by Laura Nicklin and Philip Bowne

This year, as Vision 21 relocates, it is celebrating twenty years as Gloucestershire’s successful sustainability charity. During its two decades, not only has it continued to support its local community with inventive solutions for energy sustainability, but also opened doors for young people seeking opportunities to understand the basis of a working environment.

Starting as a response to the 1992 Earth Summit, the idea for Vision 21 was pegged as a globally-concerned programme at a local level. Since the beginning of the international scheme for global sustainability, Vision 21 has created Gloucestershire’s Local Agenda 21, allowing local people to share their environmental ideas and concerns and become part of a bigger picture. Vision 21 is easily recognised as being a social opportunity, as well as an environmental one, having also celebrated ten years of volunteers with their Reclaim charity. Offering not only team-working experience but a chance for young people with learning difficulties to immerse themselves in a rewarding project, Vision 21 offers the prospect of helping others and meeting new people along the way. Their goal is to aid their local community in whatever way they can, while encouraging links between the community and its volunteers.

Over time, Vision 21 has devised countless creative ideas for energy preservation that have benefited both energy sources and the local area. Along with its green charities, Vision 21 also provides many products and services including items such as cookers, washing machines, stoves, rugs, carpets and second-hand goods.

Vision 21’s charity programmes include:

Reclaim – working to preserve used furniture and repair it to be sold on for a reasonable price. Without this charity, a lot of reusable furniture items would have been wasted at the landfill.

RePaint – another preserving project, this time for old paints.

Can Do – a recycling project aimed to help spare natural resources.

Community Edible Garden – also known as the Get Up and Grow More project, this focuses on locals having their own plots in community allotments.

Big Green Bundle – a free web based toolkit developed by the Cheltenham Low Carbon Partnership, helping businesses and community programmes reduce their CO2 emissions.

Vision 21 has even joined a long list of environmental charities, including Global Footsteps and Green Doors, for Gloucestershire’s original September Green Festival, aimed at educating people on sustainability in a quirky new spin on the festival circuit.

As of the beginning of September, Vision 21’s new home will be Cheltenham First Stop, 301-305 High Street, Cheltenham GL50 3HW. 

Vision 21 also has its own ‘Forward Plan’ based on the results of its Carbon Footprint Analysis (CFA) of Gloucestershire; more information is available on their website. If you are interested in future projects, you can also take a look at Vision 21’s electronic newsletter 21 Today.

The volunteers of local charity Reclaim have also been celebrating their 10^th birthday this year.

The charity, a facet of the broader project Vision 21, is based on the Lansdown industrial estate in Cheltenham. Their aim is to reduce the amount of reusable furniture and other goods going to waste at landfill, as well as providing quality, affordable products for lower income households.

They do so by refurbishing unwanted goods and redistributing them to new homes. Many of the items they receive are almost brand new, and the used goods are of impressive quality, mostly furniture, electrical goods, bicycles and even paint.

Dave Entwistle, manager, said: “The project gives the volunteers a positive purpose. It helps up to 20 vulnerable adults. We reserve 15 spaces for those who have difficulties in one way or another.”

“We help a considerable amount of the community. Many of our customers are working lower income jobs, and we have around 1600 customers per year.”

There's potential for local students to benefit from the scheme, with almost new furniture and fantastic condition bicycles available at affordable prices.

But the success of Reclaim has not come without its difficulties. Mr Entwistle described the problems associated with the limited space available at the warehouse, meaning they sometimes cannot accept products until goods have been sold on.

Mr Entwistle, who has worked at Reclaim for three years, praised the hard work and commitment of his staff, many of whom gain the confidence and experience to move onto paid employment after working at Reclaim.

“The most recent leaver went on to paid employment after six years of voluntary work.”

Mr Entwistle and the volunteers at Reclaim celebrated the success of the charity and its 10^th birthday with a variety of events.

“We've had ongoing celebrations to celebrate the anniversary year, because not all the volunteers are available on the same day.

“We've had a team building day in Weston Super-Mare, a barbecue and a night out in Cheltenham with the volunteers and employees joining in the celebrations.”

Overall the charity are very pleased with the progress and success of the project, and everyone at the warehouse was in good spirits and enjoying their work. You can see for yourself at the showroom on Gloucester road.

To find out more about Vision 21 visit their website here