The C-Change scheme which is run by the Woodcraft Folk with De Montfort University (DMU) and the Centre for Alternative Technology scored a hat-trick in the National Energy Efficiency Awards.
It beat off stiff competition from a host of other environmentally-friendly schemes to be named overall winner in the awards. It also came first in the Education and Awareness category and a member of Woodcraft Folk involved with the project, George Brooke, was named Young Carbon Champion.
The C-change project aims to inform young people about the threat climate change poses to the planet and to change their attitude towards it through peer education. More than 20 young “peer educators” were trained to be able to discuss climate change to other young people. They did this at a wide range of different events - in a “fun” environment where young people were enjoying themselves.
This year, the scheme took its Face Your Elephant tent to the Latitude Festival in Suffolk and a Woodcraft Folk summer camp in Derbyshire. The tent, which visited Glastonbury in 2007, includes a pedal-powered smoothie blender, a graffiti wall, a giant jigsaw and hydrogen-powered toy cars, all designed to raise awareness of global warming.
Also in 2008 C-Change held special club nights in London, Brighton, Leeds and Manchester. The events featured a visual set which mixed pictures, text, TV, animation and video, to get across the message that the climate is changing. A youth conference was held at the Greater London Assembly and young people also ran a live radio broadcast from the Foyer on the Unicorn theatre in London, which was streamed on the web and broadcast by several community radio stations.
IESD researchers evaluated the impact the events had on attitudes. They found that attending C-Change events made young people more aware and more concerned about the issues facing the planet than other people their age. It changed the attitudes and behaviour of young people to climate change.
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