The Breathe Better Air Community Fund

  

About the Clean Air Fund

The Clean Air Fund works with UK campaigners, businesses, non-profit organisations and funders to raise awareness of air quality, encourage the reduction of air pollution emissions and facilitate the introduction of clean air policies that will make a lasting impact.

Imogen Martineau at the Clean Air Fund has written this interesting article about the problems behind air pollution, the importance of community-based activism and the work we've been doing together in Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.

 

Why air quality matters to UK communities

Research shows that deprived communities in England typically live in places with the highest emissions of air pollution.  Yet tackling it is not just important for our health and social equity.  Air pollution also impacts businesses through reduced workforce productivity.  In the UK, it costs the economy £1.6 billion annually due to employees taking sick days or time off to care for sick children.

As well as impacting the health of millions of people across the UK, air pollution also reinforces health inequalities, exacerbates climate change and imposes major costs to the UK economy.  It is the poorest communities, living in the most congested areas, that are hit the hardest by poor air quality.  Vulnerable groups, including babies, children and older people, suffer the most.

 

About the Breathe Better Air Community Fund

No one knows a local area as well as the people who live there.  They possess an intimate understanding of their environment and have a vested interest in improving the air quality around where they live.  Because of this, local campaigning can be more effective in holding local politicians and policymakers to account.

Local projects also serve as prototypes for larger-scale projects.  If a campaign is successful at a local level, funders can consequently extract learnings and use these as a basis for funding and planning national or international projects. 

For these reasons, the Clean Air Fund and UK Community Foundations launched the Breathe Better Air Community Fund in the UK.  The learning-focused programme has provided smaller grant funding to grassroots organisations selected by community foundations across Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham.  The goal of the Fund has been to increase local awareness, empower communities, and co-create local air quality solutions in these regions.

We’ve seen some impressive results.  In Manchester, we funded Forever Manchester, which channelled funding towards 15 activities.  These included creating informative materials and running awareness workshops for local Jewish and deaf communities.  Further funding went towards creating new signs around Manchester that guide pedestrians and cyclists towards safer, healthier paths away from traffic-heavy areas.

In Liverpool, Community Foundation for Merseyside funded 12 groups to run various initiatives. These ranged from collaborating with researchers to monitor air pollution at main junctions and green spaces, to running air pollution activism workshops and holding community consultations with local policymakers.

In Birmingham, Heart of England Community Foundation funded 10 local groups, including one which organised a 100km group bicycle ride to raise awareness around how air pollution harms our health.  Another organisation installed air quality monitors in local areas around Birmingham to gather data during commuter hours and create air quality awareness campaigns.

We are now in the stages of evaluating the learnings from the fund.  Learning from these small grant-led projects is helping both the Clean Air Fund and UK Community Foundations to identify successful types of local action against air pollution, which other funders and decision makers can replicate elsewhere.

"This project has given us the knowledge and tools to advocate for cleaner air, not just for ourselves but for our entire community. It's about our health, our future, and our right to breathe clean air."

- Participant at Deaf Rhinos, funded by Forever Manchester