On the Mend is a learning and skills based upcycling project where the positive impacts of making and mending, on building self-esteem, good mental health, and a connected community are promoted.  The project has no barriers to participation and encourages creativity, trying a new skill, repairing, reusing or repurposing rather than buying new.  On the Mend works in partnership with the CATH Shop on the High Street.  The CATH Shop is Revolve certified (a Zero Waste Scotland quality standard for reuse) and last year customers prevented 48,000 items from going to landfill.  Between our existing shop on the High St and our new premises we want to highlight the journey donated goods take to being upcycled and all the environmental and personal benefits that can bring.  This project will pave the way for a changing city centre and developing a resilient stronger greener economy that is accessible to all.

The On the Mend project has operated from various locations across Perth but our most recent, along the Ladeside had no heating and was damp.  We were lucky, alongside other CATH projects, to be offered a vacant shop on the High St at a greatly reduced rent.  On the Mend moved to our new home at the end of November.  We have with little to no budget created a warm and welcoming upcycling space and true to the spirit of the project have completely furnished the space with reuse furniture.  

Funding from the Community Investment Fund has meant we are able to offer upcycling groups on Wednesday 1-3 and Friday 1-3.  These have been well attended and have generated interest with individuals wanting to volunteer to share skills in upholstery, sewing skills, upcycled clothing, knitting and crochet.  We have also been approached as a venue for repair cafes and other community groups booking workshops to support wellbeing.

The On the Mend project proposal for the Green living fund would support us to

1. Continue to rent a property on Perth High Street with a focus on reuse, waste reduction and recycling, putting reuse and engagement with recycling at the centre of the community.  Help to breathe some new life into a depleted city centre environment and make reuse the norm on the High Street.

2. Engage the community in recycling by offering open to all and free/low cost upcycling/crafting and making and mending opportunities.  Many shoppers in Perth see the benefit of buying donated items during the cost of living crisis and this project would promote creative uses for items that would go to landfill.

3. Allow us to open this resource for longer hours to engage with more people.

4. Share skills across the community with increased volunteer involvement.

Kinross-shire Climate Cafe is proposing to set up a Repair Cafe, video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvIvvJl09dg.

This initiative would be the first of its kind in Kinross-shire, based on the experience of the Repair Cafes in Crieff, Pitlochry and Aberfeldy.

Our aims:

- encourage local people to reduce waste through repair of their broken items with a positive outcome of waste reduction and mitigation of climate change,

- reduce living costs as it is usually more cost effective to repair a good quality old item than to buy a new one,

- develop community links and exchange of expertise in the practical setting of Repair Café,

- strengthen our community in climate change adaptation with a supportive popup climate café,

- provide a swap shop facility to further reduce living costs and promote sustainable fashion.

Kinross-shire Repair Cafe would be a community-led project run by Kinross-shire Climate Café volunteers. The events would take place on four different weekend days in 2024 from 11 – 3pm in the local town halls. The format of the Café would be informal: a walk-in café where people come and bring their broken items to be repaired. Clients would not pay for the repairs but would pay for parts and materials used. There are two possible locations that we envisage for the location to widen the area of provision: Kinross and Milnathort. But the Repair Café would also be providing repairs and working with a wider Kinross-shire community with the total population in excess of 11,000.

The events would be advertised through the local press, leaflet distribution at Kinross Farmers Markets, social media and Loch Leven Community Library. The project will support the local economy by involving small local businesses with repair expertise, links with the future Repairers have been made. It will create opportunities for people with skills currently out of employment or retired who are experts and craftsmen. The repair Café would involve 10 volunteers for each event, which amounts to 200 volunteer hours.

One of the aims of the project is to reduce the living costs as through repair you lower your spendings in the long term especially if items that are broken are of better quality. This helps to reduce the effect of inflation on your household budget.

Finally, as part of Repair Café we would also hold a swap shop to reduce textile waste and a pop-up climate café to have friendly chats on different aspects of climate change adaptation and how to cope with the climate change crisis.

Broke Not Broken support those living in poverty across Kinross-shire.

Part of this work is support through food parcels, but supporting people with food parcels we find they are often in receipt of food that may not be suitable to them for a number of reasons. This food can then be discarded, or returned to the food bank, meaning there is a waste of resources, food miles and energy spent. It means people don’t get what they need: suitable food. By supplying digital vouchers we will eliminate that waste of food, energy, fuel and time for both clients and volunteers. As we deliver food parcels by car to people’s home, moving to digital vouchers (if that is their preference) means less time spent in cars on the road delivering parcels. Food vouchers give dignity and choice to those who are living in poverty.

