Funds available for communities!
The Highlands and Islands Climate Festival celebrates community led climate action with localism at its heart. Celebrations return in 2025 from the 13th September – 8th October.
Communities in Shetland, Orkney & Highland are invited to take part and help to build the programme of activity. The festival originated in 2022 and has grown year on year.
The Highlands and Islands Climate Hub are pleased to offer financial support to communities via the festival and two funding streams are open for applications now and will remain open until mid-July. Communities are invited to apply for funds to support hosting an independent event or host an event that collaborates with a range of partners to celebrate community led climate action within a whole place.
A flat rate of £150 is available to encourage and support communities to host an event which celebrates their community via a climate action activity. This can be events like beach cleans, community growing open days, fashion swaps, repair cafes and so much more. While the festival welcomes and encourages special, one-off events to support the programme, it also accepts events already in existence and those which are staples within a community’s social calendar.
An open day at a community garden hosted by Thurso Community Development Trust during the 2024 festival
Senior Project officer at the Highlands and Islands Climate Hub, Marion Reid said:
“I’m always inspired when I look at the programme of events for the Highlands and Islands Climate festival as the range of events is so inventive. By celebrating communities for doing what they do best, the festival highlights the incredible grass roots work that goes on not just within the festival dates but all year round. That’s one of the reasons why the fund is open to new and existing activity as we know how hard community groups work and that for many, climate action is woven into activity by default so there’s no need to create a new event exclusive for the festival unless groups really want to!”
The second funding stream invites applications from community groups interested in hosting larger, collaborative activities within their place.
CEO of the Highlands and Islands Climate Hub, Joan Lawrie said:
“Collaboration is a huge part of our work at the Highlands and Islands Climate Hub. We strongly believe that by working together, we can support organisational goals while meeting community need. I believe that strong collaborative efforts are essential in the fight against climate change and I love that the Highlands and Islands showcase and create these collaborations so brilliantly during the festival weeks.
This funding stream supports organisations who are willing to take the lead in the organisation of a marketplace style event. These events will come in a range of shapes and sizes but at their core is a collaboration between community organisations, voluntary groups and support agencies that promotes community led climate action within their place. During the 2024 festival, Lochaber hosted a Climate Fair and Thurso, a Green Fair. I’d love to see more events like this throughout Shetland, Orkney & Highland within the 2025 programme.”
Images from the Lochaber Climate Fair, one of the collaborative events from the 2024 programme of events.
Gain inspiration from previous programmes and galleries highlighting the ways in which communities have participated in previous festival efforts. The experiences of previous years have allowed the festival team to create and publish helpful guides which make involvement as easy as possible for communities.