scotland Conversations’, ‘UN Sustainable Development Goals: Ethnic Minorities Preparing for Action’ and ‘The Road to Paris: how Scottish communities are driving change’. The WSREC members of the EMEN group were an integral part of organising a very successful end of year CCF Glasgow-Clyde Network celebratory event in Glasgow on 9th April 2016. Called the Glasgow Climate Festival this event celebrated the tackling climate change work being done minority ethnic groups in Glasgow.

3. Community Champions promoted eco-driving sessions on Radio Awaz to the minority ethnic in 2015.

4. Workshops were organised with Zero Waste Scotland through cooking demonstrations and were particularly popular with members of the Chinese community.

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5. Activities and engagement officer develop her capacity further by getting trained in a certified food growing course, which helped in planning the garden over winter and the next funding cycle.

6. Community champions’ capacity was built by acquiring a qualification – The City and Guilds – Energy Awareness Course through the WISE Group.

7. The volunteer run sewing group gained popularity within the participants, and the project was invited by members of the Hindu temple to support them in sewing activities.

8. Volunteers and community champions work was acknowledge in project end of year/spring festival celebrations in 2016. Combined with the Swap shop event this celebration witnessed a footfall of more than 200 people.

9. As a result of our commitment to encouraging individuals from minority ethnic communities to gain a better understanding on methods to reduce carbon footprint, WSREC has been granted funding for a further year by Climate Challenge Fund, with the support of Keep Scotland Beautiful. The coming year the project will not only with member of the minority ethnic communities, asylum seekers and refugees, but also with young people and older people to raise awareness and change behaviours and attitudes in an intergenerational context through the second phase of LETS COOK, GROW and SEW Together Project, which began in April 2016.

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2.3 Some interesting facts from the project

The youngest volunteer 2 years old

The biggest spring onion plant Over 1 meter tall plant

Biggest food waste reduction From 14kg to 9.3 kg per week

Clothes swapped in March Spring Fest 266.5kg

Most popular event Spring Festival- attended by over 200 people

Most popular workshop Zero Waste Demo for Cantonese speakers. 30 people on waiting list! We split it over two days to match the interest.

Most touching feedback ‘ I think this event is the best event I have ever been to.’ Anonymous, Spring Festival

Most tangible results Two outfits at swap shop found by participants. They were going to but in the shop (dress for a dinner party and a shirt for job interviews)

Total number of participants involved this year

1046

2.4 Demographic breakdown Please see page 13 to 17 for a demographic breakdown of the number of people we have worked with through some of the workshops and activities and activities Breakdown of Ethnicity 2015-16 TOTAL: South Asian: 188 Chinese: 125 Roma: 80 Eastern European: 18 Middle Eastern: 8 African: 16 Other Middle Eastern: 15 White British: 65 Other:57

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Date Activity/Strand Attendees

Breakdown of Ethnicity South Asian Chinese Roma Eastern European Middle Eastern African Other Middle Eastern White British Other

June 15 Zero Waste Training 5 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0

Coaster Making- Recycling Week 12 2 3 0 1 0 3 3 0 0

Recycling workshop- WSREC 12 4 2 0 2 0 2 0 2 0

Furniture refurbishing 1 12 5 0 0 3 2 0 1 1 0

Summer Fest 27 13 4 0 1 0 1 0 1 7

Weekly gardening sessions 89 31 6 3 1 2 4 9 3 30

CSAG Gardening 17 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 13 0

Aug 15

Zero Waste Food- Romanian Roma 11 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 0

Eco Driving 1 8 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0

Chinese Veg workshop at Possil Park Schoool 7 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 0

Skill Share- Moss Graffiti 10 3 2 0 1 0 2 2 0

Sept 15

Zero Waste Food- Cantonese 39 0 39 0 0 0 0

Zero Waste- NG Homes 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 4

Eco Driving 2 6 5 0 0 1 0 0

Coaster Making Workshop- Recycling 7 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 9

