Following funding commitments by Kendal Town Council, South Lakeland District Council and Cumbria County Council, a crowdfunding campaign was launched in February 2020 with resounding success.

181 donations were received from individuals and businesses alike, resulting in a total of £6,000 raised. This gave the Citizens’ Jury its official go ahead as match funding from the Local Authorities.

A second crowdfunder was launched in October 2020 to support the creation of the short promotional film 59 supporters helped us to reach our target of £2000. The film was shared with many organisations who can implement the recommendations of the Citizens Jury.

The jury organisers from an early stage, recognised the huge amount of expertise and enthusiasm which exist in every community including Kendal. Members of the oversight panel and organising group decided that many of the tasks necessary for a high-quality jury process could be carried out by volunteers. Potential volunteers were invited to attend a zoom call where the process was discussed in more detail and small groups were formed to agree possible areas of responsibility. As a result four volunteer subgroups were formed: 

• Communications

• Creative

• Evaluation

• Information technology support 

Further support was given by volunteer students from Lancaster University’s Environment Centre. 

The Creative subgroup included members who gave their own time to design the Jury logo and artwork for the website (Lucy Gallagher) and to develop the partnership with Kendal Torchlight Carnival. Banners were displayed for four months encouraging members of the public to think about the jury’s question ‘what should Kendal do about the emergency climate change?’ 

The Evaluation group volunteered many hours to develop appropriate research methods to assess the effectiveness of the Jury. The group interviewed Jury members and oversight panel members and co-ordinated a community survey. A summary of their findings is available here.

The information technology support group included members who gave their own time to design and establish this website (Rory Black of local creative agency Design Works) and offered to support any jury members with their use of the zoom platform, laptops or access to the internet if needed. 

A huge thanks goes out to all the members of the volunteer sub groups who put so much effort into their attempts to make the jury a success. 

Thanks to the following organisations for their support.