Empowering people to look after our planet is one of our top priorities. The climate crisis is hitting our communities hard and people want to do something about it. While it’s right to focus on this issue it's also important that we enable people to access nature and prepare for jobs in the green sector as they become more widespread.

We ran a series of coproduction sessions with service users and volunteers to work out our priorities for the next three years. Environmental action was top of the list. We set up a task group composed of service users, volunteers and staff. The group are now in charge of making our sustainability programme happen. They have already come up with our Make a Difference project (see below), introduced recycling stations and displays in our centre.

Make a Difference has seen people learn all about climate change and the impact it's having on our lives. Over six weeks groups identified what they can really do to make a difference - for example through reducing waste by using reusable products instead of single use plastic. It also focused on the impact of climate change on our health to really bring home the fact that it is already affecting us day to day.

Each participant made a personal pledge to make take action. One told us: 'There were so many things I can build on and ways I can change my habits to help the environment.'

Our catering courses often have an environmental angle, including encouraging people to cook plant based meals. One recent course, Farm to Fork, used ingredients grown by our allotment group to create healthy seasonal dishes.

We have also made strides as an organisation to reduce our energy use. We switched to 100% renewable energy sources, made our centre more energy efficient and sourced sustainable packaging and products in our café.