Photography by Ben Douglas
As we mark the midway point of 2024, we also wanted to take this opportunity to (re)introduce Dundee Changemakers Hub and reflect on all that happened in the first six months since getting this brand new project underway!
Dundee Changemakers Hub’s vision is to ensure Dundee’s communities are leading change together for a better tomorrow. We aim to do this through practical support to better connect and equip local communities with knowledge, skills, tools and connections to drive inclusivity; harnessing creativity to make change possible, playful and within reach.
The project has been designed and led by five local social enterprises, enabled by and part of the Scottish Government’s Climate Action Hub Network — you can find out more about the overall project at the end of this post.
From January - June 2024
Over the six months, in partnership with hundreds of people across the city, Dundee Changemakers Hub has designed and delivered:
Food For Change events: we created three events in Coldside, Whitfield and with the Manyways project — each event celebrated and explored community connections through food, music, play and art. It was great to have so many people from different communities join in to share how they’d like to have their neighbourhoods/lives improved and how they’d like to be part of the project going forward.
Dundee Soup and Microgrant events: we brought back this popular favourite, a micro-funding event celebrating and supporting creative community projects in Dundee. People came together to share a simple soup supper, connect with each other and hear inspiring new community pitches. The Coldside and Manyways Soup events have enabled £1,800 of micro grant funds to be awarded to 6 new community-based project ideas in the city. A further £3,000 was awarded to 10 projects in the Pilot Project areas - Whitfield, Coldside and Manyways - with the aim of bringing communities together or improving their local environment.
Press Change: a creative community journalism pilot which resourced 5 young people and 5 creative practitioners with paid time, skills, space and tools to explore local issues and opportunities for greater social and climate justice across Dundee.
Not Another Visioning event: over 70 local organisations and community members joined us for the morning to share their ideas, enthusiasm, skills and experiences of community engaged change work. Uplifting and inspiring to have so many Changemakers in the room together!
Creative micro-commissions: enabled creative activities, photography, illustrations and design expertise to be woven in across the project, with thanks to Ben Douglas, Vinishree Verma and Jurgita Vas who created the Changemakers excellent identity and website!
Meeting and sharing: the core group and Coordinators have created a number of open events, attended community organisation’s events, and met with community groups and individuals across the city to help ensure knowledge, skills and expertise is shared.
Digital features and regular newsletter: through the website, social networks and free digital newsletter we have begun sharing Changemakers news, features and events across the city! You can view photos from some of the events and activities we’ve delivered here.
Action research: working with Service Design Academy we are documenting and learning from our partnership working approach to share our models and approaches more widely in future.
It’s with huge thanks for everyone’s support, efforts and enthusiasm for all of what’s been achieved so far!
Photography by Ben Douglas
What comes next and how to get involved
We have so much we want to make happen as a small, busy, part-time team! Over the coming months ahead Changemakers will:
Run three pilot initiatives in Coldside, Whitfield and with the Manyways community. The pilots will enable communities to co-design their own models of a sustainable and invigorated community space to test scalability, connect and showcase, support and deliver more community climate actions.
Develop more opportunities for communities to come together through events and skills sharing sessions. We recently hosted our first Sharing and Gathering Session for exchanging tips for funding applications and widening our networks, and we’re planning for more opportunities like this one.
Share Dundee Changemakers’ community vision: together we’ve shared ambitions, expertise and practical actions for change, through facilitating community engagement and discussions at previous events across the city — we’ll soon be sharing a joint vision!
About Dundee Changemakers Hub:
Dundee Changemakers Hub was announced during Scotland’s Climate Week 2023, following an application to Scottish Government’s Climate Action Fund, Climate Action Hubs which aims to build local awareness of the climate emergency, develop local plans, help groups take up funding opportunities, and contribute to a Just Transition which is fair and leaves no one behind.
A collective of five local community organisations in Dundee came together to bid for the hub locally, led by Transition Dundee, including The Maxwell Centre, Scrap Antics, Uppertunity and Creative Dundee. The organisations came together to make sure that Dundee’s communities are leading the charge for change on climate related issues, before change is done to us.
