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Community work

Community Programme: 2022-2025

The Community Programme is funded by the Baring Foundation for three years from 2022 – 2025. The aim of the project is to deliver on BIHR’s Strategic Aim 2: to strengthen the agency and voice of community groups and voluntary groups to address social justice issues using human rights. The programme has six different phases which will repeat annually in what we’re calling a project cycle.

Our Work in 2024

In 2024, our work to support communities will include awareness-raising workshops and co-design of human rights support solutions.

The programme follows four exciting phases, outlined below.

We are currently getting ready to launch applications for the co-design stage of this programme! Community groups are invited to join our open online event on Wednesday 22 May 2pm which gives you the opportunity to:

  • Learn about BIHR’s previous work to co-design support solutions with 10 vibrant and varied organisations.
  • Hear directly from community groups about how they are taking a human rights-based approach to tackling specific issues affecting migrants, disabled people, people experiencing poverty, minoritized communities, and more.
  • Be the first to find out about BIHR’s 2024 cycle of co-designing a support solution! We have 4 spaces on this year’s co-design programme. On this event, we’ll tell you how the programme will work and how you can apply on behalf of your community group.

Click here to register for this event.

Learning & Data Collection

We have used an evaluation framework to help us understand the difference that HRA advocacy can make to Community and Voluntary Groups (CVGs) and people, learning from our 2021 pilot project.

Launch Event

On Human Rights Day each year we will hold an event to share and reflect on the learning of previous cycle and launch our upcoming programme. This event will be an annual route into the work, engaging more and new CVGs each year.

In 2023, we shared samples of the six resources co-produced with our community partners over the course of the year.

Awareness-Raising Workshops for your Community

This is an application-based programme of bespoke, introductory online workshops for up to 20 CVGs across the UK. These are for staff working in community organisations and the people they work with to learn more about the practical use of the Human Rights Act, and how the legal duties and rights can be used to challenge the social injustices and disadvantage they are seeking to change.

Design a Community Support Solution

This stage supports long-term social change through human rights advocacy and approaches. BIHR will partner with CVGs to co-design human rights support solutions to integrate and embed HRA advocacy into their ongoing work to tackle a specific issue or area. This aims to support longer-term social change using human rights advocacy and approaches.

Our work so far

19

awareness-raising workshops delivered covering topics including disability, poverty, age, asylum & migration, domestic abuse, recovery, and more

6

support solutions co-designed with community groups across England, Scotland and Wales

2

annual Human Rights Day events with partner organisations to celebrate a human rights-based approach in communities

Supported Loving Participant, 2024

"It was a wonderful workshop and it was very powerful to hear people with learning disabilities being told about their rights in regards to sex and relationships. This is so rarely spoken about and it was great to have this opportunity to do this together."

The Traveller Movement Participant, 2024

"Attending the human rights training workshop was an enlightening experience that equipped our team  with the basic knowledge and tools needed to advocate for justice and equality for Romani and Traveller communities.  This invaluable training will empower us  to champion human rights and foster positive change for all."

ATD Fourth World Co-design Partner, 2023

“I'm really proud to have worked with the British Institute of Human Rights on this resource which empowers both the understanding and
application of human rights. By explaining not only what human rights are but also how to protect them, human rights become an active and useful tool to fight for dignity and justice.”

Migrants Rights Network Co-design Partner, 2023

"This resource is incredibly valuable for our Know Your Rights campaign and also to the entire charity sector working with migrants
including asylum seekers and refugees. It will empower asylum seekers by providing them with vital knowledge about their rights while  residing in Home Office accommodations."

2023 Workshop Participant

"The BIHR Human Rights Awareness Raising Workshop was a great resource. It was well-tailored to address the issues [the participants] specifically face in their line of work, and I have no doubt everyone will now be able to apply the HRA to future casework."

2023 Workshop Participant

"I feel empowered."

Our Awareness-Raising Workshops in 2024

We were delighted to partner with 14 community organisations to deliver tailored introductory awareness-raising workshops:

BRIL

BRIL is a community group run by and for disabled people, neurodivergent people, people living with chronic illness and people who experience mental distress. It campaigns for equality and inclusion for all disabled people, promotes independent living, and provides peer support.

