In this post, Timothy Cave from York St John Students’ Union tells us more about the Friendly Living Fund (FLF) launch. This new micro-grant scheme hopes to enable students to meet cost-of-living challenges while contributing to climate resilience. The inspiring student-led event included a guest speaker from Cooperation Hull.
I had an amazing opportunity to meet with Holly McGratten from Cooperation Hull for an informal chat over lunch before her talk at Living Lab’s Potluck on 28 January this year. Holly explained to us the work of Cooperation Hull – how it started, how she got involved, and we got a chance to discuss how we can learn from such groups.
By using Assemblies everywhere we’re not only working to replace the outdated and broken party politics with real, local democracy, but we’re also laying the groundwork for things to change in all the other circles, too, which means we’re well on our way to changing the world. Cooperation Hull quote
I should probably give some background – I am the Chair of Humanities for 2024/25 at YSJSU, and have strong links with Living Lab. This year we have been working along side them to set up the “Friendly Living Fund” a new venture that will allow students to apply for a grant to help fund projects that assist us in assisting Climate Justice. Many members of the Student Leadership Team of the SU have been involved, and it has been amazing working with University staff and students to formulate a scheme that allows all students a chance to make a real difference towards the climate concerns we all share.
The launch included staff, students and partners doing activities led by the Friendly Living Fund committee. We discussed how we can use the UN Sustainable Development goals to look at things on a local level and make real world changes in an area that matters to us personally as well as help the world globally.
One of the goals this year of the Student Leadership Team is to be involved in campus, university and city-wide objectives that make a real difference, and the Living Lab have been great at welcoming us on board and working as a strong partnership which we all know will continue for the rest of the year and into next.
We all need to remember we only have one chance on this planet and through work such as Cooperation Hull, Living Lab and the Friendly Living Fund we can all make a difference that not only make the planet better for us – but for every living thing on the planet.
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