Introduction

The Perth Climate Champions formed as part of an initiative to support young people as part of the COP26 event that took place in Glasgow.

Perth Climate Champions took part in a Young Placechangers training day in Perth in July 2022. They looked at Perth city centre through a climate lens using the Young Placechangers Toolkit. They learned all about the importance of placemaking and how to evaluate place. The young people then spent the afternoon outside using some of the tools from the training session.

During several further meetings the young people began to develop some great ideas about greening the town centre, rewilding greenspaces, developing incredible edibles using existing planters for growing food and how to get more people involved in climate action.  

Young Placechangers project in a nutshell

Over the  course of the project we worked with ten Climate Champions. Before our Young Placechangers Development Officer met with the group the young people had some great ideas including developing safe cycle routes to and from schools. They also looked at the impact of school meals considering how to reduce food waste and offer more vegan options. During this time, we recognised and discussed how some of these bigger ideas would probably take time and may have more constraints for council budgets. So, to keep the young people motivated and involved after the placemaking training day we had several meetings to develop some of their ideas.

The young people then developed a smaller project and applied for a seedcorn fund to get it all started. The fund helped them create Re-wilding packs which contained seed bombs, wildflower seed kits and tools. The packs also contained information to help raise awareness of the Climate Champions and how to be involved in climate action in Perth.

The young people purchased items to make information packs which have so far been handed out to eco-groups in schools and other community groups in the city and across Perth and Kinross.     

Next steps

Some of the young people have joined Perth & Kinross Council’s Youth Commission to look at climate change issues across Perth.

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More Young Placechangers case studies

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greenspace scotland engages and empowers young people through the Young Placechangers programme.

Young Placechangers puts young people in the lead role – bringing together the wider community to look at local spaces and plan improvements. The Young Placechangers programme has used a co-production approach to develop and pilot a training and support programme enabling young people to transform both the place they live, their relationship to it and the wider community.

Young Placechangers