Participant spotlight: Jack Drum Arts
This case study for Going Green Together showcases an organisation taking part in our project, how it has benefitted them, and where they will go next with their environmental work. You can find more case studies and resources like this through the Going Green Together website.
Jack Drum Arts is a VONNE silver member and participant in the Become Green Together and Act Green Together programmes. They have recently been awarded bronze accreditation with Investors in the Environment.
Jack Drum Arts is a social enterprise based in Crook, County Durham. They were established in 1986 and became a community interest company 9 years ago. In 2010 they moved into St. Cuthbert’s Centre, a beautiful stone building which was once a catholic school, which they rent from the local church. Here, Jack Drum hosts daily activities for young people and adults, including music workshops, arts and wellbeing activities using the social prescribing model, have a thriving youth theatre group, and youth club. The centre has very much become a community hub, bringing people together and promoting self-expression and wellbeing around creative, hands-on activities. Jack Drum Arts also produce annual events co-created with members of their community, including Crook Winter Light Parade, and the award-winning youth produced green festival B.O.P Fest (Building Our Planet festival). They are a delivery partner of the BFI Film Academy network providing filmmaking courses in both County Durham and Redcar and an anchor organisation for Durham Youth Print working together with TCR Hub to build a new youth network in the Durham Dales area.
Jack Drum Arts have been keen to promote environmental awareness through their work, particularly through B.O.P Fest. Like many organisations across the sector, however, they have faced barriers to building the expertise to ensure they maximise their positive impact on the environment, and the support they need to make sure their workplace as sustainable as possible.
As a VONNE member and a representative of organisations working with young people, VONNE invited Jack Drum Arts to join a scoping exercise to better understand the environmental needs of the VCSE sector. These discussions helped to inform VONNE’s Going Green Together project. When the Become Green Together training programme and Act Green Together project development seed fund opportunities were launched, Jack Drum Arts quickly got involved.
Through Become Green Together, Jack Drum have taken advantage of the training provided by genee, working towards accreditation with Investors in the Environment, to create a detailed Environmental Management System. They have also benefitted from the SmartCarbon calculator to monitor and better understand their carbon emissions. These tools and processes have helped them understand how to make their organisation more sustainable and the strategies they need to implement going forwards. They have also helped spread environmental knowledge throughout their organisation by signing further members of staff up to Carbon Literacy training, provided by CAfS.
Through this increased knowledge, Jack Drum have been able to find new, positive ways to integrate an environmental approach into their projects, for instance through reducing waste and re-using materials. They’ve helped support biodiversity in their local area, by setting aside green space to create a new wild meadow, and installing an insect hotel to create a habitat for invertebrates.
This new knowledge has also been important to navigate the changing landscape of funding and procurement. Now Jack Drum can confidently demonstrate their environmental commitments to the partners they work with, to help support their core work into the future.
Through Act Green Together, Jack Drum were also supported to explore opportunities for new environmental projects. Through a co-design approach, they tested ideas to create a community growing scheme, which would both help reduce the carbon emissions associated with the food industry, and help put food on the table for disadvantaged communities. They created a small community garden to trial growing a variety of crops, and through this developed an understanding of what would be practical when space and resources are at a premium. They are currently looking for funding to deliver this project further.
Jack Drum Arts have exemplified the can-do attitude needed to make positive, impactful change happen in tackling the climate crisis. It’s not easy work — getting started on this journey has been time-intensive — but they’re confident that as their environmental strategies and processes become more embedded and a climate-led approach is normalised, climate action will become more accessible. They’re also adamant that it’s not something they can afford not to do, as an organisation who cares deeply about the environment and the impact the climate emergency will have both on their communities and the wider planet.
Jack Drum Arts have environmental ambitions into the future. As well continuing to reduce their own carbon footprint, they would love to get involved in developing tools to help communities tackle some of the biggest carbon emissions, such as transport.
Find out more about Jack Drum Arts, their projects and upcoming events, through their website.