Coaster Making Workshop- Recycling 2 5 0 0 0 0 0 1

Garden Folk Fest 60 0 4

One World Picnic 20 20

Oct 15

Food Waste workshop NG Homes

Food Waste workshop Cantonese 2 23 0 23 0 0 0 0 0

Eco Driving 3 6 4 1 0 0 0 1

October Week 10 10 0 0 0 0 0 0

Nov 15 Furniture Refurbishing Celebration 9 3 0 0 4 1 1

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Date Activity/Strand Attendees Breakdown of Ethnicity

Jan 16

Zero Waste Food- Women of Faith 10

South Asian Chinese Roma Eastern European

Eco Driving 4 6 3 1 2

Furniture refurbishing 2 11

Basket Weaving Cantonese 6 0 6 0 0 0 0 0

Energy Stall- advice surgery 10 8 2

Energy Stall- advice surgery 20 12 2 6

Feb 16

Zero Waste Food Celebration- Feel Good Women’s Group 15

Nov 15

Skill share- Chair Refurbishing

Sewing Group

Swap Shop

Coaster Making at Crossroads 12 12 0 0 0 0 0

Composter Making

Foraging workshop- Kelvingrove 14

Dec 15

Zero Waste- Feel Good Women’s Group 18

Zero Waste- Feel Good Women’s Group

Coaster Making at Crossroads 2 6 6 0 0 0 0 0

Garden Futures Planning Event

Composter Making

Greener WSREC Audit and Recommendations workshop

Energy efficiency presentation for Cantonese 19 19

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Eco Driving 5 6 2 2 1 1 Middle Eastern African Other Middle Eastern White British

Food Waste- Women of Faith workshop 10

Basket Weaving 11

Coasters Roma Group 31 0 0 31 0 0 0

WSREC Away Day Recycling Workshop 30

Scrap store Trip

Foraging 2 Workshop

Foraging 3 7 7

Foraging 4 6 1 3 2

Coasters Roma Group 32 0 0 32 0 0 0

Energy workshop- Feel Good Women’s Group 14 14

Energy workshop 10 3 7

Energy workshop- Cantonese 25 25

Energy presentation Mandarin speakers 3 3

Mar 16

Eco Driving 6 6 3 1 1 1

Basket Weaving at Sewing Group 12

Sewing session at Crossroads 4 5 0 0 0 0 0

Swap Shop 200

T-shirt Weaving Training 5 2 2 0 1 0 0 0

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3. Carbon Outcomes The project outcomes were designed to fall under two distinct categories. The first outcome was the reduction of CO2e by 58.69 tonnes and the other was a community outcome, which looked at short term and long-term behavioural changes. CO2e Reduction Outcome This outcome was delivered through a series of activities, workshops and advice provision to minority ethnic communities in Glasgow. The project actual was 53.016 tonnes CO2e and was short by 5.6 CO2 e tonnes of the target. Please see Figure 3.1 below for a graphical breakdown of the carbon reduction across the different project strands.

Figure 3.1: Graphical representation of the Carbon Outcomes All of the workings for the activities have been broken down in Appendix 1 – Summary Spreadsheet of C02e Calculations.

