dream act inspire
@theleapbd
community-led climate action
Dream Act Inspire is a bold, community-led climate action programme rooted in social justice, lived experience and cultural practice. Delivered over 3.5 years, it demonstrates how coordinated, grassroots action in marginalised urban communities can generate meaningful local environmental change while producing nationally relevant learning and models for replication.
The programme is funded by National Lottery Community Fund (Climate Action Fund) and Bradford Council. Support focuses on densely populated, disproportionately polluted neighbourhoods across Bradford District, supporting communities historically under-represented in climate leadership to become designers, owners and leaders of climate solutions. Fairness, inclusion and equity are embedded throughout, alongside practical, impactful action that connects climate, health, wellbeing and place.
Led by The Leap, Dream – Act – Inspire will support six community partners to co-design and deliver locally tailored Climate Action Programmes. Partners represent a wide range of communities of place and interest, including disabled people, older people, minority ethnic women, White working-class communities and migrant communities. Each community based partner will receive funding and dedicated capacity building support to strengthen organisational sustainability and deliver climate action rooted in local priorities.
Projects will emerge through a proven co-creation model, developed by The Leap and may include: reclaiming disused land, pocket parks, community food growing, biodiversity enhancement, waste reduction and creative reuse, community-owned energy initiatives. These hyper-local interventions will improve air quality, biodiversity and climate resilience while fostering pride, ownership and long-term behaviour change.
The programme is structured around three stages:
Dream (Year 1): community visioning, capacity-building, expert input, learning visits, local consultation and co-design.
Act (Year 2): delivery of six community-led climate projects, with residents actively involved in implementation.
Inspire (Years 1- 3): capturing learning, producing toolkits and films, and sharing nationally through conferences and a new National Community-Led Climate Action Network
Governance is community-led, with collective decision-making through an independently chaired steering group, back-office support from The Leap, and shared accountability across the consortium of partners.
Strategic partners include Bradford Council, Natural England, West Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, and a national network of supporting organisations across England. Together, they ensure learning is embedded within wider climate, health and place-based strategies, and shared far beyond Bradford district.
Dream Act Inspire responds to urgent need in one of the UK’s most diverse and deprived districts, where life expectancy, health outcomes and environmental conditions lag behind national averages. It proves that deprived urban communities can lead climate action, create lasting environmental and social change, and inspire others to do the same. The legacy will be healthier, greener neighbourhoods; confident local climate leaders; and a scalable, people-powered model for national transformation.