Letter 16 — To Climate Action Armley

Neighbourhood action as everyday resilience: Building local futures from the ground up

Date: 28 October 2025
Recipient: Climate Action Armley — part of Climate Action Leeds, supported by New Wortley Community Centre

Context

The second letter of Week 3 of One Letter a Day continues the focus on neighbourhood-scale action.
Climate Action Armley is one of the city’s volunteer-run community hubs within the Climate Action Leeds network, working through practical initiatives such as community planters, food sharing, repair events and wildlife projects.
This letter asks what those working closest to everyday life have learned about participation, motivation and the realities of building civic resilience from the ground up.

Letter

Dear friends at Climate Action Armley,

I am writing as part of One Letter a Day: a year-long civic experiment to reopen grounded conversations about the climate emergency, starting here in Leeds. Each day I write to someone whose work shapes how we think and act on this crisis, and publish both letters and replies to encourage wider dialogue.

This week is devoted to the neighbourhood organisations that make resilience visible — the places where climate action becomes a shared civic practice. I wanted to reach out to you because Climate Action Armley captures that spirit: volunteer-run, open to all, and rooted in everyday life. From planters and community fridges to repair and growing projects, your work shows that climate action can be woven into the ordinary texture of a neighbourhood.

At a time when much of the climate debate feels abstract or distant, the work you do brings it home — literally and figuratively. It shows that a fair and sustainable transition depends not only on new technology or policy, but on the social infrastructure that connects people: the confidence to start small, to experiment, to keep showing up.

I’m curious what you’ve observed through that lens. In Armley, what has surprised you about how residents respond to low-carbon or nature-friendly initiatives? What supports or barriers have you encountered? The answers to those questions matter far beyond one neighbourhood: they reveal what readiness, or reluctance, looks like in practice — and how civic energy might be strengthened from the ground up.

With gratitude for your work and the example you set,

Vivien Badaut
One Letter a Day
one-letter-a-day.uk

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Tomorrow’s letter continues Week 3’s exploration of community resilience — turning to Imagine Leeds, the civic hub bringing together citizens, businesses and institutions to imagine a sustainable future for the city.