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3.1Energy Reduction Cut CO2e by 35.41 tonnes over lifetime of project by supporting individuals to save energy within their home and learning new skills and behaviour. The energy actual was a reduction of 25.06 tonnes CO2e over the lifetime of the project by supporting individuals to save energy within their home and learning new skills and behaviour. This was against a set target of 35.41 tonnes CO2e. The energy strand saw that biggest difference between the carbon target and the actual, which was by 10.354 tonnes CO2e. While we exceeded our output with a total of 75 visits conducted against a target of 60 visits and 217 people were engaged with through energy awareness session against a target of 200 people. Delivery Based on our learning through the energy support given by GHEAT in the previous project cycle, the team was confident to conduct home energy visits and one to one consultation sessions with clients independently. The Project Coordinator specifically trained community champions in home energy visits where visit and one to one session protocols were set, where they had a checklist to follow. In-house as well as external training was provided to staff to engage with the clients as a frontline service and then refer complex cases to GHEAT, Home Energy Scotland and Citrus Energy. Training was also provided by Home Energy Scotland in late 2015 to work on specific topics like fuel poverty and warm home discounts. Key Changes and Evidence of Impact The first key change this year was the delivery of the energy reduction service was provided with less support from GHEAT and HES. It must be highlighted here the support required was less as the team was not only capacity built, but had also learnt from the previous project cycle, thereby truly taking forward the legacy of the CGS project. Another key change was that the visits were supplemented with very relevant participant incentives like a hot water bottle and a shower timer, where we could engage with the clients on a tangible basis, and supplemented this with the use of energy monitors, beneficiaries could see a visible change in their energy usage habits. We were also able to deal with some very complex energy cases of fuel poverty clients with success and this are covered in detail within the case study section. Another significant change was that the service gained traction by word of mouth, where we had people phone in and enquire about the support we could offer, as they had been referred by clients we had engaged with earlier. Moreover, participants in other workshops with the project would come in with their energy bills and queries without us asking them to. While we have met our household target within this strand we were still not able to meet our carbon target. This is primarily because most scenario data was take over the winter months, which automatically reflects a higher usage in the yearly average, which has an impact on the carbon actual. The learning for this year is to take the baseline readings early on and not necessarily take the scenario reading just over the winter period.

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3.2 Growing Cut CO2e by 1.1242 tonnes over lifetime of project by creating a larger green space to grow own food and support local communities and service users in developing their own green space. While the outcome was partially delivered in terms of our carbon reduction target, with a reduction of 432.3245 kilograms of CO2e for this activity, which fell short of the target by 692 kilograms of CO2e. We anticipated a shortfall in the actual by the middle of the year, as the yields were not coming up as expected due to bad weather. To manage this risk we organised four foraging sessions later in the year in Woodland spaces in and around Glasgow.34 individuals encouraged to grow at home through weekly gardening sessions, against a target of 20, 3 gardening sessions were held at Hindu Mandir, 1 gardening session at Possil Park School and Kids Activities during October Week, we have managed to collect data from 19 of those participants, out of which 16 grew in their homes to some success. As part of reducing carbon footprint within the office environment, we introduced the collection of uncooked food waste, which went into a compost bin in the garden. In the year 2015-2016 we have cut down 53 kilograms of CO2e through composting as well. Our community champion’s observation on the food waste in the office was ‘Prior to August (…) we were throwing out 2.7 kg of food every fortnight, mostly from cooking too much pasta/soup/porridge and overbuying fruit and veg which then goes off, particularly fruit juices, which end up making up the bulk of the weight. Between Aug-Sept, we switched food storage practises so we were eating leftovers more often, keeping to a specific shopping list. [Now] we take it in turns to cook meaning that all of the food gets eaten, we use items closest to their use-by date first, and use up fresh fruit with smoothies, banana pancakes, etc., so nothing is left to rot. Also switched to eating raw more frequently, so much more of our food waste gets composted as I started bringing it into the [Napiershall Street Community] garden composter. Main wastage now is porridge and still buying too much fruit and veg, but overall, I would say that food waste is down to 0.5 kg per fortnight’. Delivery The key highlights for this year within the community garden space, was the installation of the gazebo/ summerhouse. While we were growing, sowing and composting from the start of the project, with the advent of the summer house many a community event took place once it was installed. The first session within the gazebo was attended by 6 people with 4 drop ins. While the community WSREC staff when working towards the Healthy Working Lives Bronze Award has created the garden space. It is run with the support of volunteers, where every two weeks the carbon intern for the LCGST project would arrange a skills sharing event. A skills sharing event would include a composting workshop, a moss graffiti workshop or a bug identification workshop. Our workshop sessions ranged from basic to advanced knowledge – for example, participants started with basic knowledge of understanding different types of soil, seeds, plants, weeding to grow their own vegetable and fruits in their gardens. We also provided information and advice on creating their own green space as well as linking participants to community gardens and allotment within Great Glasgow. The sessions helped participants to build their skills and experiences while enhancing community involvement and reducing social isolation. During October week we piloted our garden workshops as well as an outdoor event in a Woodland space, which was welcomed by the participants. We also conducted four foraging sessions in the year, which very interactive and hands on, where lots of

