Mapping the Big Green Challenge - The Skills & Learning ...

98 Chapter 7.5 - Zones, Local Projects and Youth Schemes: Grassroots and Professionally Led7.5 Zones, Local Projects and Youth Schemes: Grassroots and ProfessionallyLed7.5.1 Comparing ProcessesBefore moving on to the next proposal type this section has been inserted to highlight a dimension tothe 3 proposal types already discussed. That is grassroots and professionally led bodies tackling thesame type of project in rather different ways. This was seen to be a particular issue for these proposaltypes rather than for the sample as a whole. Grassroots organisations can be expected to have stronglinks to their communities and a good understanding of context. Professionally led bodies are likely tohave more experience, more expertise in community approaches, and be better resourced. They mayalso resist the label of outsiders often having grown from grassroots organisations themselves. Thissection looks at how these issues played out in relation to 3 proposal types.The split between grassroots Challengers, who emanate from the community they are targeting, andprofessionally led Challengers, organisations external to the target community (including governmentsponsored energy advice centres, rural community councils and development charities) is distinct fromthe group’s origin as discussed in Section 3.3.2 This is a classification of their current orientation inrelation to the target audience of the proposal, and in many cases the professionals started as bottomup grassroots groups and have experience in the process of activating a community and running a localproject. Many of the charities and grant funded energy-focussed organisations developed in this way,gaining their expertise through practical experience.Three categories have been classified in this way, Zones, Local Projects and Youth Schemes, in order tolook at the similarities and differences between their approaches. There are far more professionallyled organisations proposing youth schemes than there are in the Zones and Projects categories.Chart 61 – Comparing grassroots and professionally led proposals; Zones, Local Projectsand Youth SchemesLow Carbon Youth Schemes2712Low Carbon Projects1433Professionally LedGrassrootsLow Carbon Zones8360% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%Of the 17 professionally led Youth Scheme proposals, eight of the challengers already have a youthfocus, the other nine are selecting to work with youth, apparently because they see this as an effectivefocus for their work on climate change.Appleby Ltd July 2009