We would like to trial using vex an online shopping voucher distribution system to reduce food miles, as well as reducing our plastic waste through our current system of vouchers.

We work closely with referral agents across health and social care as well as a number of community organisations to ensure people access the correct advice and maximise their income where possible.

Foodbank running costs have increased by 37% over the past year. This is partly increase in demand with a 20% increase food supports required than the previous year, and partly rising cost of food.

Whilst we continue to work hard to meet the needs within the community we also look to combat the affects of climate change and work in line with PKC cash first approach this new pilot project for a six week period would significantly reduce our food miles and plastic usage while enabling us to meet our goal of providing dignity and choice; and give us the opportunity to assess the feasibility of this as a model moving forward. As a charity we have already taken a number of steps to work within an environmentally friendly manner, we grow our own produce in our garden, and source locally grown vegetables (where we cannot meet demand) and dairy; we run a school uniform project which encourages re-use and recycling of uniform across Kinross-shire; use local butchers and bakery for our winter warmer parcels all working within an eco-friendly manner.

So If you think that…

-You would like to reduce poverty across Kinross-shire

-We should protect our environment and that small changes can add up to make a big difference by reducing our food miles across Kinross-shire.

-People should have dignity and choice about the food that they eat.

Then please support us by voting for our Reducing Food Poverty and Food Miles across Kinross-shire Project.

Thank you

Broke Not Broken

YMCA Tayside’s Eco Ambassador programme is aimed at raising environmental awareness and promoting sustainable practices through five key local community partnerships that YMCA Tayside works with. This includes working with communities in Perth City, North Perth and South Perth.

The primary objectives are to empower young people and local communities to engage with energy reducing practices, promote active travel, reduce, reuse and recycle waste, learn about local food growing and increase public awareness on the necessity to engage with sustainable practices.

The project lead will work with a group of 5- 10 young people throughout the year. The group will be assigned the role of Eco Ambassadors and receive training, support and guidance to be equipped and confident in their role. The project lead and ambassadors will visit the 5 communities over the year to deliver a wide range of activities and workshops that will shape the local community and increase their knowledge and confidence in this topic. The five partnerships we will be working with are: Bertha Park Community Hub, Craigie & Moncreiffe Parish Church, North Muirton Youth Project, Perth Congregational Church and Kinnoull Parish Church.  

The ambassadors will visit each partner 4 times a year and work to create seasonal and relevant activities for the groups.

Example of Key Activities:

• Energy Efficiency Audit: Eco Ambassadors will work with their local community to conduct an energy audit. This can lead to cost savings and carbon footprint reduction.
• Sustainable Practices: Ambassadors will promote eco-friendly practices within the Youth Group/Events, e.g. encouraging the use of natural light, turning off electronics when not in use, and promoting waste reduction.
• Educational Workshops: Ambassadors will organise interactive workshops on climate change, renewable energy, growing your own vegetables and sustainable living to educate young people, youth workers and community members.
• Green Initiatives: Ambassadors will facilitate initiatives like a rewilding a community garden, beach/river Clean up, tree planting, or a "Clothes swap shop” campaign.
• Youth Led Summit: Bringing our community partnerships together to celebrate the work and progress made throughout the year. Keynote speakers, Dynamic Youth Awards, Volunteer Certificates and hopefully a Keep Scotland Beautiful Award.

By creating change in the local community through our programme of events we can empower young people and community members to become champions of environmental sustainability. Communities will have confidence in their ability to create change through increased knowledge and awareness, education, tools and resources, access to relevant funding and support from YMCA Tayside to apply.

It is estimated we will work with between 100 young people over the year.

INTRODUCTION

The Pitlochry Garden Share was founded in May 2022 by 5 local residents with the aims to facilitate food growing in our community, reduce food poverty, support mental and physical health and increase biodiversity in our gardens. We are an unincorporated organisation with currently 28 members. We share private gardens to grow organic food, sharing the work, the tools and the harvest, and we donate some of the produce to the food bank. We recently established a larger community garden and have been working hard to develop it. We also hold a stall in town once a month to share any excess produce and seedlings in exchange for donations that help us cover the costs of buying seeds (we are learning how to save seeds too). We engage with the wider community in various ways: for 2 years in a row we picked apples/plums in private gardens around town to avoid food waste and we organised our first apple pressing event this year. The excess produce from the gardens is also used at  monthly community cooking events called the Open Kitchen, free to attend, where we share recipes and tips on preserving fresh produce to reduce food bills and food waste.

We collaborate with other organisations like the charities Tayside Woodland Partnership (creating a community woodland) and the Atholl Centre (food bank), and we also support the local Community Action Plan Trust by holding a stall at their events.

