Faith and Climate Change in Birmingham

Collaborating across faith communities

Faith and Climate Change brings together a wide range of organisations in Birmingham to address environmental issues in places of worship and in faith communities. Its projects include Faith Ambassadors for Climate Change, which provides training and support to help volunteers champion carbon reduction schemes within their communities. The partnership is also developing a faith-based energy services company and is promoting the use of local organic food through its Faith in Food initiative.

A personal approach

Faith and Climate Change is managed by Maud Grainger of Birmingham Friends of the Earth. She explains that developing personal relationships has been an important part of the process of collecting monitoring data from the places of worship involved in the project. "Each partner has different needs and ways of working which we need to accommodate," says Maud. "Our approach is to develop strong one-to-one relationships and to cater to the needs of individual groups. Sometimes emails just don't do the trick - personal contact is vital for building up trust."

Links with other projects have also helped to build the profile of Faith and Climate Change. "Partnerships with faith organisations enable us to demonstrate our commitment and lend us credibility. For example, we worked with local groups to deliver activities during Islam Awareness Week - this kind of initiative shows that we want to be genuine, long-term partners."

Effective team working

With only one full-time member of staff, it's important for the Faith and Climate Change team to prioritise the projects they get involved with. "We have an active steering group, with members taking on responsibility for different projects," explains Maud. "We always consider whether a project will be at 'snail pace' or 'hare pace'. This helps us to work out the level of resources it'll require and who would be best placed to take the lead on the project."

Additional support from two volunteer coordinators enables Maud to spend time away from the office, talking to potential new partners and ambassadors. "I try to visit our partners and go along to events as much as possible. The idea of meeting people in your community and making new friends is at the heart of our project."

Building an online presence

The Faith and Climate Change team has also been exploring how online tools can help with raising awareness and communicating with partners. "There are a lot of free tools out there so it's an ongoing process of learning and experimenting," says Maud. "We've set up a blog to provide project updates and we're finding that Twitter is a great way to network with groups and organisations from around the country."