Lewisham Local launched a Lewisham Cost of Living Appeal in July 2022 to support Lewisham residents experiencing fuel and food poverty. 50% of the funds raised were committed to address fuel poverty in Lewisham to fund the Warmer Homes Champions Programme, with the other 50% going towards a grants programme to support local community food projects providing free and low-cost food in Lewisham. As part of this programme and thanks to the generosity of Lewisham’s residents, and match funding from the Merchant Taylors Foundation and Aviva Community Fund, Lewisham Local was able to fund South East London Community Energy to run a Warmer Homes Energy Champions Training to deliver a Warmer Homes Energy Champions Training to provide essential energy saving advice to local residents in their communities.
In March this year, Lewisham Local worked with South East London Community Energy (Selce) who delivered an Energy Champions Training for 11 volunteers and staff at six local charitable organisations who were part of the Warm Welcomes project. Warm Welcomes were community spaces that opened their doors to provide a welcoming space for people who were struggling to afford to keep their homes warm. Spaces included three community libraries, two community groups and one faith group in different areas of the borough. A small grant of £500 was provided to four of the community groups to contribute towards the costs of managing the champions.
Photo of the newly trained Energy Champions with Selce at Lewisham Local’s office
The training upskilled the Energy Champions to provide energy saving advice, access warm home discounts, provide energy fuel vouchers, understand the benefits of energy saving devices and how to signpost to Selce’s services and what their support looks like.
As part of the training, each group was provided with energy saving devices including dehumidifiers, energy saving light bulbs, radiator reflector panels and draft excluders to support a total of 175 people.
The Energy Champions have been delivering advice and support at their centres through a variety of methods including providing ongoing drop-ins, one-off advice alongside integrating the support into day-to-day conversations with residents accessing their services. Selce provided follow up support, attending four Warm Welcomes to mentor the Energy Champions while giving advice. As a result of the programme, Selce has connected with new community spaces to provide advice to residents they wouldn’t have ordinarily reached such as the Pepys Community Hub.
Staff from Manor House and Forest Hill library attended the training and reported that they found the training very useful. The trained champions were able to share the learning with the wider team of senior volunteers to increase the impact from the training.
“We have been able to have better informed conversations with some of the service users who have been seeking help, and created a display that will go back up when the weather turns again…we are well prepared for next winter.” Manager at V22 Libraries who manage Forest Hill and Manor House Library. They are now looking at how to integrate this learning and support at their Sydenham Library over the coming winter.
Who we’ve helped
While not every Champion has been able to keep a record of the number of people supported, we know that at least 150 people have been supported thanks to the Energy Champions Training so far.
One recent example of a local resident they have supported is a single parent mother of two children, who had recently left her husband after experiencing domestic abuse. Through the advice session they were able to help the family secure a new washing machine thanks to grant secured by Selce which really helped in their transition to a new home.
Another resident who accessed support at the Brownhill Baptist Church Warm Welcomes, was referred through the energy champion to Selce for support with a water leak somewhere in her bathroom, causing penetrating damp on her kitchen celling. The Energy champion referred the resident to Selce whereby both a home visit and a boiler/heating system check was arranged. The home visit consisted of isolating the cause of the leak, fitting in light measures, mainly draughtproofing on her front door, and a boiler check and she was signposted to the relevant organisations to fix the leak.
Many of the energy champions are continuing to provide advice and signposting support, and anticipate this will be needed more than ever over the coming winter.
Lewisham Local and Selce are currently looking at the learning and reflections from this project to plan future support for the upcoming winter.
You can still donate to the Lewisham Cost of Living Appeal by our Localgiving page or Aviva Crowdfunder.