Community Programme: 2022-2025

1. Learning and data collection: From the start we will use an evaluation framework to help us understand what difference HRA advocacy can make for Community and Voluntary Groups (CVGs) and people.
       
2. Launch event: In December, 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.
   
   
3. Awareness-raising workshops: An application-based programme of bespoke, introductory online workshops for up to 20 CVGs; 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 the CVGs are seeking to change.
   
   
4. Community Support Solutions: Programmatic partnerships supporting longer-term social change through human rights advocacy/approaches. Annually we will work with up to 5 CVGs to co-design human rights support solutions to integrate HRA advocacy into their ongoing work to tackle a specific issue/area.
   
   
5. Summer School: We will pilot this as part of our hub activities which would fund places for small CVGs and help sustain our hub activities longer-term.
   
   
6. Remodelling of BIHR’s Know Your Human Rights self-advocacy tool: To help support a network of our partner CVGs to sustain learning and practice, and to share this with wider groups.

Our work in 2023 will include Awareness Raising workshops and design of a “Community Support Solution”. This follows a pilot project in 2021.

Our Community Programme aims to strengthen the agency and voice of community and voluntary groups (CVGs) to address social justice issues using human rights. Each phase will empower Community & Voluntary Groups (CVGs) with knowledge of their legal rights, and use this to create human rights change locally in a practical, relevant and accessible way.

The programme follows four exciting phases, outlined below.

We’re very pleased to announce the five partners working with us in 2023:

All Wales People First: A self-advocacy umbrella body for people with learning disabilities across Wales.

All Together Dignity & Fourth World UK: An anti-poverty human rights organisation working on the Young Voices Project led by young people with experience of poverty and social services interventions. 

My Life, My Choice: A self-advocacy organisation based in Oxfordshire and entirely led by people with learning disabilities.


Families in Trauma & Recovery:  A peer-led mental health organisation that offer training and one-to-one support.

Migrants Rights Network: A campaigning organisation that fights for the rights of migrants and equality and justice.

Fair Justice System for Scotland: A grassroots-led legal charity based in West Calder advocating for greater racial equality and diversity in the Scottish justice system.

We’ll be working with each community over the coming months to produce human rights-based solutions to issues they tackle every day. We’ll share the solutions publicly in December 2023 but stay tuned for updates along the way!