Resourceful Communities

PACT is taking part in the Resourceful Communities pilot project in conjunction with Cumbria County Council's Waste Prevention Team. We will be running 5 different events between Summer 2015 and March 2016, trying to encourage people to swap, share, re-use, recycle and grow their own. More events to be announced...

• 3 Oct 2015: Freegle Give and Take - Shap
• 6 Feb 2016: Stone Soup Penrith
• Tuesday lunchtime soups in Penrith (9/2, 16/2, 23/2, 1/3, 8/3, 15/3, 22/3, 29/3) - help out or drop off spare veg at Eden Mencap
• 17 Feb 2016: Toy Swap and Nappuccino event Penrith
• 27 Feb 2016: Upcycling stalls Penrith town centre
• 5 Mar 2016: Freegle Give and Take - Shap
• 12 Mar 2016: Seedy Saturday, Penrith

As part of the project we have recruited 3 households as guineapigs. Participating households are expected to attend as many as possible of the events. They are asked to complete a short questionnaire before and after to find out whether the events have made any difference to their habits, and have been given some 'goodies' as a thank-you. If you are interested in taking part, or would like more information, please let us know.

 

Resourceful Communities has a series of ten easy-to-follow, step-by-step, guides which explain how to organise, promote and run the following sessions in your community.

The 10 guides available include:

1. A 'give and take' event to swap general household items and grow the community's involvement in sharing networks such as Freegle and Streetbank.
2. Food waste reduction skills session to raise awareness and skills in avoiding waste.
3. Surplus food gathering session introducing ways to coordinate community based food collections for local redistribution or donating to the local foodbank.
4. A community cook event to gather community food donations for a community meal to raise awareness of food waste.
5. Nappucino real nappy event to introduce real nappies as an alternative to disposables and promote the Cumbria Real Nappy Campaign.
6. A clothes swapping (Swishing) event such as sports, ladies' or men's clothing, end of term school uniform shops etc.
7. Toy swap sessions.
8. Community repair event offering practical services and basic skills development for clothing, electrical items and/or general household repair.
9. Upcycling workshop to introduce the idea of taking an item (e.g. of furniture) and making improvements to extend its life.
10. A grow your own and introduction to composting session, which may link to a community garden or feed into a community compost scheme.