It has been one year since we first launched our climate action community The Something Club - and what a year it has been politically, financially, personally and environmentally - it’s certainly no surprise that ‘permacrisis’ was chosen as the Collins word of the year for 2022. Supporting each other to make a difference, contribute and be informed feels more important than ever and it has been a privilege to grow this community over the it’s first year. Here's what we've achieved so far - and what's coming next.
We can't do this alone! We are asking for your help to grow the Community over the coming year.
When planning for The Something Club we wanted to create the kind of community that we ourselves felt we needed: somewhere to share our frustrations, ask questions, and celebrate the changes we’re making in our lives. Lockdown taught us that online meetups can make building climate action into our lives that bit more achievable and so The Something Club was born!
In the last 12 months we – together with community members – have created…
- 65 hours of recorded content for everyone to use and revisit on a huge variety of topics – from patching clothes and ethical pensions to soil health and sustainable activism.
- An epic 564 discussions on the Community Space
- 87 free memberships for people who would find the cost of joining a barrier
"I can't sing the praises enough of the sessions. I am constantly making tweaks to my life, as well as getting the children involved - a lot of these changes have been down to or supported by the Something Club.’ "
- Paula
Paula has been propagating plants and experimenting with plant-based cooking. She’s also learned beautiful visible repair skills to bring her jeans back into use.
The cross section of environmental impact and concerns across all our lives has been clear and we have been so inspired by the contributions made by all our members.
This wouldn’t be a thriving vibrant community without your enthusiasm and engagement, and some of our most popular posts have been about our members’ day to day lives and individual actions: Sharing garden harvests, getting the best from a compost tumbler, cheaper train travel tips, air source heat pumps – even hacking the supermarket trip for a lower carbon shop.
"I haven't felt that satisfying feeling of developing new skills in a long time, but I do feel like that now. I've used inspirations and ideas from people here as a jumping off point to do my own further research and try new things, and then i come back for advice when things go wrong "
- Alex
Alex has been growing veg, has learned to adjust her boiler to make it work more efficiently, and has been using fruit scraps to make vinegar in order to reduce food waste.
Recently we’ve been thrilled to see more and more of you sharing your experiences of taking action on a bigger scale and getting more involved with local and national action, from running events to taking non violent direct action.
We truly believe that – while none of us can fix the climate crisis alone – we can ALL do something. And everyone’s ‘something’ is going to look different!
"The Something Club has helped me feel more positive and inspired, and has taught me ways to make changes in the way we live to reduce our climate impact as well as sparked a desire to be more active and become part of the bigger movements that are clearly needed to turn things around."
- Elan
Elan is undertaking a home retrofit and has been sharing her learning around energy efficiency with other members. She’s also learned fermentation skills to reduce food waste from fruit and veg and has started making her own plant feeds.
What's next for The Something Club?
Firstly, some fairly big news: In light of the winter of rising bills and cost of living we have made the decision to reduce our membership cost until at least January to £5 per month. We hope this reduction in cost will help you to join us, stay with us and encourage you to invite others to join. We have created some easy to share links and vouchers to give membership as a gift to others or to simply invite them to join – responding to the climate crisis is going to take everyone.
And as we enter our second year we’ve got some great topics, events and speakers planned the months ahead. A few of the things you can look forward to include…
- Learning household repair skills
- Hearing from regenerative growers
- Building a productive relationship with your MP to push for climate action
- Developing skills for managing climate anxiety
- Learning how to set up a local climate resilience hub
- Exploring creative ways to spot and subvert greenwash
- Discovering how to bring play into our communities
- Learning from ‘climate repair’ scientists
- Growing mushrooms in your own garden
- Taking part in regenerative activities for wellbeing, including sustainable crafts, learning from nature, and cook-alongs!
"The sessions are always so friendly and Hannah and Becca are so welcoming and such positive people. I love the speakers - they have been thoughtfully curated. I feel lucky to be a part of such a lovely community. ."
- Helen
Helen is undertaking horticultural training and has offered invaluable gardening advice to other members – she also takes action for pollinators and has been experimenting with saving water at home.
We also have a few goals for The Something Club in 2022…
- We’d like to work together as a community on closing the ‘intention-action gap’ – we’ll be discussing the barriers to making low carbon changes in our lives and exploring ways to overcome them together.
- We’re keen to host more member-led events, discussions, and activities.
- We want to grow the community, both in terms of the number of members and by supporting members who currently ‘lurk’ to become more involved in ways they find comfortable.
- We are focussing on making The Something Club financially sustainable. Right now we pay our speakers but are not in a position to pay ourselves for our time to run The Something Club; something we need to do to be able to continue leading this community long term.
We are asking for your help to achieve these goals!
Here are four easy ways you can help this community grow and thrive.
1. Join us and get involved! If you’re not yet a member then why not come and try it out? Your first month is free – at the end of this month you can either stay on with a paying membership or get in touch with us and request a free membership if the cost is a barrier. Click here to get started.
2. Gift a membership to a friend. Gift memberships start from £5 – perfect for a stocking filler or secret Santa. Click here to send a gift – you can schedule when it arrives if you’re sending it for Christmas!
3. Spread the word on social media. Please click here to find a selection of graphics and suggested messages you can use.
4. Spread the word at work. Did you know we offer a free online learning workshop and free Something Club memberships to teams working to take climate action at work? Click here to find out more, request a free workshop, or find a template email to send to the decision makers in your workplace.
