Ouse Valley Climate Action - Community Pitch: £500-£5,000 awards to tackle climate change in the Ouse Valley
Ouse Valley Climate Action (OVCA) aims to bring the whole community together to help the environment and create a more sustainable planet for future generations.
In partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund, Lewes District Council and South Downs National Park Trust, eligible organisations have submitted their Community Pitch for ideas that meet the Ouse Valley Climate Action project themes of reducing carbon usage, supporting nature and enhancing wellbeing, knowledge and skills around climate change.
Following shortlisting, each Community Pitch project now needs to raise their target ‘match’ amount – ranging from £100-£1,500. At the end of the deadline, those pitches that have reached their target will receive funding from the South Downs National Park Trust, which is the official charity for the National Park.
Deadline for crowdfunding has now passed.
Shortlisted Community Pitch Applications
Please find below the eight shortlisted applications who are all now bidding for a share of the funding pot.
1. KP Projects – The Living Coast Undersea Experience
KP Projects – creates surprising, intriguing and inspiring outdoor arts performances, installations, community engagement and educational activities focused on the environment and sustainability.We want to reconnect people to the environment, encourage them to visit green and blue spaces on their doorstep and inspire everyone to help protect them.
The Living Coast Undersea Experience is an interactive virtual reality (VR) artwork and 360 film enabling users to explore Beachy Head Marine Conservation Zone (Brighton Marina to Beachy Head). It uses cutting edge technology to open up one of the UK’s most unique marine environments to everyone, raising awareness of one of the world’s only chalk reefs and encouraging people to help conserve it
Virtual reality artwork and 360 degree film enables users to interact and explore the Beachy Head Marine Conservation Zone. Aimed at educating and inspiring people to protect the marine environment. We have created pilot lesson plans, and have been evolving them working with teachers & school pupils, to link into and across the national curriculum, inspire future generations to connect with nature and develop sustainable habits.
KP Projects is looking for funding to enable them to reach 400 more children and young people, working with an expert to develop educational materials adapted for the estimated 20% of pupils with educational needs and/or who have difficulty reading.
Find out more…
KP Projects have a crowdfunding target of – £150
Help them to achieve their crowdfunding target by donating below:
2. #PlasticFreePeriods
Seaford Environmental Alliance (SEA) – is a registered charity, whose mission is to inspire and support community-led climate action and build community resilience in the face of climate and ecological breakdown. Plastic Free Seaford is a community group, empowering the local community to tackle the single-use plastics epidemic.
Disposable plastic-based period products generate 27,000 tonnes of plastic waste and 82 million kg CO2 emissions every year, in the UK alone.
SEA are looking for funding to promote and provide reusable period products in Seaford, Newhaven and Peacehaven. Reusable sanitary pads and menstrual cups will be made available for free to those most at risk of period poverty, via the Periodbank scheme based at East Sussex Libraries, as well as in the SEA Climate Hub.
Find out more…
Seaford Environmental Alliance have a crowdfunding target of – £1,500
Help them to achieve their crowdfunding target by donating below:
3. Sustainable Business Partnership CIC
Sustainable Business Partnership CIC – are looking for funding to run a pilot project for a co-working space for two days a week over the winter in the under-utilised Community Pavilion in Kingston. This will be aimed at home workers based in the village, so that they can switch off their heating at home during the day and come together in a warm space. The Pavilion is a highly sustainable super insulated building run on renewable energy and heated using a modern Air Source Heat Pump with greywater recycling and a remarkable green roof.
The space will also be available to older residents and anyone in the village struggling to keep their homes warm given the high cost of energy. They will be able to come and use the space for quiet activities and will be encouraged to leave their cars at home and walk or cycle to the building where they can.
If the project is successful and attracts lots of interest from people wanting to work in a warm space, it would hopefully become financially self-sustaining in the future based on using donations to hire the building, and perhaps could be rolled out to other community buildings in the Ouse Valley.
Find out more…
Sustainable Business Partnership CIC have a crowdfunding target of – £400
Help them to achieve their crowdfunding target by donating below:
4. Roots Rising CIC
Roots Rising CIC – seeks to benefit the community by engaging them in green spaces, by demonstrating resilience and sustainability to communities to combat food poverty, climate crisis and promote wellbeing and by bringing people together to build stronger and healthier communities.
