Sustainability Home Audit Training for Community Care Workers Training and implementation guide for community care providers interested in running their own training
This project was funded by the Department of Sustainability and Environment
Acknowledgments
This program would not have come about without the following contributions which we gratefully acknowledge: The Department of Sustainability and Environment who provided the funding for the Regional Sustainable Living program from which this program was developed. The Colac Otway Shire for participating in the pilot program. We would especially like to thank Greg Fletcher and Terry Maisey for their insight, ideas and enthusiasm for the project. Thanks to the Surf Coast Shire Council and the City of Greater Geelong that partnered with us on subsequent programs. We would especially like to thank Wendy Nuttall from Surf Coast Shire Council and Hinga Fletcher and Hilda Van Baar from the City of Greater Geelong for their assistance with the program. The Latrobe City Council for participating in the program and Gina Zammit and Karen Stockdale for their help and suggestions to improve the materials. Michelle Burton, project manager at Environment Victoria, who began the journey of developing our Eco‐Wise Action programs for seniors. Katelyn Fryer, project manager at Environment Victoria, who took over that journey and developed the program further, developing this program and running the pilot programs in Colac, Geelong and the Surf Coast regions. Charlie Davie, project manager, and Domenica Settle, project officer at Environment Victoria, continued the further development of the program to improve the delivery outcomes and the training and audit materials. Murray Irwin, senior project manager at Environment Victoria, who oversaw the initial production and Annette Salkeld, Director of the Sustainable Living Program at Environment Victoria, for her guidance and leadership.
Kelly O’Shanassy Chief Executive Officer Environment Victoria 19 August 2010
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Contents Acknowledgments......................................................................................................2 Introduction ...............................................................................................................3 Background ............................................................................................................3 Overview of Sustainability and Home Audit Training............................................4 Resources provided to run your own program .....................................................6 Setting up a system....................................................................................................7 Introduction ...........................................................................................................7 Key points to address.............................................................................................7 Action checklist ......................................................................................................8 Ideas to consider..................................................................................................10 Flow chart of program alternatives .....................................................................12 Running the Training Session...................................................................................13 Introduction .........................................................................................................13 Preparation ..........................................................................................................13 Evaluation of the Program .......................................................................................13 Introduction .........................................................................................................13 Evaluation Questions ...........................................................................................14 Monitoring Questions ..........................................................................................14 Example final reporting summary........................................................................15 Calculating the estimated savings .......................................................................16 Feedback and Questions..........................................................................................17
Introduction Background Environment Victoria is a not for profit community based organisation that brings people from different walks of life together to celebrate our environment and defend it for future generations. Our goal is to urgently get “five million people to look after the environment” Environment Victoria and the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) partnered to develop and deliver the Regional Sustainable Living (RSL) program across regional Victoria. Through this we delivered community‐based education and behaviour change projects in four Victorian regions over four years. Our aim is to build awareness and knowledge of the key environmental issues our community faces, and to provide practical support allowing participants to live more sustainability and influence others to do so. Funded by the Department of Sustainability and Environment, the Regional Sustainable Living program commenced in 2006 in the Western Port region, and then moved on to Central Victoria, the Greater Geelong/Corangamite region and finally Central Gippsland. Through this partnership, Environment Victoria has delivered specialised programs targeting sectors of the community with special needs, such as low income households, culturally and linguistically diverse groups, senior citizens and young people. All of these
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programs find ways of supporting households to live more sustainably and are designed to build the skills and capacity of local organisations and communities. Sustainability Home Audit Training for Community Care Workers is one of these projects, which has been run several times by Environment Victoria. We are now providing community care providers with the resources, in the form of this package, to run this training on their own.
