Awareness-Raising Workshops 2023: Our Impact

The Baring Foundation have generously funded BIHR’s Community Programme for three years, from 2022 to 2025. The project is to deliver on BIHR’s aim to strengthen the agency and voice of community and voluntary groups to address social justice issues using human rights.  

The programme has six different phases, that will repeat annually in what we are calling a “project cycle”. Stage three of this project cycle is delivery of our Awareness-Raising Workshops. 

This stage of the project cycle is the beginning of the human rights journey. This is an application-based programme of bespoke, introductory online workshops community and voluntary groups across the UK.  

The workshops are intended to build sustainable human rights knowledge in communities that access public services, as a means of creating and organising grassroots power. We planned the workshops to be delivered with a focus on interactive and participatory learning, introducing the Human Rights Act and the legal duties within it, focusing on case studies and real-life stories relevant to the organisation and the people they support.

Pembrokeshire People First is a community self-advocacy organisation run for and by people with learning disabilities and/or autism. The group provides a number of free services and spaces for adults with a focus on developing life skills, maximizing independence and developing resilience, and includes a Campaigns and Political Empowerment Group. Pembrokeshire People First has previously collaborated with BIHR on Easy Read work development, and form part of our RITES Committee. When Pembrokeshire People First applied for an Awareness-Raising Workshop, they hoped to “captivate a wider audience of their members, to grow and empower a wider range of people with learning disabilities and autism to know their rights, and to subsequently have a better quality of life.” 

Dates-n-Mates is a friendship and dating agency run by and for adults with a learning disability, and connects people across Scotland. The group’s work is underpinned by a human rights-based approach, knowing that everyone has the right to live a life full of love! Dates-n-Mates applied for a free human rights workshop because they felt it would “would help our members to further understand what human rights are and how they apply in their day to day life - especially in regards to friendship, social life, independence, relationships and living their life without judgement and discrimination.” 

Poverty Action Network was formed in 2016 by Marion Fellowes MP, to link together public representatives, organisations, churches and charities who aim to combat poverty in the Glasgow area. The network facilitates sharing of expertise, awareness and knowledge to strengthen working relationships that will allow more effective work on such a big issue. Poverty Action Network felt that a BIHR workshop would “benefit organisations that work with vulnerable people daily to gain further knowledge about the rights of their service users.” 

Joining the Dots Parent Carers Wales provides peer support for parent carers of children and adults with disabilities and additional learning needs in Wales. With over 1000 members, the forum focuses on sharing resources, learning and emotional support. When applying for a free human rights workshop, the network felt “it is imperative that parents are aware of their children’s rights.”  

Asian Community Concern works with women from BAME communities who are experiencing domestic violence and abuse. They provide counselling, advice and activities aiming to empower women to build confidence, identity and self-worth. When Asian Community Concern applied for a free human rights workshop, they wanted to “build the capacity of the team in order to properly support women and children to access the services they so desperately need”.