Supported Loving

Supported Loving is a human rights-based campaign and network, hosted by Choice Support. It believes that people with a learning disability and autistic people should be able to enjoy love, romance and sexual relationships, and offers help to make this happen.

Louisa

Louisa D B St Bartholomew-Brown Morgan is a volunteer Human Rights Ambassador for Age Cymru and activist in her local community and beyond. Louisa is coordinating a human rights awareness-raising workshop for staff, volunteers and attendees at her local community centre focusing on issues affecting older people in Mid Wales.

Awesta Charitable Organisation

Awesta Charity, a registered UK organisation, initially focused its efforts on aiding Afghanistan. Recently, it expanded its mission to embrace all communities in the UK facing similar challenges and sharing the same values, particularly refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants. BIHR are supporting Awesta to use human rights law to advocate for better education, housing and mental health services.

Dudley Voices for Choice

Dudley Voices for Choice are a user led charitable organisation that supports people with learning disabilities and autism to speak up for themselves.

The Traveller Movement

Established in 1999, the Traveller Movement has an award-winning track record in innovative and ground-breaking work using a collective community assets-based approach for addressing ethnic Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller inequality, exclusion and discrimination and promoting their rights.

Aberdeen in Recovery

Aberdeen in Recovery is an organization that aims to help those experiencing active addiction and recovery by highlighting services in their community, offering complementary therapies, on-line recovery groups and a conversation café.

Allies for Justice & Families for Justice

Allies for Justice is a campaign group for people with lived experience of navigating the UK’s asylum system, immigration detention and deportation system. They are committed to campaigning and using their lived experience as a form of expertise, together with their other knowledge and skills, to challenge the cruelty of immigration detention, the broken asylum system and the injustice of deportation policies.

Families for Justice is a group of mothers, wives, partners and daughters living at the sharp end of the UK’s immigration policies. In 2020 they united as part of the Detention Action network. Over the last two years, Families for Justice has become a source of strength and solidarity for all its members, a space where they can talk about what they’re going through and know they won’t be judged; a space where they can unite and fight, together.

Bristol Refugee and Asylum Seeker Partnership

Bristol Refugee and Asylum Seeker Partnership was set up in 2019 in response to a desire for greater strategic leadership within the refugee and asylum seeker (RAS) support sector, and for greater voice in the city, particularly for people from refugee backgrounds themselves.

Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support

Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support’s vision is to have a fair, humane and safe asylum experience for all in an attempt to bridge the gap by providing specialist asylum casework support and immigration advice to any asylum seeker or refugee across Devon and Cornwall. They also provide wellbeing activities and support to access the NHS through our services. 

People First Dorset

People First Dorset was set up in 2004 as a user led charity. They are led and run by people with learning disabilities, with support from staff as needed. People First Dorset believe that people with learning disabilities have a right to be assured of their independence, their ability to choose, and their inclusion in community life. This requires confidence, communication skills and the ability to challenge. People First Dorset achieves this for them.

ATD Fourth World

ATD FOURTH WORLD is a human rights based anti-poverty organisation, with more than sixty years experience of tackling inequality and promoting social justice in the UK.

Rochdale Women's Welfare Association

Rochdale Women’s Welfare Association serves a diverse community of women, many of whom come from minority backgrounds and face intersecting challenges related to domestic abuse, cultural sensitivity, and immigration status.

Association for Young People's Health

The Association for Young People's Health works to understand and meet the particular health and wellbeing needs of 10-25 year olds. Our workshop will be delivered to their Young Ambassadors, a group of young people with lived experience of health-related difficulties, either in themselves, or with the health and social care system in the UK.

Our Community Support Solutions in 2023

We're pleased to share the human rights solutions co-produced with our community partners in 2023. Click each of the front covers below to see the resources.

What's next for BIHR's work with communities?

We are gearing up to open applications to community groups to co-design a human rights support solution with us!

As for 2025, we have plans for a summer school which we'll pilot as part of our hub activities, to fund places for small community and voluntary groups and help sustain our hub activities longer-term. We will also look to remodel BIHR's Know Your Human Rights self-advocacy took to support a network of partner organisations to sustain learning and practice, and to share with wider groups.

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