Call for disabled citizen reporters

The leading disability charity is working with On Our Radar to build a network of citizen reporters – young disabled people who will be trained in the art of reporting and campaigning on the issues that matter to them. 

The project, made possible by Act for Change Fund, will pilot under the working title of Future Leaders in four cities, Belfast, Swansea, Manchester and Glasgow. Leonard Cheshire and its partner On Our Radar will start recruiting young reporters in early January. 

Leonard Cheshire will recruit 8 lead young reporters to receive specialist intensive training from delivery partner On Our Radar. The young leads will recruit, train and mentor a further 60 young reporters in their local areas over the course of the project, which runs until December 2021. 

The youth campaigning pilot will be funded by Act for Change Fund, which is a £3.6 million partnership between Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation for organisations supporting young people working for change. The Fund provides resources for young people to challenge social injustice, find ways of overcoming inequality and give voice to issues they are experiencing. 

The idea behind the project came from a group of young disabled people, who wanted to give voice to the frustrations they felt. They told the charity they wanted to campaign in their local communities but lacked the skills and confidence to do so. 

It was inspired by Leonard Cheshire’s work in the UK, including youth skills-development programme Can Do, and countries such as Kenya, where the charity trained citizen reporters to tell the stories and campaign on the issues that matter most to them. 

Joshua Reeves, Campaign Support Officer at Leonard Cheshire, said: 

‘This initiative will give so many young people a voice to tell stories that need to be said.

‘We have seen how powerful citizen reporting can be through our projects in countries such as Kenya in terms of empowering people to campaign on the issues that mean the most to them. 

‘You can report and campaign with nothing more than a mobile phone and Skype. I've seen this work when campaigning with the Commonwealth Youth Council.

‘So, you can bring a successful campaign with the right mentoring and skills; you can make a massive difference to your local community and disabled people around the country.

‘My campaigning has taken me to different heights over the years from teaching primary school children about disability rights and awareness and to receive a Points of Light award of the former Prime Minister Theresa May for campaigning in Antigua.’

Laura Jump, CEO of On Our Radar, said: 

‘We’re thrilled to be continuing our long-standing relationship with Leonard Cheshire.

‘We have previously worked together to amplify the voices of people living with disabilities across the world; in Zambia, the Philippines, Kenya and Sierra Leone as part of Leonard Cheshire’s Missing Voices campaign.

‘These projects have focussed on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and we are excited to build upon the learning from these projects to support the activities of young future leaders in the UK. 

‘On Our Radar is an inter-disciplinary communication agency for unheard and marginalised communities — we use co-design and co-creation methodologies to build bridges.’

Media enquiries

For further information please contact Samuel Buckley on Samuel.Buckley@leonardcheshire.org or call 020 3242 0204.

Notes to editor

Act for Change Fund

Act for Change Fund is a joint initiative between Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, working in partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund. Both foundations are acting as match funders and are awarding grants on behalf of the #iwill Fund. 

The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £40 million joint investment from the National Lottery Community Fund, and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high-quality social action opportunities.

Future Leaders project pilot

Leonard Cheshire received funding from Paul Hamlyn Foundation through Act for Change Fund to deliver the pilot from December 2019-December 2021. 

Outcomes: 

1.    Young disabled people have an increased skill level in citizen reporting, peer mentoring and advocacy.

2.    Decision-makers and influencers take action as a result of content generated by the youth citizen reporters on the Future Leaders programme.

The project: 

• Over 2 years, ‘lead reporters’ from 4 locations in the UK (Swansea, Belfast, Manchester, Glasgow) will receive intensive training from our delivery partner, On Our Radar, in advocacy skills, leadership, citizen reporting, peer-mentoring, workshop facilitation to become lead citizen reporters. 
• On Our Radar are award-winning journalists and software designers, with whom we currently partner for our international programme, 2030 and Counting. They have a range of expertise from developing technology solutions that address issues of connectivity in marginalised communities to genuine participatory journalism and user-centred co-design. 
• The leads will mobilise their peers to campaign for change in their local communities. 
• Working in pairs, the 8 lead reporters will recruit 60 young disabled people in their target communities, delivering cascade training. Leads will train, coach, and mentor the young disabled people to become citizen reporters. 
• The youth reporters will document daily experiences of issues/barriers they face in their local communities. They will submit this content to a tech ‘cloud-based’ platform, developed by On Our Radar. Content could include experiences of using public transport, going to the gym, accessing support services, lack of accessible housing in their area. 
• The youth reporters will take direct action based on theme, e.g. vlogging via social media, petition local authority, lobby key-decision makers including local councillors, NHS representatives. 

Training with On Our Radar will begin in February 2020, with the first delivery ‘sprint’ taking place in Glasgow and Swansea in May 2020. The second ‘sprint’ will take place in Belfast and Manchester from November 2020; this approach allows the reporters from each location to share learning and experiences. 

This user-led and community-centred approach will empower young disabled people to reveal and explain key issues as they experience them, using simple mobile devices to share personal insights in their own words, in their own time, in their own terms, generating powerful and persuasive messages. 

Through Future Leaders, a cohort of young disabled people will become disability advocates, leading grassroots social action to transform the current social landscape; their insights and expertise will also strengthen future youth-led programme delivery.

Future Leaders is based on My Voice, My Choice and Can Do, our youth-led social action programme co-produced by young disabled people to develop skills, confidence and knowledge to deliver effective social action in their local communities. In 2018, young disabled people created 12,528 volunteering and campaign opportunities and delivered 31,462 hours of social action. 

On Our Radar

On Our Radar is the communications agency for unheard communities. We are a specialist group of journalists, software architects, digital storytellers and development practitioners. We work together to tackle voicelessness, establish reporter networks and surface stories from unheard groups worldwide.