STORY: Green Doctor on the Ground – Chris
Meet Chris, 66, who has had a career dedicated to supporting communities across the West Midlands.
Chris has worked for Groundwork for over 23 years, initially working on community engagement and greenspace development projects – such as canal improvements, neighbourhood youth offending programmes and community food growing initiatives.
During this time, he also gained experience of working on home energy efficiency projects and was inspired to be a full-time Green Doctor in 2020, after an increasing awareness of how fuel poverty was becoming a more widespread and intense national issue.
Knowing he had the expertise, knowledge and experience to make a difference, Chris joined the team just before the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges, Chris was pleased that he could offer support over the phone to those in need, as well as delivering key energy saving measures such as bulbs, draught excluders and radiator foils to people’s homes.
As a Green Doctor, Chris now carries out home visits in the West Midlands, offering more than just advice, but practical in-home support and measures to ensure people stay warm and well.
Speaking of his role, Chris said:
“The best part of the Green Doctor role is knowing that we make a real difference to the quality of people’s lives, sometimes by relieving the stress of energy debt but also by helping them to stay warm and healthy at home without incurring large energy bills.
“I remember supporting a man with serious, long term serious health issues was wrongly billed for close to £5,000. The energy company would not respond to his concerns about the charge and continued to chase him for the money. After eight months of stress and anxiety he was referred to the Green Doctor programme and after two months or phone calls, I managed to both wipe the debt and get compensation for the stress the company had caused.
“After it was resolved, the man said he could sleep at nights now without worrying about this issue and without it making my health worse.
“The assistance we give can literally save lives.”