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.

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.