Be a PEC Pal
Do you work in the community, where you see people choosing between heating and eating? Are you worried about the climate emergency and curious about practical steps you can take at home or at work? Would you like to upskill yourself regarding energy related issues, or fuel poverty. Then please join us.
What is PEC Pals?
PEC Pals is a structured, flexible and person-centred programme which provides information and training to enhance skills and increase knowledge. The information gained will help you to help yourself as well as your friends, family and customers / service users.
Our work
In the last 5 years, our services to tackle carbon and energy issues, cold homes and fuel poverty have grown significantly. We’ve helped over 20,000 households to stay warm and well and have installed 33 community-owned solar arrays. And we want to do so much more.
What does being a PEC Pal involve?
As a PEC Pal, you’ll develop your understanding and confidence around:
- PEC’s role and the city’s challenges
- Energy issues
- Energy efficiency and the home
- Climate change / carbon reduction
- Fuel poverty
- Skills for better community working.
To do this, we will give you a free training programme and on-going support to assist you to become more active in the issues we explore.
What do you have to do?
To take part, we ask that you attend all four core training sessions. These are weekly and on a Friday, from 31st January 2020:
Session 1 – Getting to know you
Venue – Sustainability Hub, Kirby Lodge, Plymouth University.
Friday 31st January 9.30 -1pm (lunch provided)
You’ll be made to feel part of the PEC family, meeting staff and like-minded people to explore our work and the city’s challenges. You’ll discover where we came from and why we exist. We’ll help you to explore different ideas, ones that interest you and align with our aims to make things better. We’ll equip you with knowledge about energy efficiency and fuel poverty. We’ll look at the scale of the problem, practical ways to reduce energy bills and cover some of the key advice that Plymouth residents need to hear. There is some hands-on activity too.
Session 2 – Mental Health Awareness training provided by MIND
Venue – Sustainability Hub, Kirby Lodge, Plymouth University.
Friday 7th February 9.30 – 1pm (lunch provided)
A session to explore what it means to be in good or poor mental health. Including information on anxiety, depression and conditions that can affect everyday life. This relaxed session will increase understanding and introduce ways to reach better outcomes for yourself, family, friends and clients.
Session 3 – Exploring Dementia training provided by Memory Matters
Friday 14th February 9.30 – 1pm (lunch provided)
Venue – Room 205, Rolle Building, Plymouth University.
EVERYONE will interact with someone living with dementia. All of us will find ourselves in a role in life, through work or personally where we are interacting with people who are living with a dementia. Sometimes we can feel lost in knowing the best way to approach, or what to say. This course will give you all the tools you need to empathise with the many symptoms that people with dementia may experience and how that impacts communication and day to day living.
Session 4 – De-escalation (responding to aggressive behaviour) training provided by the Zebra Collective
Friday 21st February 9.30 – 1pm (lunch provided)
Venue – Sustainability Hub, Kirby Lodge, Plymouth University.
Have you ever found yourself in a confrontational situation, unaware of how it happened or how to resolve it? De-escalation training explores the paths we can all take to promote better understanding and reach the resolutions we need.
What next?
Congratulations, you will have become a PEC Pal! You are aware of the work we do, the challenges in the city and some of the ways we can tackle them together. At the very least, you will be kept up to date with the work we do, schemes to help and opportunities to get involved. Or perhaps you want to help expand our reach, or test new services because you’ve had an idea that could help. Great! We’ll work with you to get that idea off the ground. There is no minimum amount of time to give and PEC will provide support you with the training and time you need to bring it to life.
Your ongoing role
Our hope is that you will all take the skills and knowledge you have gained, into the community and that you will share it. Far and wide. The more people that are aware of what is available to them and what they can do to help themselves, the happier we are.
What have our PEC Pals been up to?
Setting up a curtain bank
Kat joined us in early 2018. Really keen to give back to the community, Kat saw PEC Pals as the perfect opportunity to meet new people and to combine her passions for social equality and addressing climate change. After attending the programme, Kat helped the Energy Team to set up a curtain bank. She helps to gather donated curtains, register them on a database and then pass them on to those who can't afford them.
Joining our art & energy project
We teamed up with Art & Energy CIC to explore getting creative with solar. Here's our wonderful PEC Pal, Les, learning how to make an artwork that also charges his phone. Les has been a champion in his neighbourhood, spreading the world of what we can do and encouraging his neighbours to give our Energy Team a call. He even helped us by staring in one of our videos!
Strengthening relationships with other organsiations
We were lucky enough to have Owen, Manager of Plymouth Athenaeum join us in 2018. He kindly took our PEC Pals on a tour of Plymouth's hidden gem, The Plymouth Athenaeum, a charity dedicated to the promotion of learning in the fields of science, technology, literature and art. We now regularly host events in the building and Owen has even joined our Board as a Trustee, sharing his valuable knowledge and experience about charities.
"PEC Pals has made me love Plymouth more!"
Our PEC Pals programme has been made possible by funding from Big Lottery Reaching Communities and European Regional Development Funding provided through the Interreg Europe Programme.