Community action plans are the framework for implementing the activities that are decided by the community. These can be flexible and adaptable allowing for unforeseen changes but also growth with time.
Developing a climate and environment focused action plan helps people understand what is ahead of them and encourages their participation in the development of the plan. This helps make tangible improvements that matter to the people they affect.
Planning will support raising awareness on what skills and tools are readily available within the community, discussing resources and involvement. This engagement activity will also help with innovation and ideas for the action plan.
Some key things to consider when creating your community action plan:
- Decide and define what the aims and activities will be.
- Identify what is needed and how you will gather it (for example, financial support, information for campaigns, people, and organisations you can work with etc).
- Create a document that will be readily available to share and update, so everyone knows what is happening, who is involved, who to contact and what they need to do.
- It is also good to consider having a steering group as this will support the delivery and focus of the community action plan.
- Work with our community action project to establish what support is available.
Some of the benefits of creating a climate and environment focused community action plan are:
- strong participation of the local community
- the people in the community consider their community needs therefore they will provide tailored solutions
- collectively working towards a common goal inspires community spirit, engagement, and involvement
- the efforts will greatly contribute toward making County Durham carbon neutral which consequently will have social, economic, environment, health, and wellbeing benefits
