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Community Programme 2022-2025

Co-Designed Human Rights Solutions

Following the success of our pilot programme in 2021 and 2022, BIHR received funding from the Baring Foundation to co-develop human rights support solutions with UK community groups to help them integrate HRA advocacy into their ongoing work to tackle specific issues affecting them and the people they support. This work is part of our UK-wide Communities Programme 2022-2025.

Co-production is at the heart of this offer. It sees community groups working with BIHR more intensively to support longer-term social change using a human rights-based approach, before eventually launching the co-designed advocacy tools on Human Rights Day each year.

How we made the solutions

This part of our UK Community Programme 2022-2025 involves:

  1. Programmatic partnerships with CVGs to identify key concerns which can be mapped to the HRA rights and duties; and
  2. Co-developing tailored support solutions to integrate HRA advocacy into their work tackling issues affecting their communities.

Co-production is at the core of this project. Our approach to co-design used a four-stage process to ensure that the views and opinions of our partners and the eventual end “users” of the solution were central to the development.

Stage 1: Discover

We host a workshop with community, campaigning and advocacy organisations across the UK who are interested in working with BIHR longer-term to support their human rights advocacy.

Following the workshop, we open applications and then use criteria to score each application and choose the top-scoring organisations to partner with. We have heard from so many fantastic organisations who wanted to work with us on this project.

Stage 2: Define 

Selected partners are then invited to a "Define" workshop to further define their ideas for human rights support "solutions". Each organisation then works with a staff member to co-develop plans about what the "solution" will be and how we will work together.

Stage 3: Develop

We then work with the partner organisations to map, develop and test their human rights "solutions", ensuring that this will effectively support them with the issue they are facing.

Stage 4: Deliver

The final step is to publish and share the finished tools! Previously this has taken place on Human Rights Day at an event in the House of Lords.

The impact of these solutions

See below our impact reports from three years of co-developing human rights support solutions with diverse communities across the UK:

Co-design partner, 2023

“I believe you have the right balance with allowing the community organisations to lead in the areas they know best, but also merging this with "official" language and knowledge from your own perspective worked really well.”

Bomoko NI, 2024

“This initiative has been invaluable in empowering our members with essential knowledge and support in navigating their rights and housing challenges. Feedback from our members has been overwhelmingly positive, with participants expressing appreciation for the program’s relevance and impact. Many found the program insightful and empowering, highlighting the importance of continued efforts in this area.”

Cwm Taf People First, 2024

“Our work on this project has opened up other avenues for us to explore, and in light of this no ask was too big (or strange) for the BIHR team. They really held our members interests at heart and worked with us to make sure that they were included in the process and that their voice was at the centre of our Game. This has allowed our members to see themselves within the final resource, generating a sense of pride; motivation to want to do more; and eagerness to share our work.”

Co-design partner, 2023

“I hoped we would have an equal role in co-designing the programme and this definitely happened. All of our expectations were met.”

Our partners

Everyone at BIHR would like to say a massive thank you to our funders, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Tudor Trust, the Bromley TrustComic Relief (Covid fund), the Three Guineas Trust, and the Baring Foundation, without whom this important work would not have been possible.

And thank you to our partner organisations for sharing your time, ideas and experiences with us, all of which helped bring these human rights workshops to life.

The future of this work

Our UK Communities Programme 2022-2025 has now come to an end.

BIHR is committed to continuing to support people and their communities to know about their human rights and have the confidence to talk about and advocate for their rights in everyday situations where they interact with public bodies. We are exploring how we can continue to provide this support free of charge to UK community groups.

BIHR is a leading provider of human rights training and support to individuals, community groups, and public bodies. Click the link below to download our training brochure and find out how to enquire with us.

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