Our IMPACT this year

• No of Volunteers: 30

• No of volunteer hours: 1290h (garden & admin work)

• Produce grown: 650kg

• No of households we helped reduce food bills: 60

• Produce donated to the Food Bank: 70kg

PLANS FOR 2024

We have been developing the community garden and our plans for 2024 include the following three elements which we are seeking funding for:

• Part One – Build a 4m x 10m polytunnel to extend the growing season; build a 3m x 6m shed to store produce and provide a shelter for volunteers; build a rain catching system using IBC tanks and pump to create a steady water supply for the garden.

• Part Two – Create a child friendly area in the garden so parents can bring their children to learn about where their food comes from and grow their own vegetables. 

• Part Three – Developing a fruit tree nursery to bring on fruit trees and bushes for future planting in the community garden. This will be used to share learning about grafting and other tree growing techniques. This will also create a free/or by donation supply for the wider community.

Supporting the project is a local Arboriculturalist, Woodland Ecologist & Horticulturist, an Ecologist & Master Shed Builder, and a Garden Manager. More information and photos available on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pitlochrygardenshare 

Rattray Community Garden has 23 raised beds for planting and growing fruit and veg locally to help with the circular economy and cost of living by making more food available locally. 

Collecting water from main building and greenhouse:

3 x water butts £134.97

3 x Rainwater Diverter Kits £29.97

To support cultivation: wheelbarrows, watering cans:  £43.99 and £20.97

Progress/Activity chalkboard: £88

Signage: 3 signs @ £95 each - total £285

Installation costs £250

50% Running costs for 2024 - £960 water, £400 electricity 

Total request is £2,576

Impact

Implementing water collection and supporting running costs and equipment will bring the use of the garden to fruition alowing us to put it to full use which will include:

• planting fruit and vegetables in our 23 riased compost beds, involving locals and demonstrating how to plant, nurture and grow our own food
• working with schools and local groups/organisations on growing food locally - the garden volunteers, Blair in Bloom, Biodiversity Blair, SCYD etc
• offering the fruit and veg to volunteers, locals and selling some to help with on-going costs
• hosting events, food fesitvals, food demonstrations etc 
• demonstrating ways of collecting and using rain water which can be replicated at home thus potentially reducing water bills

All of the above is taken from the original business plan created back in 2019/20 and is aimed at providing food and knowledge to locals to reduce their food purchase costs by growing their own, allowing those without garden space to grow items and sharing the cost of growing locally. This will have a direct imapct on the local Cost of Living with the fruit and veg being made available and will have the longer term benefit of sharing the knowledge and ideas of growing your own food with the community and can be a stepping stone to create a wider, larger community farm where locals can grow and access home grown food thus reducing their food bills.

Ember has introducd an all electric bus service between Dundee and Edinburgh, with the availability to alight/disembark in Bridge of Earn.  Zero exhaust emissions means it is good for the environment enjoying a smoother, more peaceful journey – no engine rumble or fumes.

This service has been well received by the residents with in the Earn Ward.  However, presently no bus shelter for a very exposed stop.  This service also offers the opportunity for disabled users to travel and likewise cyclists with storage available for chairs/bikes.  The success of this service is also attracting cyclists to use the service, and SUSTRANS now have a project underway for the provision of a bike rack nearby to leave bikes safely.

A bus shelter would compliment this stop and be most welcome by users.

Letham Climate Challenge is an established local charity, based in North Perth, which aim is to help people reduce waste , recycle , reuse and raise awareness of how people can contribute to tackling climate challenge. They operate the Letham Community Swap Shops in Garth Avenue, and also manage the Kingswell and Kinloch Terrace allotments. The organisation encourages both families and schoolchildren to grow their own food and discover the many health benefits of gardening and every plot is taken and there is a waiting list.

Water supply:

Letham Climate Challenge regularly engage with the plot holders, trying to improve the allotments and support their development. As result of listening to plot holders from the Kinloch Terrace site, Letham Climate Challenge is trying to improve access to water for the plot holders. Previously they group have tried to have water supplied to the site, but this proving challenging in terms of access to the supply and the cost is prohibitive. Plot holders have come up with the solution of installing 1000litre  water tanks together with water butts to be fixed to the communal shed in order to collect enough rainwater to support the site. This would the reduce the need to carry water to the site in vehicles and be beneficial in terms of encouraging the healthy growth of produce on the site. Furthermore, easier access to water would encourage participation from plot holders and volunteers as the task is less strenuous having water sources throughout the allotment,  and knowing that plants they have taken time to cultivate can indeed be watered. If we attached 2 waterbutts to the shed with guttering and drainpipes them we could collect rain water which could keep us going until the fire service can next refill the 1000litre water tanks.

