The Energy Saving For All project supports people from minoritised ethnic communities across Scotland to access free energy advice and advocacy.
With the project now in its second year, we look back at our achievements over the first 12 months of delivery.
What is Energy Saving For All?
Energy Saving For All is a partnership between Changeworks and the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations (CEMVO). Thanks to funding from British Gas Energy Trust, it makes Changeworks’ energy advice services more accessible to minoritised ethnic communities.
How did we engage with communities?
To deliver Energy Saving For All, we took a tailored community engagement approach. We recognised that top-down approaches were a barrier to engagement, and that a more grassroots way of collaborating would stand a greater chance of meeting the communities’ needs.
In practice, this meant that CEMVO approached existing contacts within community groups and made introductions to our Low Carbon Communities Officers. From there, we had initial planning calls to understand group needs, discuss what support we could offer, and agree upon logistics.
Changeworks then delivered in-person advice via interactive workshops and shared printed translated resources. We also helped households who needed more in-depth support with their energy issues.
Embedding EDI
To ensure that we were embracing the values of equality, diversity, and inclusion, CEMVO provided our staff with anti-racism training. This promoted intercultural awareness when working with clients, including tips for home visits. It also helped us to establish best practice for using interpreters. This training supports our wider mission of advancing EDI throughout our organisation.
Year one achievements
Overall stats
In this first year, we’re happy to report that we exceeded the majority of the project’s targets. We’re particularly pleased at the number of people supported with energy advice, as well as the number referred for more in-depth support and advocacy.
| Target | Actual figure |
|---|---|
| 20 trained and active volunteers | 26 trained and active volunteers |
| Min. 15 outreach events | 52 outreach events across Scotland |
| Support 500 people with energy advice | Supported 719 people |
| 230 warm packs | 230 packs distributed |
| 30 PSR registrations | 33 registrations completed |
“[I] got great feedback from attendees and I am delighted to share with you that it was an awesome experience for us all. Session was well tailored and delivered; very informative and eye-opening. I hope we will be able to start saving on our energy bills after this informative presentation.”
– Africans in Fife
Resources
We designed 21 energy advice sheets, covering topics such as ‘top ten energy saving tips in the home’, ‘understanding your bills’ and ‘making the most of your hot water and heating systems’. To make these accessible, we translated them into the following languages:
- Arabic
- Bengali
- Farsi
- Hindi
- Kurdish Sorani
- Polish
- Punjabi
- Simplified Chinese
- Ukrainian
- Urdu
“I just wanted to thank you for the Energy Saving for All Presentation, on making your home more energy efficient and reducing your bills. It was a successful presentation. It was good to see some clients having a two- way conversation with you. I am sure quite a number of them went home taking on board what was discussed. It was fantastic to see a good turn out of clients on Thursday.”
– Common Thread Vision
What lessons are we taking into year two?
Whilst we’re pleased with how much we’ve achieved in the first year of Energy Saving For All, we’re committed to improving the service for year two. Some of the lessons we’ll be taking forward are:
- It’s crucial to build a positive relationship through community connectors and volunteers. It’s also equally important to invest time and thought to maintain these relationships.
- Our support and the way we engage must meet the needs of the specific group we’re trying to serve.
- Offering incentives – such as a prize draw for a free air fryer – can help improve engagement.
- We need to present information as clearly and simply as possible.
We’ll be using these learnings to refine the service over the coming year. By doing so, we’re confident we can report even greater successes this time next year.
Our experience is that people from minoritised ethnic groups, despite being in need, are less likely to access these services. Energy Saving for All will be a huge step forward in developing inclusive energy advice for all and will provide crucial support where it is needed most.
– Josiah Lockhart, Chief Executive of Changeworks