In February 2023, we partnered with Marches Energy Agency, Citizens Advice Mid Mercia, and Sahahra on a Warmer Derby and Derbyshire 3 project. Our aim is to enable vulnerable consumers to become more confident and independent whilst reducing levels of fuel poverty and improving general health and well-being. With WDD3 we will aim to provide free, independent advice and practical help to tackle fuel poverty. We will also work with householders and referral partners to help residents sustain a warm, healthy home in the long term. Householders struggling to pay bills, with poor home energy efficiency, with long-term health conditions, or vulnerability due to age or language barrier will be our focus.
On March 14, we officially launched the project at the Arboretum Park where Sahahra is based. We welcomed representatives of many organisations across Derbyshire and wider. During the event, we had the opportunity to hear from Pete Burgess-Allen and Simon Ross from the Marches Energy Agency, Emma Herron from Citizens Advice Mid Mercia, Aleksandra Kovacic from Derby Bosnia Herzegovina Community Association, Jangir Khan from Sahahra, and Dr Chui Lai-Fong along with Prof Robert Lowe.
Aleksandra Kovacic, Project and Outreach Coordinator at the Bosnian Centre, talked about the issues we regularly come across in our work with clients “Our service users mainly come from disadvantaged communities. During all these years of working with them, we learned that they tend to live in very poor standard accommodations. They live in cold and damp homes which are expensive to heat up. Another issue we often come across is high bills due to a lack of usage control. When asylum seekers get their refugee status, they must move out of their Serco accommodation where they had no responsibility for tracking energy usage or paying any bills. Once they move into their own homes they are faced with huge bills as a consequence of no control over energy usage. This is the education gap that we want to fill by helping them make their homes more energy efficient and help them avoid fuel poverty.”
Our next step in this project is to ensure that training is provided to frontline staff and volunteers so that we can effectively provide reliable advice to our clients. Thank you to everyone who attended the launch event and contributed to the discussion during the event.
