Phase 3 projects: democratic participation grants programme

Age UK East London’s ‘Speak Up, Sign Up Project’ helped older East Londoners to understand and act on changes to voting requirements, including photo Voter ID through information stalls and digital inclusion sessions. This project expanded its scope to support the needs of carers to engage with their civic and democratic rights. It also built on existing community meeting forums to engage older East Londoners in civic participation.  

Disability Action Haringey's ‘Empowering Voices: civic engagement for all’ project enhanced political literacy among D/deaf and disabled Londoners. Their workshops, advice sessions and social media activity supported participants to better understand their democratic rights. Disability Action Haringey worked in partnership with Ruils, Disability Action in Islington and Inclusion London to increase their reach and impact.    

Empowering Deaf Society's ‘Your Vote, Your Voice’ project helped Deaf Londoners to register to vote and to apply for Voter Authority Certificates. Political literacy workshops provided opportunities for deaf people to understand and engage with civic and democratic life in BSL, including visits to Parliament, meeting local representatives and presentations on London’s Democracy.    

Faiths Forum for London's ‘Faith in Democracy Project’ supported young Londoners to understand how they can engage with democracy and influence local decision-making. The project engaged students at Freshers’ Fairs and formed a youth forum. The youth forum completed a programme of workshop events so they could share their knowledge in places of worship and content creation for social media.  

KAYAV’s ‘Change Makers’ project provided democratic participation support to the Albanian- speaking Communities in London through regular drop-in sessions and workshops. The project connected communities to local decision making through local events and visits to Parliament.  It also delivered training to grassroots partners across London on impartiality and co-designed accessible, culturally rooted activities to build political literacy and community engagement. 

LGBT HERO’s ‘Empowering LGBTQ+ Voices: Civic Engagement and Voter Participation’ project expanded their online ‘Voter ID hub’ to support LGBTQIA+ Londoners to engage more in democratic processes and local decision making. Their outreach sessions and social media activity had a particular focus on transgender and non-binary Londoners and supported participants to gain an increased understand their civic and democratic rights, including how to contact local representatives. 

Partnership for Young London's ‘Care Leaders’ project was tailored to the needs of care experienced young people and supporting them to overcome barriers to registering to vote and applying for photo Voter ID. A network of ‘Care Champions’ were trained to deliver political literacy workshops and connect young people with decision making mechanisms to get heard on issues that matter to them. Information was also cascaded to key practitioners in local authorities to embed in their Local Offer.  

RCCT’s ‘Voting and Representation for Romanian and Romanian Roma Community’ supported Romanian and Romanian Roma Londoners to register to vote, apply for accepted photo Voter ID, improve their political literacy and build trust in civic and democratic participation. Their outreach, in partnership with, Romanian Mothers UK, Romanian Support Network and Roma Voice included information sessions, social media meetups and tailored community information videos.  

SEEAWA’s ‘Vote for Rights for Women from East and Southeast Asia (ESEA)’ Project addressed the participation barriers that migrant women face engaging with democracy and local decision making through interactive community outreach information sessions, partnership collaborations and tailored social media posts. The project also shared opportunities for the ESEA community to engage in civic participation including volunteering.   

The Politics Project’s ‘At the Table’ project included research and road-testing phases with community organisations working with young people to co-design a toolkit for youth practitioners to support political literacy discussions in non-formal youth spaces. The aim of the toolkit is to encourage learning through play with gamified activities that connect young people with mechanisms for getting their voices heard on issues that matter most to them and to address low levels of social trust.    

Voice4Change England's ‘Your Voice Your Democracy’ project delivered activity online and offline to engage Black and Minoritised Ethnic (BME) communities and increase access to reliable information on civic and democratic participation. This was delivered through stakeholder engagement, round-table discussions, workshops, information stalls, tailored resources and social media campaigns, including newspaper articles to reach Orthodox Jewish households.