Is yours a resourceful community

Resourceful Communities is a project for community groups and parish councils.

The aim of the Resourceful Communities project is for community groups to arrange their own waste prevention events in their local community. We can offer support & advice to groups who are interested in the project.

We have produced a suite of 10 "How To" guides to enable and empower groups to run their own resource efficiency sessions. These will help provide local groups with the tools and knowledge to deliver these sessions, based on local need, and leading to environmental, social and financial benefits within the local community. Once communities have successfully delivered an agreed number of sessions they are awarded `Resourceful Community` status.

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.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Resourceful Communities project or becoming one of our Resourceful Community members, please contact Cumbria County Council`s Waste Prevention Officer Katharine.Banks@cumbria.gov.uk