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questions were asked in the process. The comments we received were that it was a great experience and in the feedback forms most participants wanted other similar workshops. Key Changes and Evidence of Impact We observed that the volunteers and drop in participants’ knowledge was enhanced with the specialist gardening workshops we were providing from time to time. For example in the organic nettle fertilizer making workshop, none of the10 participants were aware of importance of nitrogen in growing plants and that you can make your own organic plant feed for free. Another event that took place in the gazebo and community garden space was the ‘Garden Folk Fest’, which was attended by approximately 60 participants. Food, including pakoras was made with our garden vegetables by one of our volunteers. There were activities like bicycle powered cinema included showing of 'Story of Stuff' to raise awareness on climate change issues, a recycling stall by Zero Waste Scotland and a project stall which had details on Energy and Climate Change. More evidence of learning in shown under supporting information and Appendices 1 and 2.

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3.3 Waste Cut CO2e by 22.1536 tonnes over lifetime of project by encouraging minority ethnic communities behaviour change in reduction of waste through food and other household items. 3.3.1 Refurbishing Cut CO2e by 11.488 tonnes, we exceeded the target on the carbon outcome in this strand where the actual reduction was 11.497 tonnes CO2e Delivery 2 x 6 weeks blocks of classes of teaching new skills to individuals interested in refurbishing materials such as furniture were held. Individuals would increase their awareness on how to refurbish, materials and tools etc used and also the best places to shop for materials to refurbish along with the carbon footprint knowledge that will be a result of their change in behaviour. Each workshop was to support 6-8 participants. We anticipated in advance that we would be unable to reach the carbon target just on the basis of the refurbishing workshops and we therefore broke down that carbon target to a mix of textiles and furniture. To mitigate the risk we then supported the sewing group to reuse and recycle fabric and we also conducted two swap shops in the year. The output for the refurbishing workshops was achieved where 2x 7 weeks blocks of classes of furniture skills were provided to the participants, 21 participants attended across both the sessions. Key Changes and Evidence of Impact During the project planning stage there were no target for the swap shops, which proved to be rather popular within the community. However, to mitigate risk we divide the carbon target for this outcome as the following: Textiles Target was 11.155 tonnes CO2e (this was swap shop, and reusing fabric through the sewing group activities) achieved 9.891 tonnes CO2e. Refurbishing target was 333 kilograms CO2e and this was achieved at 1.607 tonnes CO2e. The refurbishing workshops were held for the first time in partnership with Rags to Riches in the South side of Glasgow. With each refurbishing session, the participants learnt about how reducing waste would impact positively on the planet and would learn how to calculate their own carbon emission reduction with the piece of furniture that would be refurbished. We had end of session celebration after both the workshop series and one of the most challenging issues was getting the reduction data from the participants. Participants were given prizes and certificates on successfully completing the workshops. We will be taking this into account when we run the workshops again this year and work on innovative ways of gathering data. Based on the feed back from our other workshop we also changed the method of evaluating the participants learning across the 7 weeks. This was done in pictorial tangible form as opposed to writing an evaluation form and was very well received by the participants. This workshop is one of the most successful activities provided by the project. Before the event, almost the 70% of the participants had no experience in furniture renovation and used to get rid of unwanted items. The totality of the attendants declared of not-being aware of the environmental consequences of throwing old furniture. During the course, the participants were required to weekly test their learning through short quizzes. The final questionnaire showed 100% positive feedback with a significant increase of people’s awareness on environmental issues and the difference that makes personal commitment in tackling them.

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For the swap shops the first swap shop was held in November 2015 and was attended by 50 people and a collection of 160 kilograms of clothes, books and toys were made. The highlight of this event was that many had not head of the concept of a swap shop, and how clothes and textiles were being sent to landfills. The event therefore raised awareness on the projects aim of diverting waste from landfill and how and why are swap shops environmentally friendly. Many expressed an interest in attending the March swap shop, and a number of people who didn’t bring anything said they would bring their waste clothing in March. The second swap shop held in March 2016 as part of our Spring Festival celebrations proved to be very popular with the community, where more than 266.5 kilograms of clothing and 45 kilograms of books were swapped, around 200 people attended the event. More evidence of learning in shown under supporting information and Appendices 1 and 2.