Overview of Sustainability and Home Audit Training
Sustainability Home Audit Training for Community Care Workers is a training program that can help meet the coming challenges posed by the changing climate and associated issues such as the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower water availability and increasing energy and water costs. The training aims to provide community care workers with the knowledge and tools to undertake a simple sustainability audit of clients’ homes during their normal visits and provide some recommendations as to how those clients can improve the sustainability of their homes and their actions. There is growing concern that the impacts of climate change and efforts to mitigate our carbon emissions will have a greater affect on our more vulnerable community members than on the general population. While there is assistance available and actions that they are able to take to adapt to these changes, seniors may be unaware of what can be done due a number of potential barriers to receiving and acting on this information. These barriers might include: • Low and fixed incomes • A larger proportion of income spent on basic services • Not being targeted by awareness raising messages • Being unaware of avenues for assistance • Disabilities creating unique barriers to completing action • Needing assistance in determining the right actions for their circumstances • Being unaware of new products that can assist to reduce impact • Being unaware of climate change and environmental issues Many community care providers are already taking direct action to help reduce environmental impacts and also provide assistance to their communities to take direct action. The difficulty for many providers is having the resources to help those in need to the level that we would aspire too. Seniors that receive support in their homes through community care programs are more likely to be reached and supported to make sustainability changes through the community care workers who deliver assistance in other areas of their lives. A key feature of this training is utilising the existing resources and working within existing programs. The training is as follows:
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A short training course of 2 ‐ 2.5 hours is provided to community care workers, enabling them to become more informed of what the issues are, how to spot them and importantly some simple actions that can reduce or resolve the issues. For example, installing low energy light globes will not only reduce the client’s environmental impact but will also reduce their energy bills. After the training, carer workers are supported though the provision of a handbook and a simple audit worksheet. Community care workers will also need a household thermometer for this process. With these tools they are then able to conduct a sustainability audit of client’s homes during their normal visits. Most community care workers have done this in a single visit, but it could be broken up over a period of time, with a small section done at each visit. The audit worksheet suggests and guides the community care workers on possible solutions taking into account the individual needs of the client.
Once the audit is completed, a copy should be provided to the community care provider which has provided the training and a copy should be provided to the client and where appropriate their family. A number of options are then available depending on the provider’s resources and the client’s individual needs: • Some cases may only require discussion of the audit results with the client and then allowing them to consider and take the appropriate action. This is basically an education process. • In other cases additional support may be required such as providing recommendation to family members (educating the family) to support action. • At the outset your organisation may have also identified some actions that they may be able to assist their clients with either through existing services or new partnerships developed specifically for the purpose. Examples of this might be that leaks or draughts under doors might be referred to the council home maintenance department for action on their next visit. This might be extended to developing a partnership with the local water authority to have showerheads exchanged and installed. • In some cases the limited resources may restrict the program from moving beyond the provision of information and suggestions to clients and their family. This material offers some suggestion and tools to help complete this educational aim. A template is provided for sending out letters to families after the audit. Note: The audits do also offer the opportunity for the collection of data on the sustainability issues faced by clients. This audit information might be critical in being able to support applications for specific funding which would then enable the appropriate resources to be obtained to address the issues. In this instance, the initial step of completing the audits becomes action‐based research to facilitate the next stage. While the basic form of this program finishes at the handover of a copy of the recommendations to the clients and/or family, it is our experience that education is often not enough to take action. We therefore strongly recommend that you also build
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into your program ways to ensure that barriers to action are lowered or removed. When targeting which barriers you are able to assist with, first look for those which are one off actions that provide high value saving. Exchanging showerheads to low flow showerheads is an example of this. We wish you every success in helping us get “5 million people in Victoria to look after the environment”.
Resources provided to run your own program
Overview •
Program guide: this document. Includes ‘Setting up a system’ – an overview of how to implement and use the information provided, and some ideas that might help to add value.
