As the Prince of Wales and David Cameron prepare for COP 21, the international climate talks in Paris later this month, young people in Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole, are invited to join the BIG Ideas Challenge. World leaders have until 11th December to agree a legally binding way forward on keeping warming to under 2°C. Young people have till 18th December to enter the BIG Ideas Challenge. The Challenge asks young people, (aged 7-24) in Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole to develop practical methods to reduce carbon emissions in their communities.
Great ideas so far include: building a device to charge your mobile phone by your own walking power, making a theatre production as sustainable as possible and running a swap shop to reduce waste. There’s still time to get involved – phase one – planning and design closes to applications on 18th December.
One of the teams taking part is the Lyme Youth Theatre. The group are working on a production of the musical Bedbug for the National Theatre Festival Connections.
Clemmie Reynolds, Artistic Director at Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis said: ‘We are so excited to be involved in the BIG Ideas Challenge this year. It brings importance and meaning to our forthcoming production and gives us a wider view on how the project fits within the worldwide movement on sustainability. Spurred on by a workshop with the BIG Ideas Team, the group are thinking about how we can use this production (including rehearsals and performance) to make more sustainable choices, change habitual behaviours within the group and even affect the audiences that come to watch the production in 2016, both at the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis in March, and at Theatre Royal Bath in April. This production is just the start, and hopefully will affect a change that will ripple through all the people and places that this production touches.’
BIG Ideas Challenge makes the international challenge of climate change relevant to our every-day behaviours that affect the planet. It supports young people to reduce carbon emissions in their local communities. Working in teams, young people (aged 7 – 24) plan and implement a project, or build on an existing project, that helps reduce the environmental impact of their communities, with support from project mentors and sustainability experts, 10 finalists teams will get £250 to implement their project between January and March, with final judging taking part in March 2016. The Challenge is offered by Communities Living Sustainably in Dorset (CLS), which is supported by the Big Lottery Fund.
Emily Bullock, from CLS, says, “We know young people are full of good ideas; the BIG Ideas Challenge gives them the opportunity to come up with solutions, and then see if they really work! We’re delighted to be working with a team of Experts from: Love your Clothes, foodfutureBridport, Wessex Water, Travel Dorset, Keith Wheaton-Green, and Dorset Waste Partnership, who will help the young people to develop their projects. We’re also planning a live judging / award ceremony to showcase the projects and decide on the winning team”.
To find out more come go to: www.clsdorset.org.uk/BigIdeas.aspx