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3.3.2 Zero Waste Food With a target of cutting CO2e by 10.66566 tonnes, the second part of the waste strand capacity build each champion through Zero Waste training, thereafter the champion would link with community focused groups to deliver monthly presentations on the effects of food and other waste and introduce methods to reduce through ongoing behaviour change including shopping habits, food consumption and recycling. After each session champions would request each group to make a commitment to make efforts to reducing carbon emissions based on their learning from presentation and practical tools. The actual carbon reduction achieved for this strand was 10.344 tonnes CO2e carbon reduction, which fell short of the target by 319 kilograms CO2e, the output exceeded the target at 127 people engaged with through out the year in Zero Waste Food engagement activities against a set target of 60 people. Further engagement was done with 23 households against a set target of 20 households. Delivery Working in partnership with Zero Waste Scotland, the project delivered Zero Waste reduction workshops to the Chinese community, the Roma community and the South Asian community across the year. Each engagement session typically involved the respective community champion delivering a short presentation followed by a session of efficient cooking practices, which would be delivered by Zero Waste Scotland staff members. The cooking demos were very popular and we received feedback to conduct more sessions of efficient cooking and growing with local produce, which we will be doing so in the current project cycle. The participants with whom we had further follow up we gave Canny bags to measure food waste and also asked the participants to maintain a diary log. Key Changes and Evidence of Impact We faced with a challenge of receiving data from participants, in spite of having kept incentives. Our learning from this was to develop a simpler format for feedback forms/questionnaires and we also explored alternative methods of evaluation. As the questionnaires in the previous format were not well received where some of the participants have been returning incomplete questionnaires. Secondly as we are engaging with large groups of participants who speak mixed language abilities, with limited English speaking abilities, it became challenging to employ questionnaires. Our participants showed a significant drop in their food waste in their households, please see Figure 3.2 for an observed and participant reported reduction in the participants household food waste. One of the participants said in her feedback form indicated: ‘I like the information booklets and the printed handouts as I can put them on the fridge and refer to them regularly. I also like the tips given on preventing food wastage.’

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Figure 3.2: Graphical representation of food waste reduction in participant households 3.4 Data Gathering for CO2e Reduction Outcome Evidence was gathered through survey questionnaires, project log, participant diaries and logs, and a video diary. The feedback from our activities and engagement sessions was that most participants observed an increase in their learning and understanding of climate change post the engagement sessions. The feedback and learning from the energy sessions have been that the clients would like to take ownership on reading their bills, understand energy tariff and looking for deals online. While we covered some of these aspects in the information sessions held through out the year we would be incorporating this in our delivery sessions in the coming year. With regards to the Zero Waste sessions one of the key issues we had in the receipt of the Food data from the Roma community was the message of what data we really needed was lost. This was a particularly challenging issue for us where the community champions continually communicated with the participants to receive the data. More challenges in data gathering have been discussed in the learning and reflection section. Data was stored in the form of spreadsheets (attached Appendix 1), feedback form, which was uploaded through survey monkey and photographs.