Training for Community Care Workers • Notes on running the training: in this booklet • Session plan: suggested session plan for training community care workers • Presentation: suggested PowerPoint presentation to complement the training • Information booklet for community care workers: take‐away information resource booklet for community care workers • Network booklet draft: offers a number of local, state and Australia based organisations that may be able to offer advise and assistance Tools for Community Care Workers • Audit worksheet: simple home audit sheet to guide community care workers’ complete audits Tools for Processing • Data capture spreadsheet template: optional data recording spreadsheet • Cover letter template: example cover letter explaining to family the attached copy of the audit sheet • Evaluation guide: included in this booklet Notes relating to these materials Many of the materials have been provided in a basic format to allow revision and changes to suit your individual needs. It will therefore be necessary to ensure the material is satisfactorily formatted before printing. The following information which appears in the handbook for community care workers and related training slide show/materials will need to be updated prior to distribution: • Recycling information: requires updating with local information and procedures. • Grants and schemes and rebate information: requires updating with recent changes to any programs.
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Network booklet: requires locally relevant information and contacts to be added to be a resource for finding help
In addition, materials for distribution to seniors have been created using size 14 type and wide spacing to help those with poorer eye sight. The booklet which the community care workers take home is also in 14, because many community care workers are older. This makes documents larger but is necessary to be effective. To facilitate easy data collection, a numbering system has been used to reference the possible actions in the audit work sheet. This will need to be amended if any changes are made to the audit worksheet.
Setting up a system Introduction
This section is designed to offer you some guidance to implementing the Sustainability and Home Audit Training and follow up. It is intended to offer ideas and checklists to help make this as easy as possible. However, we are unable to foresee all possible situations that this might be used and the creative ways in which you could develop this program, so therefore we encourage modification to suit your particular needs.
Key points to address Identify the outcome you want to achieve With any behaviour change program it is important to identify the final result you are hoping to achieve. While this might sound obvious, if you do not have a clear goal it becomes difficult to evaluate your results. Another caution is not to assume that education (while essential and necessary) will automatically translate into action and behaviour change. Many programs and practitioners have found that alerting people to the issues and advising solutions can raise awareness but may not be sufficient to help overcome the barriers to making change. We therefore recommend that you investigate ways in which you can go beyond the initial step of educating your clients or their families via completing and discussing the home audit and helping them implement and integrate the appropriate changes. It can be helpful to look at your goals in stages and not attempt to complete everything in one go or immediately. For example this might mean that completing the audit is the first step on the longer term plan of using this information to obtain and allocate resources for the next step.
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Identify stakeholders While clearly there are benefits of having a central coordinating system there are many benefits in seeking to align your goals to those of other organisations who may also be working with your clients. A coordinated approach will stop duplication of effort and will also allow access to additional resources that you cannot access on your own. By identifying all those that are working directly with your clients or have a stake in the goals you are trying to achieve, you are able to look for possible ways to work together. Once you have identified possible partners, begin to discuss with them your goals and seek out overlapping goals and objectives. That way you can compliment each others work. For example your local water authority may run a home assistance program to exchange showerheads and fix leaking taps. By facilitating you client’s access to this program, both organisations can meet their goals. Develop a tailored solution The most important aspect of working with any clients is ensuing that you meet their specific needs, instead of using a one size fits all approach. This is generally the way community care workers already operate, so of course it is important to ensure this program also reflects this practice. Not all actions are appropriate to all clients and being mindful of this helps place the results in perspective. By appropriately skilling the community care workers to be able to make these judgements relating to sustainability behaviour, you can ensure the right solution is offered to each individual client. As noted in the introduction, some of the resources will need to be reviewed and updated for your specific area or program, including the recycling, grants and schemes and local resources and contacts information. Review results Any program should be reviewed to determine the effectiveness and also the lessons learnt. Not only can this inform your own ongoing work in this area but it may also help others who adopt the project in time to come. We have therefore included an evaluation process that might be utilised to capture this information. We of course would welcome feedback and suggestions so that we can improve this package and help others learn from your experience. Contact details are provided in the end of this guide.
