Published Wednesday 23 August 2023 at 16:52
In this new blog, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Climate Change Projects Officer, Chloe Green, updates on the People’s Jury and their role in the recent National Festival of Making.
Here in Blackburn with Darwen, we hosted a ‘People’s Jury on the Climate Change Crisis’ late last year.
This involved a group of 26 residents – a mix of age, gender, ethnicity and attitude towards climate change chosen from different areas right across the borough.
The ‘People’s Jury’ listened to experts and produced a set of 15 recommendations on what we need to do in our homes, in business and our local area to help tackle the climate change crisis.
It’s part of the Council’s commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030 – you can read more about that by clicking here.
Following the success, the People’s Jury, all volunteers, have continued their work to help shape the borough’s response to the global issue.
Chloe writes:
Lauren Zawadzki, the Co-Director of the National Festival of Making Festival of Making, was at the launch event of the People’s Jury back in January when they presented their recommendations.
She was excited and inspired by their hard work – interested in what they had learned, achieved and put in place, plus their commitment to continue with their efforts.
Lauren wanted to find a way of including this group of residents into the award-winning National Festival of Making, the borough’s biggest event of the year, to showcase the community involvement and help spread the important message of climate change, in a fun and artistic way.
When the Jury members were told of this potential experience, they were excited and knew it would be a great opportunity to further share what they had learned and get more people talking about climate change.
Over a few weeks, they put out ‘adverts’ for artists to find the best ways to showcase their ideas around how to present some of the Jury recommendations in a visually appealing way.
After deliberation, the Jury members voted and decided to go with ‘Get It Done’ a community arts organisation. Their proposal involved information gathering during the Festival – using boards and chalk – to then be developed into a new piece of wall art.
The Jury decided that they wanted to be involved throughout the whole process, offering up their time to help set up the materials for the information gathering, they manned the stalled throughout the festival weekend, and helped pull it all together in the weeks after the event itself.
They’re now working hard on the next steps for the artwork and they can’t wait to share more details in the coming weeks.
You can read more about it on the Get It Done website by clicking here.