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4. Community Outcomes Our community outcome was that Minority Ethnic communities are better engaged in the issue of climate change through increased understanding and awareness. This was further divided into the following awareness strands. 4.1 Awareness raising on energy efficiency Energy Efficiency Pack translated into Mandarin/Cantonese, Slovakian and Romanian languages. This will be disseminated to 200 individuals over the course of the project. We engaged with 217 individuals and exceeded our target. The energy efficiency pack was revised, and the feedback questionnaire made simpler. Home Energy Scotland provided us with multi language information leaflets this year including the above languages; in-house we therefore focused more on the energy starter pack, which had items like a hot water bottle, a shower timer, a thermometer to monitor temperature and the information flyers. The information flyers and the packs were printed and distributed at our own events and workshops and also taken to external events such as the Glasgow Mela, which attracts many individuals from minority ethnic communities. The information pack was developed to be a basic understanding of methods and tools to adopt to ensure that there was a reduction in carbon footprint in households. The project also created an online resource, which houses the information pack and this can be accessed at any time post project for further dissemination within the wider community. One of the project participants received support through the energy sessions and was so happy with the service that they started volunteering for the project within the energy strand and supported us in disseminating information and home visits. 4.2 Awareness raising on recycling Recycling Awareness - support to communities in identifying recycling materials and methods to recycle effectively in own home. While there was no engagement target set for the recycling awareness sessions at the outset of the project, we engaged with 252 participants on various recycling activities through the year. The awareness raising sessions on recycling proved to be one of the most popular sessions In January we have introduced a new activity as a part of our Recycling Awareness work. We have met with a group of Cantonese speakers to lead a workshop on Recycling and each participant learned to weave baskets out of newspapers. This was a very popular workshop and we organised more than we had anticipated over February and March. Another success was that we have started working with a Czech and Slovak Roma Community group in Govanhill. They were really keen to take part in our recycling arts activities as they took it as an opportunity to be creative together as a whole family as well as this is an activity where a language barrier cab be overcome. We came to two evening sessions where we delivered coaster making workshops and over those two weeks we have managed to build enough trust with participants so that they were comfortable talking about recycling and their problems with energy providers as well as other issues looking for referrals and signposting. We managed to overcome language barrier also thanks to similarities in Slavonic languages, as we have a Polish-speaking member of staff. 4.3 Awareness raising on eco driving Fuel Good Driver training – a total of 6 Eco Driving Information sessions delivered to 6 – 8 participants each session. Our target was to engage with 40 participants and we achieved this target. While it was agreed that eco-driving will be just about information sessions, we have received data on the potential saving the drivers

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make after they receive the training spread across the year. We included the driving data, into our emissions reductions target considering there is a quantitative value attached to the information sessions being provided. The eco-driving information session was in conjunction with the driving session and was built into the training, the session is more practice than theory based and theoretical based session would not last longer than five minutes. The CO2e reduction made on the eco driving was 5.63 tonnes. 4.4 Awareness raising through marketing of the project

The Facebook page was maintained and marketed and showcase our activities. This also has been regularly updated and to date has 206 people following it. Please access the link to get an up to date status on the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Cook-Grow-Sew-486645921442085/?fref=photo

Radio discussions took place with AWAZ FM, which has listeners mainly from South Asian Communities.

Regular posters and signposting information was delivered to all participants.

Celebration Events all had an element on the impact of climate change.

Regular fortnightly blogs were written which were uploaded on the project website.

A project dissemination video has been developed which is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp70txCQJnQ

Community Outcomes

a) Minority ethnic communities are better engaged in the issue of climate change through increased understanding and awareness

b) Minority ethnic individuals have used their new skills to alter their behaviour and are taking the lower carbon route

Minority ethnic communities are better engaged in the issue of climate change through increased understanding and awareness This outcome related to effective marketing and increasing knowledge of environmental issues Community Champions The community champions that were initially recruited had little knowledge of carbon reduction, however an interest in the environmental issue. Through training and development we now have a number of staff employed on a sessional basis that support each of the themes. Each individual has increased their skills in their chosen area of working. i.e garden or home energy services. Additionally these individuals have now become ambassadors and share their learning to the communities they serve as noted above in all outcomes. Minority ethnic individuals have used their new skills to alter their behaviour and are taking the lower carbon route. All of our activities have created an ongoing impact on the communities that we have worked with. Examples would be the voluteers who now meet regualry for the sewing classes and/or the volunteers within the community garden. Individuals are now recognising the need to alter their behaviours and make positive changes to lower their carbon route.

