We’ve had a request from a busy charity that has been paired with one of our Engineers without Borders volunteers. They’d like us to suggest words they can send out to help them recruit the members for their small group.
Charity volunteers tend to be passionate and dedicated, but over-stretched, and it can be tricky to find the right people to involve in the process. We’re encouraging groups to think broadly about who should be involved – it’s very useful if someone in the group is involved in managing the premises, because then it’s much easier to arrange access to any existing information about the building, but better if not everyone is that central to the charity’s operation. It’s great if groups can include people who visit their buildings but don’t have that kind of connection, wider supporters in the community, and also people or organisations who never go into the building, but perhaps should. That might be potential stakeholders, but it could also just be people from the local neighbourhood who can cast a fresh pair of eyes over the problem.
We’re suggesting something like the following:
Would you like to help us think about what changes we should make to our building and how we use it to make us fit for a net zero future?
We have been invited to participate in a Royal Academy of Engineering funded programme and need a group of six people to take part. If you agree, you will attend four two-hour sessions that are structured to take you through thinking about heating strategies, energy efficiency, and whether changes to the building would make it more useful, and recommend the best things to consider for future action. These could be anything from draughtstripping and changing the heating controls to having a complete building refit. You will also help us with a community engagement event to find out what the wider community thinks. The sessions aren’t highly technical, and throughout you will be led and aided by an engineer. Although some of the concepts are specific to community spaces, much of what you learn could be useful in your own home.
For more information, please see the HeatHack website, and to volunteer, contact [Group Contact Information]
- HeatHack – https://heathack.org
Photo by youssef naddam on Unsplash