Spirit of Manchester Story Week 2020 - "Forming a better connection with the place I live"

"It gives us a great sense of community and optimism that we can do something instead of being subject to inexorable global heating that we can’t do anything about"

Whalley Range Climate Action Group is a group of people who aim to mitigate the effect of their local community on climate change and decrease the effect that global warming has on Whalley Range.

They host community meetings once a month, where they come together to discuss how they can utilise their skills to work on different issues to do with climate change in the local area. In their latest meeting, they discussed a new ‘Build Back Better’ initiative, a movement which aims to take the post-Covid-19 situation and have a green and ethical recovery. In particular, they are focusing on using community wealth building to circulate local resources and skills. People have come together from lots of different organisations to focus on how Whalley Range can build back better for the climate through energy generation, employing people from the arts sector and building on the skills of local people to increase their employability.

They used to meet in person and have a ‘bring and share lunch’ but unfortunately this is impossible at the moment following local regulations. One of the important things for community building was these lunches, meeting together to build relationships but transferring the meetings to Zoom has still proven effective. For some of the older members who are shielding, these meetings are great for them to keep in touch and feel less isolated.

Avril, a member of the group, says "These meetings helps people to think about social justice in Whalley Range which is important for social cohesion and building a community that can work together effectively. By focusing on these things, it provides a distraction from everything else going on in the world right now and an optimism for the future. Everyone who attends the meetings said they have a particular impact on their lives, but for me, it is about being involved in climate action on a local level that makes me feel empowered to take action and discuss these issues with my local community, forming a better connection with the place I live".







You can find Whalley Range Climate Action Group on Facebook or on Twitter @RangeAction