Our female trade apprentice takes on climate change as she chairs a conversation to get more young people involved with improving their environment.
Trade Apprentice, Elly-May Mangan, joined us last year when we had our recruitment drive to boost women working in trade roles.
She has since actively been involved in encouraging others to make positive changes and get involved in making the environment the forefront of conversations. So, when Backyard Nature announced its Climate Conversations Elly-May felt it was important to take part in.
Elly-May Mangan, our Trade Apprentice, said: “Being involved in something like this is amazing as it’s something I’m passionate about. It’s an exciting project to be part of and I feel we need to encourage young people to get more involved with improving their environment and these conversations will hopefully be a great starting point to do that.
“LiveWest has encouraged and supported me with being on the youth board and I want to make sure the company is doing what it can with our colleagues and customers for the environment so I’m looking forward to working with them on this.”
As it's Youth Work Week from November 7 to 13, we're celebrating the positive impact youth work has and recognising how the Climate Conversations series is an important part in making a difference to young people's lives by helping them have a voice and influence in their local community.
LiveWest is part of the Green Housing Consortium which has created its own Green Youth Board that was set up to improve green spaces and encourage communities to look at their spaces.
Elly-May sits on the board and co-chaired the second Climate Conversation which she felt was important to get involved in and challenge others on what they're doing to be greener.
The Climate Conversation series is led by Backyard Nature - a campaign to get all children to spend more time enjoying and protecting nature partnered with Green Housing Consortium, to give young people aged between 7 to 25 a chance to have a voice and make a difference to the environment through discussions with housing associations.
The first conversation focused on Behaviour Change particularly how to influence your community to make positive changes for the environment. The next Waste Not, Want Not looked at the problem of waste and how housing associations along with residents can recycle.
Elly-May Mangan, our Trade Apprentice, said: “It was great to be able to co-chair this session as it meant a lot to me. I think young people already do lots for the environment but still want to make a difference where they can but don’t always know how to get their voices heard especially with big companies.
“It was important to bring this to different housing association's attention and it highlights the different ways we can work with our residents. So hopefully off the back of these discussions, we can make sure community and recycling remain at the focus of the positive changes people are making.”
One of the main areas discussed with the youth board has been waste and litter on housing estates and how this can be reduced for the benefit of both communities and the planet.
Jenny Endean, our Young Person Service Support Manager, said: “It’s about getting young people’s voice heard and an opportunity for them to talk with housing associations and challenge us on the way we do things and how we do things.
“As an organisation we’ve got our environmental strategy which we try to incorporate into the work we’re doing both inside and outside the business. But particularly for young people in our communities what does that mean or look like in practice.
“The Climate Conversations are all about making the communities that young people are living in better. So, I think this is a different way young people can directly influence our priorities on what we focus on as well as educate their communities.”
Find out more about being environmentally friendly with our Green Advice page.