Community engagement

Since 2019, Sussex Air has worked with Sustrans in schools and communities across Sussex, to raise awareness of air pollution and examine local solutions.

Building on the success of recent years, Sustrans have worked with Sussex Air to continue to engage with pupils of all ages, extending the reach into College/FE settings. In addition, they have developed a new strand of the project, working in local communities to foster a greater awareness of air quality with a particular focus on Family Hubs.

Key Statistics – air quality in schools project

Sustrans have engaged 9,000 young people and 550 members of the public with air pollution and active travel

Sustrans have delivered 140 hours of in school workshops and 111 hours of community engagement

Sustrans have initiated 1,000’s of conversations about air pollution and active travel

8 particulate matter monitoring devices have been set up to monitor air quality and 90 nitrogen dioxide diffusion tubes have been used to monitor air quality

 

Schools involved in the air quality project

Project activities included:

  • Hands On Workshops
  • Monitoring Equipment
  • Particulate Matter
  • Assemblies
  • Internal Knowledge Sharing
  • School Streets
  • College Fieldwork
  • College Workshops

School Streets

School Streets is an initiative where a temporary road closure is put in place at the beginning and end of the school day, to limit the amount of vehicles outside of school, and create a safer, cleaner and more pleasant experience for families and local residents around those busy drop off times.

In Brighton & Hove, East Sussex, West Sussex, Air Quality Officers have collaborated with Sustrans School Streets Officers to link in the Air Quality Awareness project with the work they are doing in schools. This partnership working has provided added value to both projects and has enabled the children and families to understand and explore how the way they travel to school directly impacts the air quality around their school.

Sustrans are working with local authorities across Sussex to improve the air quality and safety of pick-up and drop off times outside of selected schools.

  • New booking system for school sessions has worked really well –reducing admin time, and schools can see other schools have booked on.
  • Where Local Authority contacts have introduced Sustrans Officers to their local contacts, this has helped to increase awareness and interest in the project.
  • Officer flexibility with delivery has been crucial to accommodate situations such as school strikes and schools needing to reschedule due to staff illness
  • Having an enthusiastic and invested champion(school or community), really helps with the popularity & success of workshops & events
  • Schools which have had multiple years of engagement are now building AQ workshops into their annual schemes of work and delivering the sessions independently
  • Review is needed for the suitability of using travel Hands Up Surveys for the AQ awareness project as completing Hands Up Surveys has been a challenge for schools.
  • Combined programmes work better in communities where people have little awareness around air quality. Take people on a journey, from their current level of awareness to a wider understanding of air quality and it’s interconnections.
  • Officers have developed core materials to use at community events, which they have trialled and improved through the year. Officers learnt that the resources needed to be flexible and adapted to the range of community settings, including variety of languages.
  • Eco festivals are good for networking, but often the public at these events already have a baseline understanding of air quality issues. Sometimes public see Sustrans Officers as ‘a face for the council’ and spend time complaining. Focus in the autumn will be more on general community events/groups e.g working with family hubs.
  • Balancing capacity and demand. It has been important this year for officers to manage expectations of time/delivery. The project receives a lot of interest, and with the large geographical area, this can be a challenge.
  • Walking/wheeling workshops are a great way to deliver an Air Quality session and bringing in the local geography along the way as a prompt for discussion.
  • Sustrans internal learning -Real value of Sustrans being present at events –not necessarily Officer role to do that. Generic promotion role -NCN map etc

Further reading

What is air pollution?

Air pollution is the largest environmental risk to public health. See what you can do to help.

Discover more

How can I help?

Take a look at the ways you can help from shopping local and using public transport.

What can you do

Cars and Transport

How do you get around? Could you reduce your vehicle use? Could you switch to an electric car?

Vehicle Pollution