Welcome to

MIDDLESBROUGH Environment City

Led by The Wildlife Trusts and funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, Our Bright Future was a youth empowerment partnership that covered a number of projects including One Planet Pioneers that ourselves, Actes Employability, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust and Teesside University worked on that helped a number of young people earn useful life skills and experience in environmental sustainability.

Ahead of the closing of Our Bright Future, a video outlining the outcomes and the benefits that this wonderful initiative provided has been released, and can be viewed below.

The full report can be read at www.ourbrightfuture.co.uk/about/our-impact

Great Big Green Week was a resounding success for CAM and its partners! The week saw numerous events held across Teesside to celebrate this celebration of the planet.

On Monday, children at Whinney Banks Primary School talked to us about all the things that contribute to climate change. They told us about their hopes for the next generation and buried carbon contributors in a time capsule to be dug up by pupils in 2050 along with their messages.

On Wednesday, we were at Archibald Primary School to deliver a climate change quiz, teach them how to take their own climate action, taught them about the decomposition of plastic waste and even made a climate change time capsule for future pupils to discover in the year 2050!

Over the week, we engaged with youth clubs including at Hemlington & Coulby Newham youth clubs, where they made bird feeder fat balls – learning about why they’re important (especially around this time of year) for conservation, about different types of seeds, and how they can make them again at home with the rest of the family. We also collected acorns for an initiative to help plant more oak trees after an early Autumn meant that many oaks were shedding their acorns early.

On Thursday, we ran a session of Carbon Awareness training at Camphill Village Trust, which also saw a wild food tasting session. Participants looked at the carbon footprint of food and then got to taste some of the lowest carbon food you can eat – foraged! On Friday, we delivered a soap making workshop at School Of Apocalypse, binding natural ingredients and locally grown herbs. We were also at the Green Hub in Middlesbrough Bus Station to deliver information and workshops, where we met our friends at Bridgehill Day Services in Middlesbrough: We helped them make bug hotels, and also discussed which methods of transport are best for our environment. Great to see them!

All in all, a very busy, but successful, week!

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Our Active Travel team deliver Bikeability training to Primary Schools across the Tees Valley. Bikeability, overseen by the Bikeability Trust, is the Department for Transport’s flagship national cycle training programme for schoolchildren across England and is a practical, framework-driven training system designed to develop the skills of children, as well as their confidence, to allow them to cycle safely. In doing so, it improves their health and also works towards the reduction of carbon emissions from cars.

Bikeability focuses on all levels of riders, from children who are just starting on their cycling journey to more experienced riders, and teaches a mastery of basic skills as well as other skills including safety checks, communicating with other road users and suitable ride positions, amongst other things.

Our Active Travel team are trained to exacting standards to teach Bikeability, and are certified by 1st 4 Sport for Instructing Cycle Training, some of the first in the country to be certified to this standard which will become mandatory for teaching Bikeability in March 2024.

Our Active Travel team deliver Bikeability sessions to dozens of kids a day, to many different schools, and have been doing so for several years. As such, they are highly qualified leaders in Bikeability training and are more than capable of delivering the training safely and effectively. For more information on Bikeability for schools, please enquire with Margaret Tonkin at margaret.tonkin@menvcity.org.uk, or call us on 01542 579820.

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Growing Middlesbrough is a town wide initiative to improve access to local food – that is food that has been grown or produced within 50 miles of the town. It acts as a network of local food producers, retailers and enthusiasts that work together to satisfy customer demands.

The ability to buy local food is something that is becoming of more concern to everyone right now. We are starting to care about what we eat and where it actually comes from. Whether it has been grown or produced locally, whether vegetables or meat, more people want to go local for food. It doesn’t just support the local economy, but also reduces your carbon footprint significantly.

The following website can provide you with information and more on how to get involved with Growing Middlesbrough. Whether you are a grower and/or producer of good local food, or even a local caterer looking to highlight the tastes of the region, we would be more than happy to welcome you to the family.

View Website

For over 10 years Middlesbrough has been a Fairtrade Town and has ran a full range of events and campaigns. Middlesbrough successfully renewed its Fairtrade status in March 2018.

Middlesbrough Food Power is working to tackle the rising level of food insecurity across Middlesbrough, by supporting people with effective advice, useful skills and a strong support network. Creating an easy sign posting tool and confidence throughout organisations and individuals wanting to make a change throughout Middlesbrough.

The Healthy Cooking Team deliver cooking skills to the Middlesbrough community.

The service we deliver is bespoke, addressing the needs of the organisation or community group we are working in partnership with. Sessions can include cooking on a budget, healthy eating, basic cooking skills, train the trainer sessions and Level 2 accredited food safety training. We have recently delivered a slow cooker project which has proven very popular with our residents.

We work in the community, taking equipment and resources and require only a room, hot water and washing facilities to deliver our sessions.

We work in community hubs, schools, churches and with community groups across Middlesbrough. Our aim is to teach residents how to cook nutritious meals for all the family and to deliver the healthy eating messages in a relaxed and informal way. Residents get the chance to try the food, ask questions and develop new cooking skills in a friendly atmosphere.

Breastfeeding Welcome Scheme

The team are also partners for the Breastfeeding Welcome Scheme; promoting suitable venues in the Middlesbrough area for Mothers who want to breast feed their babies without prejudice.

Look out for the Breastfeeding welcome logos displayed in and around Middlesbrough.

For more information and how to be involved in this scheme please contact our team at Middlesbrough Environment city.