Cwm Taf People First is a self-advocacy charity run by and for people with learning disabilities who live in the areas of Rhondda-Cynon-Taff, Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen. Our aim is to empower people with learning disabilities to have greater voice, choice and control over their lives and to challenge prejudice and discrimination through training, education and support.
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 different phases which will repeat annually in what we’re calling a project cycle.
Read about the awareness-raising workshops Read about the human rights support solutions
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 in the co-design stage, where we work with four community groups to create human rights support solutions to social justice issues. We'll be sharing the full solutions in December 2024.
Our 2024 Partners
Parent and Carer Alliance CIC work with families living in Gloucestershire, whose children have additional needs and disabilities, to ensure they get their needs met and live better lives. We want to work with BIHR to provide families with a human rights support solution to influence positive changes.
BOMOKO NI is the Northern Ireland Refugees and Asylum Seekers Women Association, created by and for refugees and asylum seekers women. We applied to this programme to actively engage in the design process. We believe that our involvement will play a pivotal role in shaping the development of tools and resources that will have a tangible impact on the lives of our service users, who are our valued members.
African Women Empowerment Forum (AWEF)
The African Women Empowerment Forum (AWEF) is dedicated to empowering African women in the UK and beyond. We provide a platform for social interaction, integration, and skill development through various programs. We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate and co-design a human rights support solution for African women refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers in the UK.
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
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?
Our newest human rights support solutions will be ready to share in December 2024.
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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