Connecting Swap Shop and Allotments:

Letham Climate Challenge wish to encourage a better collaboration and community awareness between our Swap Shop based on Garth Road and our allotments at Kingswell and Kinloch Terrace.

In order to do so, we propose installing raised flower beds outside of the Garth Road store to give locals and shop-goers a taste of gardening to then signpost them to greater opportunities at our allotments.

We want to encourage everyone in our community to get involved in gardening, and learn new skills and techniques from our volunteers. We would like to educate people about organic growing for food security: Everyone can see the results of cooperation, hard work, and patience when they finally taste the fruits of their labour. By building raised flower beds which can be accessed by wheelchair users, we are encouraging everyone of all abilities to interact with nature and hopefully assist the next generation of eco-friendly eaters. Gardening can be a very sociable experience so by creating a wellbeing space and connecting with wellbeing groups we believe that we can foster positive social interactions for those suffering from poor mental health. Many people are suffering from isolation and loneliness due to the COVID-19 pandemic and we wish to alleviate these stresses by bringing people together in a safe and welcoming environment.  Within the flower beds, we wish to plant a fruit tree/ bush in each to create a free fruit supply for the local community.

Pitlochry Community Action Trust (PCAT) in conjunction with the Aberfeldy Development Trust seek funding to stage two Eco Fairs, one in each town, next April (2024). The purpose of an Eco Fair is to provide opportunities for local people to engage with organisations and individuals who can help them use energy more efficiently, reduce their energy bills and their environmental footprint and help promote a more sustainable lifestyle to the whole community. The use of sustainable transport, including public transport, active travel, e-bikes and electric vehicles will be a theme of our next Eco Fair. Sustainable food, reduction of food waste and sustainable gardening along with reducing packaging waste and recycling are also part of our agenda. 

Overall objectives are: to reduce the environmental impact of individuals and therefore the community. Specifically: •    To encourage household energy saving through local energy advisors such as The HEAT Project, Warm Connections, Home Energy Scotland and Warm Homes Scotland. •    To promote a more sustainable lifestyle to local people through local food initiatives such as Pitlochry Garden Share, •    To promote active transport through businesses such as Escape Route (e-bikes) and government grants available to support the purchase of e-bikes, •    To promote more sustainable travel, through public transport, Community Car Shares and electric vehicles.

We want to stage the Eco Fairs in our Town Halls partnered by The HEAT Project and Warm Connections. We need to hire these facilities and promote the event throughout our communities and outlying areas. Eco Fairs are family friendly events, and we want to put on activities for children and provide refreshments from sustainable sources to encourage families to attend the Fairs. We will market the Fairs in local magazines, in our schools, on our websites (www.pitlochryaction.org.uk/ and www.aberfeldydt.org/), as well as on those of our contributors, and through the distribution of flyers. 

Participating organisations: The following organisations participated in a Pitlochry Energy Fair in November 2023. All reported that information was shared with enough individuals for it to be a worthwhile investment of their time and expressed interest in future events. The HEAT Project, Home Energy Scotland, Eolas Architects,  Studio East Architects, RW Bell Green Energy, IS Plumbing and Heating Fife (Vaillant), Pitlochry Garden Share, and Escape Route. 

In total around 50 people attended the event, with the Heat Project signing up 13 new clients. Activities for children enabled parents to engage with contributors in a relaxed way and free refreshments encouraged them to stay longer and discuss the potential of their new knowledge with one another and contributors.

Eco Fairs: If we receive funding we can expand on what we achieved on both our stalls in Pitlochry Coop and November’s event where we engaged with our community about what local support they needed in regard to both the ongoing Energy Crisis which an element of the Cost of Living Crisis and include an event in Aberfeldy and invite other organisations to participate including: 

MG electric vehicles, who have already expressed their interest, Other electric vehicle dealers, Enterprise Car Share and CoMoUK Car Share, The Atholl Centre Food Bank and Community Larder, Breadalbane Community Larder, Handam Refill Shop, Glen Lyon Coffee Roasters and Wasted Degrees, Birdie’s Clothes Shop and Roobedoo Sustainable clothes, homeware and gifts, Aberfeldy & Pitlochry Repair Cafes, Healthiest Town, Aberfeldy and Citizens’ Advice, Dun Coillich Community Land Trust, Aberfeldy & Pitlochry Climate Cafes, and PKC Climate Action Team.

Outcomes: We will monitor the total number of people attending and seek feedback from participating organisations as to the number of clients arising from the Eco Fairs. We will produce a short report on each Fair for both Trusts and for Green Living should you fund us.