ACRE and the Rural Community Action Network developed the 21st Century Village to build on their current work in supporting the long tradition of rural community action. Rural communities can be helped to develop a viable vision for their future by harnessing the potential of local assets, including the people themselves, to re-create local provision of services and reduce energy use, not just CO2. Economic development can be supported by intelligent use of existing facilities, home working and provision of adequate IT. This localisation of services can generate vibrancy in rural areas, rather than watch it slowly drain away.
21st Century Village has shown that by stimulating dialogue amongst groups and individuals within a community, ideas and volunteers come forward to create a myriad of collective initiatives. Examples such as “greening your village hall”, offering local recycling facilities, energy audits, veg-box pick-up points and the use of bio-fuel heating, crop up time and time again. RCAN has been involved in helping communities generate local projects as well as providing groups and individuals with practical guidance. Advice has been given on sustainable energy and waste action, from no/low cost measures, such as composting, rainwater harvesting and improved insulation; to capital investment measures, such as solar thermal, combined heat and power and other such low carbon systems. We are also finding that group initiatives taking place in community buildings cascade into the daily life of individuals using or managing the hall.
Saving energy is one of the practical issues tackled under the 21st Century Village initiative. In conjunction with Every Action Counts and National Energy Action (NEA), the Network trained all the Village Hall Advisers employed by RCAN members across the country to offer energy audits to rural community buildings. The training ensures that Village Hall Advisers fully understand all aspects of energy use in halls and can advise communities and community groups on the best way of reducing their usage. Other actions taken by the Network to support rural communities face the challenges ahead, have included, the initiation of car share schemes, hiring out of thermal imaging cameras, increasing the availability of broadband facilities and offering advice on sustainable building practices.
The 21st Century Village Report highlights some of the work of the projects from around the country.