Action checklist The following checklist is provided as a ready reference to likely steps to take in implementing the program. Item Completed/notes Identify goals Review key materials in pack to gain understanding of program
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Item • Manual – Introduction and setting up system • Training overview • Guide booklet for community care workers • Audit sheet Identify key benefits for your circumstances Identify key issues for your circumstances Identify internal stakeholders that can or will need to help Discuss program with key stakeholders and gain feedback Gain approval to proceed Identify external partners and stakeholders that might assist Work with external stakeholders to develop partnership and specific goals for delivery e.g. • Obtaining free showerheads • Referral service to have leaks corrected Work with internal stakeholders to develop the specific goals for delivery e.g. • Conducting audits • Informing/educating client and/or family • Linking client or family to outside assistance • Linking client or family to internal assistance e.g. home maintenance program • Providing retrofit items, like low flow showerheads and low energy light globes, at no or low cost • Utilising date to support funding application to…. • Providing/managing assistance in accessing grants and rebates Develop contracts or memorandums of understanding with external stakeholders for delivery of referred services if any Develop internal system for the rollout of training Develop internal system for the processing of audits, education of clients/family, collation of data, referral to services internal/external and subsequent actions required Set timelines and delivery targets Develop media/communication plan if required Document and establish any systems and processes required e.g. • Referral • Work requests • Data capture • Informing family Locate a suitable facilitator to run training for community care workers (internal or external) Prepare training resources that require updating of locally
Completed/notes
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Item specific information e.g. • Include local recycling information • Ensure grants and rebates information is up to date • Consider provision of local information and contacts sheet e.g. free showerheads available from water authority Prepare generic training materials • Guide books for community care workers • Audit sheets for community care workers • Relevant systems processing materials Prepare systems materials for use • Data capture sheets or spreadsheets • Cover letter to send out information • Letter template (if needed) to send out information including referral and local contact information Train community care workers Train support staff on system and processes as required Inform whole organisation of initiative Monitor audit delivery Obtain feedback and monitor systems and training as necessary Review and adjust systems as required Collate data Evaluate results Report evaluation against targets and milestones Inform community of results Consider seeking funding to expand Think about the next steps you can take to improve or expand this service Ensure ongoing continuation of service to new clients Consider reviewing the situation of existing clients that have completed the process – has action been taken yet? Let Environment Victoria know how it went ‐ we would love to hear your feedback
Completed/notes
Ideas to consider Through our experience and discussions with others we have developed a list of ideas that might be helpful in expanding the outcomes and the reach of the program. We have listed all the examples here as a ready reference: • Use the audit information sent out to inform clients’ family as an opportunity to have them audit their own home as well.
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Offer a separate training program specifically targeted to clients’ family members when you send out the audit information. Collect audit data and use this to determine your next steps or help obtain additional funding or resources to build services to overcome barriers. Seek volunteer support to help deliver community care worker training, data entry, organising retrofits, etc. Obtain retrofits from water or energy authorities. Establish a bulk purchase system for retrofit items such as light globes. Link clients to council services like the maintenance program. Establish a role to coordinate helping clients access grants or arranging work to be completed (e.g. coordinate ceiling insulation). Use local community organisations such as service clubs to help deliver basic maintenance services. Utilise the University of the Third Age (U3A) and their involvement in educating seniors on sustainability practices, and see if they would be able to assist with installing retrofit items, like water saving showerheads, on the behalf of clients who have no family to assist. Run sustainability education programs for those clients that would like more information. Based on the results from all the audits: purchase or pay for installation of selected retrofit items for clients that cannot afford to otherwise do so, e.g. bulk buying weather seals, tap fittings to reduce flow or energy saving light globes. Run education or training for other service providers who work with your clients, so that you all have a united message and goal with sustainability, e.g. maintenance workers. Provide feedback to policy makers on the outcomes of the project. Seek the assistance of local environment networks and groups to help train community care workers or support seniors in taking actions. Highlight the program in media communications to encourage the wider community to take action.