Peverells Community Garden lies in the heart of an estate in Seaford. They are looking for funding to help them towards the goal of being carbon neutral and use renewable resources to ensure the community gardens legacy.
Funding will benefit the volunteers and community who visit the garden and who share the space. It will allow them to recycle their waste and turn it into soil, to capture more rainwater, to be able to learn how to make pallet furniture, to build 3×3 beds the community can take home and grow their own. In this way they hope to create a sharing environment where any surplus food is shared into the community. Renewable resources will allow the garden to mitigate the effects of climate change and teach by example how to reduce carbon footprint at home.
Find out more…
Roots Rising CIC have a crowdfunding target of – £100
Help them to achieve their crowdfunding target by donating below:
5. Love our Ouse CIC
Love our Ouse CIC – is an exciting community-based initiative to link people to celebrate, raise the profile of and upscale positive action for our River Ouse from source to sea. We believe the Ouse has the right to support a rich biodiversity of life and a thriving riverside community
Love our Ouse are looking for funding to support upscaled monitoring of the river to help prioritise actions to improve the river’s health using the bold and innovative Rights of River framework. The project will build on our Citizen Science River Ecology 101 training providing educational sessions and equipment to enable monitoring of the river in the Lewes area. There are currently 15 individuals and two local community groups already signed up in Lewes with more to be recruited as part of the River People Tour dates in 2024.
Help them to uphold the Ouse’s right to be a healthy resilient river by utilising the power of local people to learn and act on the Ouse’s threats and challenges due to climate change and ecological threats. This project uses hands on practical means that are fun, builds stronger connections and fosters better guardianship of the river. Get involved to Love our Ouse!
Find out more…
Love our Ouse CIC have a crowdfunding target of – £500
Help them to achieve their crowdfunding target by donating below:
6. Get Bikery
Get Bikery – is an eCargo Bike project based in Lewes that provides a zero-carbon alternative to short journeys that would be ordinarily made by cars and vans. One of the central aims of Get Bikery is to facilitate behaviour change and support community projects and initiatives. Bikes are available to rent in Lewes, for those who want to experience to benefits of ecargo mobility. The scheme allows those who cannot afford or are unsure about buying an ecargo bike to access a variety of bike types at low cost.
Get Bikery is looking for funding to offer demonstrations and training events at primary schools in Lewes. Several eCargo bikes will be available with accessories for parents to try along with training and tips. Info and leaflets will also be provided with advice on purchase, membership and hire offers from Get Bikery. A prize draw run at each event will offer two free weekend hires available for each school.
Getbikery has a long term aim to develop a local eCargo service for Lewes and the Ouse Valley as a sustainable business.
Find out more…
Get Bikery have a crowdfunding target of – £1,000
Help them to achieve their crowdfunding target by donating below:
7. Cycle Lewes
Cycle Lewes is a membership organisation representing cyclists and cycling interests in the Lewes district. Mountfield Road car park in Lewes has space for approx.60 cars but there is no designated cycle parking area.
People come to the car park for various activities such as team sports on Convent Field, a walk in Lewes Priory Park, a visit to the nearby playground or to watch the football.
With your help Cycle Lewes would like to purchase a cycle rack for up to 10 bicycles and install it at the edge of the car park for public use. They would like to encourage people to come there by bicycle, by providing them with an easily accessible space to securely lock their bike. Several other areas have also been identified across town where the provision of new cycle parking would be of great benefit to the public and will continue to work towards our goal of improving cycle and walking infrastructure across Lewes.
Find out more…
Cycle Lewes have a crowdfunding target of – £100
Help them to achieve their crowdfunding target by donating below:
8. Denton Community Garden
With your help Denton Island Community Garden plan to deliver training to school children and the local community as well as hold community events; This would include sustainable planting suggestions on what people can grow in their gardens to help with biodiversity.
Film and more details to come.
Get inspiration from our previous Community Pitch.
During the winter of 2021-22, as part of the The National Lottery Community Fund-supported Ouse Valley Climate Action initiative, five local organisations bid for a prize to turn their sustainability idea into practical action. In partnership with the South Downs Trust, awards were given to projects aiming to reduce waste and carbon use, support wildlife, raise awareness and mitigate the effects of climate change.
In the Community Pitch 2021-22 there were five shortlisted projects bidding for a share of the funding pot.
All received a share of funding with the top two receiving an additional prize towards their project.