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Community work

Co-Design a Human Rights Solution with BIHR

In 2021-22, we ran a pilot programme where we worked with different communities to come up with a human rights solution to an issue they face everyday. Together with four partner organisations from different sectors and locations across the UK, we created four final resources which are available below.

Following the success of the pilot, BIHR has received funding from the Baring Foundation to continue providing co-design support to community groups across the UK. In 2023, we partnered with six organisations, and on 10th December 2024, we celebrated Human Rights Day by launching four more resources.

Our 2024 co-design programme

Throughout 2024, BIHR worked with four community and voluntary groups across the UK the opportunity to co-design a support “solution” using human rights. This is part of BIHR’s wider Community Programme 2022-2025, funded by the Baring Foundation, which aims to strengthen the voice of community and voluntary groups across the UK to address social justice issues using human rights.

"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."

BIHR worked with Cwm Taf People First to create a human rights game in Easy Read (an accessible format that uses short sentences and pictures to convey information). The game is designed for adults with learning disabilities in the UK to support them to understand human rights and to speak up for their rights and have their voices heard. The game features stories and issues that come up in real life.

"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."

BIHR worked with Parent Carer Alliance to create an in-depth written resource, focusing on the right to private and family life, home and correspondence. We produced a really detailed explainer for parents and carers of children with special educational needs and disabilities, so that they feel empowered to use this human right when challenging decisions of local authorities and schools. There are videos to go alongside the resources, and hopefully parents and carers will use this to protect the rights of their whole families.

"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."

BIHR worked with with Bomoko NI to create a pocket-sized leaflet for women seeking asylum and refugees in Northern Ireland. The leaflet will include information about key human rights and real-life stories of rights in action. It is available both online and in hard copy so women can take it with them to meetings and carry it around easily. It has been translated into multiple languages to meet the needs of Bomoko NI’s community.

"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."

BIHR worked with the African Women’s Empowerment Forum to create a brochure that supports people seeking asylum and refugees to navigate and access public services and ensure that their human rights are upheld. The brochure looks at key rights, such as the right to private and family life, the right to be free from inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to be free from discrimination and the right to life.

How we made the solutions

In 2021, BIHR began a new approach to working with communities with the launch of the  "Co-design a human rights support “solution” with BIHR" programme.

This programme seeks to support community groups and voluntary groups to find human rights “solutions” to problems or issues they face. We worked with a small number of partners as a pilot project and are now developing our long-term offer to community groups. Our support is intended to enable groups to address the day-to-day issues where rights are risked, creating positive change within imperfect systems.

Co-design 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.

Previous sessions have been so valuable for BIHR as a human rights charity, and feedback told us the attendees also found it very helpful to have these conversations and build relationships.

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.

Want to find out more about our co-design project for working with community groups? Contact the project lead, Annie Smith on anniesmith@bihr.org.uk.

Our partners

Everyone at BIHR would like to say a massive thank you to our core funders, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Tudor Trust and the Bromley Trust, for making it possible for us to explore our work with communities and co-design support solutions that mean we can all make change through human rights, together.

Following the success of our pilot programme, our work with communities continues through our 2022-2025 programme, kindly funded through the Baring Foundation.

And thank you to the ten partner organisations we have worked with since 2021!

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