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5.1 Learning and Reflection The project on a whole has been a success due to staff time and effort in changing attitudes and behaviours on issues surround climate change and the reduction of carbon footprint. This subject can at times not be seen as a priority especially when individuals from minority ethnic communities can have more pressing issues such as unemployment, family, immigration, education, poverty etc The concept of making small changes can be seen as too demanding especially if trying to change habits of a lifetime. This was the reason that we developed a project with creative courses so that subtle changes were introduced rather than asking individuals to change. By accessing our services, individuals have become supportive of highlighting the impact of climate change to friends and have a better understanding of it as a result. Upon reflection the activities that we developed were the most effective tool we used to instil change of behaviours. Energy-

The main challenge for us was having enough volunteers to support our visits. We lost 2 volunteers in December, one had to move abroad and one had to leave due to health reasons, also both our energy advisors were ill this month which meant that a number of visits needed rescheduling. In spite of these challenges we have still managed to see more clients than usual but learning from this experience we have recruited 2 new volunteers to support visits and are recruiting more. We have expanded working hours of one of our energy community champions to help with more outreach energy advice at community centres.

Second readings collections was difficult at times where clients have pre – payment meters so they find it difficult to work the meters to get to the reading, this can be time consuming- In the future we will need to ensure that we effectively teach clients how to take readings from their meters during the visit.

Some clients had complex cases with support needs that go beyond our area of work- We will have to create a straightforward signposting procedure so our energy advisors know where to refer our clients to.

Zero Waste and Energy workshops-

The main challenge was that at the workshops the groups were much bigger than organisers expected and community champions who delivered the sessions found it difficult to manage group of that size. Lesson learned from this experience is that we needed to be prepared to split the group in two for duration of the workshop. One of the community champions also attended training on working with communities to give her confidence in dealing with community groups.

During the Sumer Festival WSREC distributed a quiz on waste reduction. The questionnaire had the goal to raise awareness on climate change and test people’s everyday habitudes on domestic food consumption. Out of 23 people reached, the majority demonstrated good awareness of the issue and of ways to improve energy saving and avoid food waste. Most of the workshop participants gave a positive feedback, declaring that they will start measuring food meal portions (81%), use a storage time guide (45%), and freeze leftovers (54%). The 100% affirmed that they will try to reduce food waste in the future.

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Most of the questionnaires distributed during the food waste workshops have shown a general interest in recycling and gardening.

5.2 Unexpected Outcomes Another key learning has been to expect the unexpected! Planning sessions using a participatory approach have been very insightful, driving the project from a participant point of view rather than just the practitioners. Some of our volunteers are more outgoing and likely to speak therefore we decided to gather ideas through notes, each received a pen and some scrap paper and was asked to write down what they would like to see in the garden in the future, in terms both activities as well as the organisational aspects of the garden. We were overwhelmed by number of suggestions, especially suggestions coming from our most quiet participant. We have seen this lady change over the last few months that she has been attending the gardening session. She is a vulnerable South Asian lady whom we have seen in the community centre before but she was never seen talking to anyone or participating in activities. She started coming to our gardening sessions few month back and initially she would just sit in a bench and observe, eventually she has build up enough confidence and trust to participate. Now she attends every event we organise, gardening, refurbishing and sewing group and recently she was heard discussing the influence of politics on environmental policies of governments. Now we see her talk and smile which is amazing and the fact that she is becoming interested in climate change and little things she can do is making our work so much more fulfilling and meaningful. Finance and Administration The Finance and Administration side of this project has been a gradual and learning

process for project staff and management. Although WSREC currently manages 12

projects by diverse funders, majority of the funding requirements differ for each

project. As an organisation we are experienced to report to funders using a variety of

tools and reporting methods. Our original project budget was for £83,994.24 over 12

months.

The support received through training by CCF throughout the year is useful in terms of identifying how we financially reported the projects highlighting what we could claim and areas where additional quotes would be required. As the project has been previously grant funded through CCF, reporting was easier both through our ongoing learning and identifying the need to reprofile when required. The staff are always conscious of spending funds to begin with, though through time begin to adjust their spending to align with budget headings. Name of Authors and Date Report was finalised: Ghzala Khan – Projects Manager Dilraj Kaur – Projects Coordinator

April 2016

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