Some of the Healthy Homes team pose with two of their awards
Exeter Community Energy (ECOE)’s Healthy Homes for Wellbeing project turned five in November 2022, but the twist was that it is celebrating what it has given the local community. It has supported over 5,000 households, including 2,400 home visits. In total it has saved them more than £2.6 million and prevented more than 1,000 tonnes of the greenhouse carbon dioxide from being emitted! That’s roughly equivalent to the average yearly carbon footprint of 100 British people. The team has given 532 drop-in advice clinics and talks, which helped them reach so many people.
However, the Healthy Homes project team is ‘acutely aware that there are still many more people to reach,’ says project manager Tara Bowers. ‘Our work continues to try to reach every community, and every individual within our communities, with essential information to help people manage their lives and be warm.’
A team with a dream
Back in November 2017 a group of four socially- and environmentally-minded people came together to change the fortunes of poor people in and near Exeter. Led by then ECOE chair Gill Wyatt, they trained themselves as Home Energy Advisors (HEAs), to cut fuel poverty and fix unhealthy cold living environments. Moreover, they wanted to teach and help people to use as little energy as possible. They called the project Healthy Homes for Wellbeing. Originally, ECOE started out by putting solar panels on community buildings and has always supported communities and projects to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. But Gill had wanted to help people in fuel poverty from ECOE’s outset, and the result was Healthy Homes.
At length, Healthy Homes become well-known for its high-quality advice. In due time, Healthy Homes grew, with Gill handing over to Tara in July 2020. Obviously, the covid-19 pandemic hit in the same year. The Healthy Homes team made themselves available to organisations that had identified at-risk individuals. As a result, the team took these people various items they needed as well as offering energy advice.
Soon, Healthy Homes was in great demand in the community as covid-19 meant more people lost business or employment. Debts grew and we saw a rise in fuel poverty. Then, the current energy crisis has led to even more people needing our help. Therefore, today the project has grown to a team of 23 people. While they are mostly HEAs, we also have benefits and home retrofit advisors. The team now plans to do 170 home visits per month in 2022/2023, compared to 170 for the whole of the first 2017/2018 season.
Award-winners
Meanwhile, the team’s amazing achievements have gained recognition in the form of several awards. In 2020 Tara became a national ‘Heat Hero’ for her work to tackle fuel poverty. In addition, Healthy Homes won the Southwest Energy Efficiency award 2020/2021 for outstanding customer support. Then, in 2022, ECOE won the Exeter Sustainability Award for Community Group/Non-Profit/Charity. Also, it won the Regen Community Energy Initiative Green Energy Award 2022. The last two awards were largely due to Healthy Homes’ achievements.
The project has only been able to achieve this due to the support of funders. They include the Local Energy Advice Partnership, National Grid and Big Energy Saving Network. Now they have started to train volunteers to become Energy Champions for their own communities, sharing more information with people. Therefore, if you or anyone you know is interested, please contact healthyhomes@ecoe.org.uk for more information and to register for free training.
