United for Local Climate Action – Colchester

120,000 grassroots football matches are cancelled because of rain and flooding in a typical year. A third of community pitches can already be unplayable for up to two months of the year. And when the rain finally stops, clubs increasingly face the opposite problem: heat, drought and pitches too hard to play on safely.

Climate change isn't a distant issue for sport.

It's changing when we can play, where we can play – and what it costs to keep playing.

And when a match is cancelled, the impact doesn't stop at the touchline.

There's lost income. Disrupted leagues and training. Frustrated players, parents and volunteers. Children missing opportunities to be active. And community facilities that become harder and more expensive to maintain.

Sport England estimates that climate impacts are already costing grassroots sport around £320 million a year in repairs and lost income.

So we're bringing people together to ask a different question:

What can we do about it – locally and together?

Colchester United Community Foundation, Climate Fresk and Community Climate Action are inviting people from every kind of sport, alongside people from across the wider Colchester community, for a free, highly interactive day exploring what's changing and what practical action could look like here.

Because sport understands something rather well:

📅 Saturday 17 October 2026🕛 12pm–5pm📍 Colchester United Community Centre, Shrub End

The workshop is completely free, with a late lunch (2pm), tea and coffee provided.

Places are limited to 28 participants so that everyone has the opportunity to take part properly, make useful connections and contribute to the conversation.

We're delighted to be working with Colchester United Community Foundation, but this event is for people involved in all sports.

Football. Rugby. Cricket. Hockey. Tennis. Athletics. Running. Cycling. Swimming. Bowls. Community fitness. School sport. And everything in between.

Whether you're a player, coach, volunteer, parent, groundskeeper, committee member, facilities manager or supporter, you probably have first-hand experience of how dependent sport is on the places and conditions in which we play.

But this isn't an event exclusively for the sporting community either.

We're bringing together people from across the local area because the challenges affecting our sports clubs – energy, transport, extreme weather, buildings, green spaces and community resilience – affect all of us.

We'll begin with Climate Fresk, the internationally recognised collaborative workshop based on the science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Working together around a table, you'll explore the causes and consequences of climate change and the connections between them.

Rather than sitting through a presentation, you'll build the picture collaboratively – creating a shared understanding of what's changing and why before we start thinking about what we can do about it.

You don't need any previous knowledge of climate change to take part.

In the second part of the day, Community Climate Action will bring the conversation firmly back to Colchester and the places where we live, work and play.

We'll explore opportunities across five areas of everyday community life:

🌱 Food – how we produce, buy, share and think about food locally

🏠 Housing – warmer, more efficient and more climate-resilient homes, clubhouses and community buildings

🦋 Nature – protecting biodiversity, improving green spaces and creating healthier places for people and wildlife

🚲 Travel – how we get to work, school, training, matches and events, and how we make sustainable travel easier

⚡ Energy – reducing energy use, renewable energy and the potential for community energy projects that keep more of the benefits locally

We won't try to solve all five in a day.

Instead, we'll look at where there's energy in the room, what opportunities already exist locally and where bringing the right people together might unlock something new.

For sports clubs and organisations, that could lead us towards some very practical questions.

How can we make pitches and facilities more resilient to extreme weather?

Can clubs reduce their energy costs and improve their buildings?

Could sporting spaces do more for nature and biodiversity?

How can we make travelling to training and fixtures easier and more sustainable?

Could sports clubs become hubs for wider community climate action?

And what could clubs achieve by working together that would be difficult to achieve alone?

Because sports clubs are much more than places where people exercise.

They bring together players, families, coaches, volunteers, supporters, schools, businesses and communities.

They have buildings and land. They buy energy, food and equipment. They influence how thousands of people travel. They communicate regularly with large networks of local people.

Most importantly, they have relationships.

That makes sport particularly vulnerable to climate disruption.

But it also means sport has an extraordinary capacity to help create change.

Imagine what becomes possible when clubs don't tackle these challenges individually.

When they share what's working.

When knowledge, facilities and resources are connected.

When a successful idea at one club can be picked up by another.

And when businesses, community organisations and local people become part of that conversation too.

Everyone is welcome.

We're particularly interested in people involved in sport across Colchester and the surrounding area – whatever the sport and whatever your role.

You might be a:

• player, coach or supporter
• parent or volunteer
• groundskeeper or facilities manager
• club committee member or trustee
• teacher or involved in school sport
• leisure or physical activity professional
• local business connected with sport
• community or voluntary organisation.

But you absolutely do not have to be involved in sport to take part.

We're also inviting residents, businesses, charities, community groups, local leaders and anyone interested in making practical climate action happen locally.

You don't need to be a climate expert.

You don't need to arrive with a project.

You might already have an idea you'd like to develop. You might have knowledge, contacts, facilities or resources that could help someone else's idea. Or you might simply want to understand the challenge better and find out what could happen locally.

All of those are good reasons to be in the room.

By the end of the workshop, you'll have:

🌍 A stronger understanding of climate change and what it could mean for our communities.

⚽ A clearer picture of the risks and opportunities for sport, from grassroots clubs to larger facilities.

🏘️ Ideas for local action across food, housing, nature, travel and energy.

💡 Practical possibilities to take back to your club, organisation or community.

🤝 New connections with people from sport and the wider Colchester area who could become collaborators, supporters or sources of expertise.

🧭 A better understanding of where you could contribute – through your skills, organisation, facilities, networks or influence.

And potentially, the beginnings of projects that continue long after the workshop itself.

This workshop is being delivered through a partnership between Colchester United Community Foundation, Community Climate Action and Climate Fresk UK – bringing together expertise in sport and community engagement, community mobilisation and climate understanding.

It's part of Initiating Climate Action in Colchester and Norwich, a wider programme funded by The National Lottery Community Fund exploring how climate understanding, strong local organisations and community knowledge can combine to create meaningful, locally led action.

Across six workshops, we're bringing together around 180 people from sport, education, culture and their wider communities.

We're testing a simple idea:

Climate change can feel enormous when we face it individually.

But communities have always achieved more when people organise around something they care about.

And sport understands that better than most.

Places are completely free and limited to 28 people.

📅 Saturday 17 October 2026🕛 12pm–5pm📍 Colchester United Community Centre, Shrub End🥪 Lunch provided @2pm☕ Tea and coffee provided

Whether you're involved in football, rugby, cricket, hockey, tennis, athletics, cycling, swimming, bowls or something completely different, we'd particularly like you in the room.

And if sport isn't your thing but the future of your local community is, you're just as welcome.

Bring your experience. Bring your questions. Bring the problems your club or community is already facing.

Let's see what we can do about them – together.

Event venue & nearby stays

Colchester United Community Foundation, Boadicea Way, Shrub End, United Kingdom

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