3.3.4 TOPIC 4: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

3.3.4 TOPIC 4: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Summary of Topic 4: Community Engagement

WHY ‘COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT’ IS IMPORTANT • Climate change impacts on everyone • The need for community involvement • The need for information • Young people feel marginalised pursuing climate action

WHAT ACTIONS ARE NEEDED? • Educate and inform communities • Have project and spaces to bring people together • Have intergenerational engagement (e.g. projects similar to Tidy Towns) • Have guidelines to provide interested parties with advice on how best to set up community groups • Create online and accessible platform • Inform people on consultations and plans • Provides people with a direct link to decision makers

WHAT DIFFERENCE THIS WILL MAKE • People will be more informed and involved. • This will empower them to make better choices.

Why ‘Community engagement’ is important Within the topic of Community Engagement, the delegates discussed four sub-topics (See Table 5d). • Climate change impacts on everyone • The need for community involvement • The need for information • Young people feel marginalised pursuing climate action

Climate change impacts on everyone Delegates discussed how climate change impacts on everyone, and as such everyone has a role to play in bringing about positive change.

If one community is doing a lot of work and the other is not,

there is no balance and there is no real change.

The need for community Across the four groups the delegates talked about the importance of having a community to bring about changes. Some talked about the importance of having a sense of belonging and control. Others talked about the importance of securing a broader community that captures different experiences and perspectives.

People want to feel a sense of control in what’s happening in their local community,

if they don’t have control it could affect their mental health. I remember reading comment earlier – to make a community a global community first

make it a local community. We can do big scale stuff – it starts with the community It takes more than one person, we need to work together If you don’t get the communities involved you will never get anywhere. I think in some places there isn’t a lot of buy in. Some people are reluctant

The need for information Delegates discussed the need for information to support and empower communities to work together. There was an awareness among delegates that not everyone has access to up-to-date information, and such information is not always available in accessible formats.

Connect communities in taking climate action, if we work as a local community

we can achieve great things as a global community More dialogue events like this- but open to more people of more diverse backgrounds.

Citizens’ Assembly style

Young people feel marginalised In terms of barriers faced by communities, one group discussed how being marginalised can act against engagement with climate action.

You feel a bit marginalised as you are not being taken seriously,

and you could lose interest that you are not getting anywhere.

Sense you are doing something with a group of people,

it gives you a sense of having more control.

What needs to happen? Suggestions of actions to improve community engagement included activities to increase knowledge and awareness, and more opportunities to engage in climate action. Delegates’ suggestions captured four sub-topics. • Educate and inform communities • Project and spaces to bring people together • Create online and accessible platform to inform people

Educate and inform communities Informing and educating people was viewed to be an essential part of the process. Delegates were aware that not everyone has the same level of knowledge. This lack of knowledge was viewed to be a major obstacle to change.

If someone is not trying to stop climate change, they don’t know enough about it.

We need to be literate about it before we can work together

One group suggested having climate change as a subject for school.

Have it on the school curriculum. We do essential development and general philosophy,

and there was nothing about climate change in school. Have it as a subject, and find out how kids are feeling, engaging and enabling people in the situation

There needs to be more time in schools dedicated to sustainability, this could be done by introducing sustainability as a leaving cert subject.

Implement intersectional climate, environmental, and sustainability education within the curriculum.

However, the importance of having education that extended beyond school education was also discussed. Young people in one of the groups talked about the importance of ‘self-education’ but also highlighted the importance of education for everyone in society.

‘when you educate yourself (on climate change) then you know you

have to do something.’ ‘We need to educate, businesses, charities and workplaces. In school the minimum I was taught was greenhouse gases. We could have an alternative stream to educate workplaces and communities

The group was aware that not everyone has access to online information to keep abreast with the topic of climate change and made suggestions of approaches to educating and informing the public. These suggestions included building on intergeneration skills and using different ways to reach all generations (e.g. social media, TV, newspapers). One group talked about good practice examples such as UNESCO initiatives and local Comhairle na nOg projects on climate (e.g. Monaghan CnÓg project on climate which looked at fast fashion, waste and different plastics).

Some delegates talked about small communities and making small changes, others wanted larger communities (e.g. county level) to call for change. A dominant message was the need to inform and empower people to take actions.

Empower people- provide them with information Accountability on reports – I know there are a lot of reports but the general public

don’t know what is happening- we need to hold the government accountable

and we need to be able to access the reports Introduce a platform to announce community engagement

opportunities throughout the country

Projects and spaces to bring people together

Having opportunities to bring communities to meet and discuss the issues

was suggested in a couple of the breakout rooms. A very important thing is to open up spaces to allow people to talk,

to build up social spaces. Community centres, or groups of scouts or in school, or sports, tennis clubs.

These groups are where social and emotional work happens.

And climate change is dangerous to all parts of our lives.

As noted above, the importance of having intergenerational engagement and discussion was raised in one of the groups.

All organisations in the area, cross generation, primary schools may need a separate initiative Involves connecting all the generations; young people are really passionate about this issue; other

generations do not have social media – other mediums could be used like newspaper, television

Suggestions of ways of doing this included having initiatives similar to Tidy Towns that bring the community together.

Tidy Towns was a really good way to get people involved in the community

– something similar for Climate Action

Importantly, one group proposed that guidelines should be developed to provide interested parties with advice on how best to set up community groups.

One thing can’t work for everyone. It would help if someone has a guideline on how

to set up a community organisation, with information on who you should contact, how to get a group together. To take away the stress of forming a new organisation.

Create an online and accessible platform to inform people In one of the breakout rooms delegates felt that that communities needed to have more opportunities to link with decision-makers to become engaged. This group suggested the creation of platforms to engage the community and to share information on different opportunities to get involved (e.g. in consultations etc).

Zoom has definitely made things more accessible. Not knowing how to contact your minister.

It gives people at home the opportunity to engage online. Creating local forums that include community representatives, counsellors, so communities

have a direct link to national decision making that makes them feel they have a direct link. In agriculture, farmers have ways (to connect), they need to have a direct link to decision making. Create accessible (online) platforms so people can access and influence decision makers

Having a platform for different opportunities. Often people want to put forward their opinion,

and often people don’t realise there are consultations and networks to do so. For example, Cork City have a weather warning one. People who want to sign up, that could be enabling,

and give them a space.

What difference this will make? Delegates felt that the actions would help to have a more informed and involved community. This would empower them to make better choices.

Figure from page 46