Make COP26 Count Quotes from past participants

From past participants

 "Having Hope for the Future’s support has been invaluable and it’s possible that without it we might not have been as effective as we were in getting our message and concerns across to our MP.”

Kath met Mark Eastwood MP in August 2020 with two others from her church.

“One of the best outcomes from meeting Oliver [our MP] was simply the confidence to think that we could do a Climate Hustings. Without that journey and meeting him in June I can’t imagine that I could ever have conceived the idea of holding a climate hustings for the entire town…[The process] has clearly changed us as a group. I cannot overestimate the role of USPG and Hope for the Future and what you represent”.

The St Michaels and All Angels group met Oliver Dowden MP in June 2019 and held a Climate Hustings in the run up to the General Election in December 2019.

"In our Benefice we had just established an ecology group. One of the aims was to contact our two local MPs to see if we could encourage more involvement from them… I contacted Rachel and was given very useful guidance on how to prepare for the meetings. We were able to suggest a conversation using Zoom which really impressed our MP. During our meeting we suggested launching a tree-planting scheme in liaison with our local council with trees provided by The Woodland Trust, he was very enthusiastic. He actually invited us to work together on this initiative. I also asked if he could talk to farmers about planting hedgerows on their land, and he agreed to do so. After the meeting, I followed up our conversation in a letter so that he has this to refer to when we contact him again. I would recommend this approach and say we felt the conversation was a positive experience and well worth conducting. The support USPG gave us was invaluable. Particularly, I would like to thank Rachel for her help and advice.”

Shelley first met with Craig Mackinlay MP in March 2020, and is now in regular contact, most recently she received a handwritten card from him in July 2020.

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