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Flow chart of program alternatives
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Running the Training Session Introduction The following resources are provided for trainers to help run the community care worker training sessions: • A PowerPoint presentation with delivery notes • A training session plan In many ways the training content repeats the information in the community care workers’ booklet, however there are additional information and key facts for the presenter. This is included in the ‘notes section’ in the PowerPoint presentation itself. Preparation There are some resources which you will need to organise before the training. These include: • Community care worker information booklets: once updated to be locally relevant, one copy needs to be printed for each community care worker. (Where possible we recommend the use of 100% recycled paper.) • Audit worksheets: once updated with processing procedures, print one copy for each community care worker (for the training session), plus one for each client. • Household thermometers: These are used when completing audits and ideally would have markings showing ideal fridge, freezer, winter heating, summer cooling and hot water temperatures. You will need to purchase one for each community care worker. (At the time of writing, these cost $3‐$4 each, and can come labelled with your organisation’s logo. One possible supplier is Technitherm, PO Box 140, Mapleton QLD 4560, phone (07) 5445 7175 or go to www.technitherm.com.au.) Training participants may also require a pen for note taking.
Evaluation of the Program Introduction With any program we cannot simply assume that by implementing it, the expected results will occur ‐ life is unfortunately more complicated than that. It is therefore important to monitor the program and at some stage evaluate the results. This can ensure that the goals that were set are being achieved, and if not appropriate action can be taken to resolve any problems. It also forms the basis for enabling continuous improvement.
Following are some ideas to assist in this evaluation process. Once again these are suggestions for you consideration and we recommend you implement your own system that meets your specific needs.
Evaluation Questions We would expect these questions to be considered once the program has been delivered, with the community care workers having been trained and audits completed: 1. Did the program assist our clients make reductions in their energy and water use and waste production? 2. Were we able to assist clients overcome any barriers in making change? 3. Who else made changes due to this program? 4. What did we learn from running this program?
Monitoring Questions These questions relate to what information or data do you need to collect or track as you deliver the program in order to be able to answer the evaluation questions. Examples of how this can be collected are also provided. It should be noted that not all data can be quantified and that qualitative data is also a valid medium. The ‘Most Significant Change’ (MSC) is one model that you might find useful in obtaining qualitative data, details of which are available through a web search. Possible monitoring questions include: • Did the community care workers find the training useful? – A simple survey of staff after the training can address this. • What actions were identified that our clients could undertake? – This data can be collected in the provided spreadsheet from the completed audit worksheets. • What sustainability actions were actually undertaken or implemented? – This data could be collected by a follow up audit later, through community care workers’ knowledge of clients or records of assistance given (e.g. maintenance staff fixing taps). • Was there a reduction in the cost of utilities for clients? – This would need data to be extracted from utility bills. (There are many confounding factors that make this time consuming and difficult. We would suggest you contact us to discuss this further before you proceeded with this type of monitoring.) • What barriers inhibited clients from undertaking action? – Reflection provided by community care workers during a staff meeting could provide this. • What help was provided to overcome the barriers? Reflection provided by community care workers during a staff meeting could provide this. • Did community care workers use what they learnt about sustainability in their own homes or with other friends and family? –
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Asking staff at a staff meeting or completing a simple questionnaire could provide this. Did family members of our clients help our clients to take action? – Ask community care workers to check with clients and complete a simple questionnaire or question at staff meeting. Did family members of clients who received information use this in their own homes? – Send our questionnaire to the client’s family or call them to establish this. What are some of the stories that illustrate the outcomes that were achieved? – Ask community care workers, clients and families how the program affected them and record the story.
