A sustainability centre in Salford has launched a free creative workshop on climate protest art, including an interactive storytelling performance, designed to explore the environment.
The program will seek to educate Salford’s communities on the environment, utilising performance and scrap materials to highlight the importance of zero waste consumption and sustainability, in partnership with Salford CVS and Family Hubs Salford.
Take Action Together, a non-profit community interest company, was founded two years ago by three neurodiverse mothers Fay Watts, Lauren Cartwright and Ema Couteleau-Charlton.
The company works out of its sustainability centre in the Quayside shopping centre, offering a range of programs that are accessible and affordable for all.
Ema Couteleau-Charlton, who will lead the workshop, hopes that the workshop can inspire ‘real change’.
She said: “The message that we want to share with the project is that storytelling can really inspire real change.
“It’s just about joining forces with the community, and promoting sustainability and eco-friendly practices through interactive storytelling,” she added.
During the workshop, participants will watch and discuss an interactive performance based on Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, before using scrap material to create protest signs linked to trees and the performance.
Ema feels that this can help participants to understand the importance of nature in combatting climate change, as she continued: “It’s all about changing mindsets, kind of really making them aware of this idea of recycling and reusing and repurposing and how that can all add up and make a difference.
“Change starts with someone who cares enough to make a difference. We want to remind people that we really still need to speak for the trees, before it’s too late,” she added.
The event, which is aimed at families and children in Salford, will involve interactive props and reading sessions, seeking to immerse attendees in the performance.
Take Action Together is a 2-year project, funded by Family Hubs Salford, aimed at bringing Salford’s climate response to young families and homes within the city.
Couteleau-Charlton believes that this is essential in making a sustainable lifestyle feel less ‘overwhelming’, as she said: “It’s all about encouraging families to think differently, bringing in their household waste and thinking: ‘Okay, I can actually turn this into something different.’
“Trying to live a sustainable lifestyle, it can be incredibly overwhelming. It’s really daunting.
“It’s down to the tiniest choices you can make in and around your home, it can create a ripple effect.
“We only need a million people doing it imperfectly, really, to make a change. It doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect, and that’s kind of what we are about,” she added.
The company places a focus upon a community-level response to climate change, something Ema says is ‘the most important’ step towards sustainability, as she continued: “We can’t take the world on, but we can make a change in our local community and that’s where it starts.
“It’s about controlling what you can see rather than what you can’t. Looking at the bigger picture as a whole, that’s how the overwhelm sets in.
“And then you just think: ‘Well, I don’t know where to begin, so I won’t begin,’ which is a really unhealthy mindset. That’s when change doesn’t happen, and you become stagnant because there’s no progression or forward thinking.
“We’re so dedicated to children and families, ensuring that these conversations are happening in the home, because that’s where we can control it, and that’s where it’s most important,” she added.
In 2019, Friends of the Earth named Salford the most sustainable council in the North West, following Salford City Council‘s announcement of a ‘climate emergency’ in July of the same year. Centre for Thriving Places named the council the greenest and most sustainable in England and Wales.
In October, Take Action Together opened their Re:Play sustainability centre in Salford’s Quayside Shopping Centre, funded by Recycle for Greater Manchester.
The studio was initially planned to remain open for three months, though the company are now hoping to receive funding which can keep it open for longer, as Ema said: “We realised that the community needed it, and we are so busy, so we’ve currently got a Crowdfunder going on to keep us open for longer.
“It’s on for another month, and then hopefully we can continue the good work there,” she added.
Further details about the upcoming workshop can be found here.
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