Durham County Council

Maggie and Claire are using the tool to evaluate two projects. The Action Packed Futures Festival day is a fun-day focusing on sustainability and green issues that has been attracting residents in the county for a number of years. They wanted to find out whether attending the day had any impact on the behaviour and attitudes of those attending. Claire has adapted the tool to help her evaluate a one-day event and will be asking people to identify their attitudes before and after their attendance at the event.

The other area of Durham's work is to work with communities to pilot the North East Region Sustainable Communities Initiative. The initiative is aiming to increase sustainable activities within community across the North East, and will create a comprehensive 'How to do it' tool kit illustrating to communities just how easy it is to take small steps to creating sustainable communities now and for the future.

The project is only in its infancy and is already supported by many local authorities across the region, Sustaine, VONNE and by the Government Office North East and The Regional Assembly North East.

The project will involve communities at the heart of its development, and the tool kit will be designed by communities for communities to use. This will help inform the project, developing a comprehensive, relevant and community friendly tool which will address all aspects of sustainable communities. The work with WWF and CAG Consultants will help to evaluate the impact of the toolkit on behaviour change in the area.

Contact:

Maggie Bosanquet maggie.bosanquet@durham.gov.uk