SIS is delighted to be participating in the Climate for Communities Partnership to support people with language needs to engage with and participate in climate action locally.
Thanks to National Lottery players, The Trust for Developing Communities (TDC) has been awarded almost £1.3 million over three years to empower underrepresented communities in Brighton & Hove to participate in climate action.
In partnership with Brighton & Hove council, Community Works, Climate Outreach and 14 local organisations, the project will produce accessible, community-based climate activities, which address the increased cost of living and the health and wellbeing challenges being experienced by people as a result.
The long-term vision of the project is for the city to become a thriving ecosystem of accessible, inclusive and impactful climate activity, with a green economy that brings communities together with public, private, education and voluntary sectors to ensure a just and equitable transition to a sustainable future.
SIS is really excited by the opportunities Climate for Communities presents. The focus on grassroots engagement is really important for building the understanding, knowledge and motivation for action needed in a post-carbon world. The chance to work collaboratively, inclusively and equitably, across the city and sectors, will build hope and resilience. Vikki Gimson, SIS Projects Manager
In year 1 of the partnership, SIS has been gathering insight from members of some local language communities that access SIS services.
In early 2026, we held an event for Arabic, Cantonese, and Brazilian Portuguese speaking Service Users (SUs) facilitated by Bilingual Community Researchers (BCRs).
The aim was to engage our SUs on the topic of climate change and climate action, to find out what they already know, and what they think and feel about it. The BCRs led guided group discussions and wrote up reports of their findings afterwards which were shared with TDC and the Learning and Evaluation partners for the Climate for Communities project.
It was great to see that SUs were keen to attend and engage with the topic, and to hear at the end of the event how much they had enjoyed discussing it as a group. They said that they were surprised and encouraged to find out that they already do things which are climate action. The participants also appreciated the chance to meet new people and many of them exchanged phone numbers. From the test-retest questions that we asked at the start and end of the event, it was clear that engaging in the discussion gave everyone more confidence and increased their understanding of both climate change and climate action, and made them realise that they are already taking climate action steps, as well as giving them ideas for other things they could try to incorporate into their life. Laura Gilbert, SIS Projects Coordinator
Some key themes emerged which will help guide our engagement and participation work in years 2 and 3;
Participants were:
- quite knowledgeable of issues
- aware of global differences in issues, effects and concerns
- very focussed on recycling and reusing
- less aware of repairing
- concerned about managing rubbish and waste
- frequently referencing air and water quality and the effects on health
- interested in environmentally friendly travel and promotion of green spaces
- keen to connect climate action to saving money
- interested in helping their community
- using climate action to boost health and wellbeing
