Citizens Advice services support local residents to address some of the most pressing issues affecting their daily lives, including debt management and fuel poverty. Linked projects commissioned from our Salomons Institute of Applied Psychology have supported local branches of this national charity to provide and develop this support.
Following an evaluation of the Citizens Advice money advice service, which helped local residents with debt management, Citizens Advice 1066, serving Hastings and Rother, commissioned work to help understand how local residents could be supported to make their homes more energy efficient, thus both combatting fuel poverty and reducing carbon emissions in urban neighbourhoods.
Drawing on what worked in the provision and take up of money advice, the Salomons Institute is supporting and evidencing the impact of the Sustainable Houses in Inclusive Neighbourhoods (SHINE) project to develop “bottom-up” energy saving initiatives by residents, supported by networks of trained energy advisers.
Evidence from the SHINE and money advice evaluations is providing an understanding of what works in community engagement initiatives, and how charities and organisations can develop strategies to positively support behaviour change to improve local people’s lives.