Example final reporting summary This provides an example of a format that might help complete a report on the project. It uses the above evaluation and monitoring questions to develop a narrative of what occurred and what the results were. In addition it can be used to describe the project to potential partners by changing the tense of the writing to describe what you intend to do. It was developed by Clear Horizons, based on work by Dart and Mayne (2005). We hope you find it useful and that it illustrates how the monitoring and evaluation questions can help inform your reporting. You will need to replace ‘X’ with relevant data, and we highly recommend developing it into a narrative:
Resources required
We used ….. to conduct the training [e.g. environment section staff]. Additional support was obtained from …. to produce the materials and compete the data entry $X of our X budget was used to purchase retrofits $X of the maintenance budget was used to do retrofits and other works Our partner X provided $X worth of items/labour in‐kind for the project We utilised X hours of volunteer time in supporting clients make changes
Activities conducted
We held X 3 hour workshops and trained X community care workers Our community care workers conducted X audits which is % of our clients We informed X families of clients relating to the outcome of the audit We provided maintenance services to X clients We assisted X clients complete X number of retrofits We assisted X clients complete X number of behaviour change actions We assisted X clients complete X number of grant and subsidy applications We facilitated X clients to take up X partners’ retrofit item/service
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Changes achieved by activities
Impact on reducing personal environmental impact
Longer term outcomes
Barriers overcome
Other community members who benefited Next time we would Our Goal
X number of temperature settings were adjusted X houses had draughts blocked X houses had heavier curtains installed X houses had external blinds or awnings installed X houses had reflective window tint installed X houses had shade removed from windows etc. X community care workers undertook audits of their own home X families of clients completed audits of their own home X % of clients took between X and Y number of actions Our clients reduced their water usage by an estimated X litres per year per person Our clients reduced their carbon emissions via efficient energy usage by an estimated X kg of greenhouse gases per year per person Our clients reduced their waste to landfill by an estimated X kg per year per person, which is estimated to be saving X kg of greenhouse gases per year per person We were able to educate X clients who otherwise would not have taken any action. This enabled X clients to undertake a total of X number of actions. Access to water saving devices was provided to X clients. X number of grants for energy efficient appliances were submitted with X % approved Access was provided to partners’ services for X number of clients X audits were completed by community care workers in their own home with X number of actions subsequently taken X audits were completed by clients’ families on their home with X number of actions subsequently taken Include specific learning Was to help our clients reduce their environmental impact without reducing their quality of life.
Calculating the estimated savings There is some publically available data to help calculate the estimated potential savings which occurred from some actions (for example how much greenhouse gas is saved by installing a water saving showerhead). Please contact Environment Victoria if you would be interested in obtaining these calculations to help you estimate the savings achieved. However, not all actions can be quantified in litres of water or kilograms of greenhouse gases saved. We therefore recommend you also including some
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qualitative data collection methods as well, and you can always quantify the number of times the action occurred.
Feedback and Questions
We are of course keen to hear of your experiences in utilising this material so that we can learn and update the materials. While we are currently unable to provide any detailed support relating to this package, there may be questions that the project officers who helped design and deliver the project can help you with. We therefore ask you to feel free to contact or address any feedback, ideas, lessons or comments to admin@environmentvictoria.org.au or 9341 8100. Disclaimer Environment Victoria provides this training package as a guide. However, it cannot take responsibility or liability for any loss, damage or injury incurred as a result of the use of any of the information within this training package. We recommend that you obtain appropriate professional advice and assistance where necessary. Licensing Arrangements This information pack is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia licence. A copy of this licence is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/2.5/au/. You are free to copy, communicate and adapt the work, so long as you attribute Environment Victoria and the use is for non commercial purposes. This has been specifically chosen to enable you to modify and use the material to suit your individual requirements. Please note there are some instances where some of the material is not issued under the Creative Commons Licence. All logos are protected by copyright. The photos and diagrams in the PowerPoint presentation have various licensing arrangements – see the presentation notes and relevant slides for detailed information. This project was funded by the Department of Sustainability and Environment
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