Stronger Voice: Involving people in policy change

This session is aimed at anyone working towards policy change who wants to reflect on how they can share power with people who do not have previous experience of policy work. That can include people with direct experience of the issues you campaign on, staff delivering public services, and anyone with a stake in how policy decisions are made. 

The session covers how you can build involvement and power-sharing into each stage of the policy development and advocacy process. You will have the opportunity to put these ideas into practice and explore with peers how you might adapt them to your own work. 

About the trainer

This training will be delivered by Ayaz Manji, a campaigner and policy professional with eight years of experience working in social change, including for Stonewall, Mind, and the Women and Equalities Select Committee. He has delivered campaigning and influencing programmes for audiences including young campaigners, welfare rights advisers, research professionals, and LGBT rights activists in Eastern Europe. 

Ayaz’s work is based on the belief that change happens when organisations think deeply about the fundamental causes of the problems they are trying to solve, share their power with the people who have direct experience of those problems, and build bridges between people who come from very different starting points. 

Who can attend?  

These events are open to anybody working for a voluntary organisation in the criminal justice system. Please only book one ticket per organisation as we expect there to be high demand for these events.  

It is aimed at a mixed level group and it will be most useful for anyone working in a policy, campaigns or communications role, or anyone else interested in telling people’s stories to influence policy or to campaign on issues that matter to their organisation or service users.   

About Stronger voice  

The Stronger Voice programme is funded by the Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, and aims to help the voluntary sector working in criminal justice to develop a unified and influential voice, at both a national and regional level. Through this programme, Clinks is bringing together experts across policy, campaigns and communications for a range of free events, training and coaching opportunities to support organisations of all sizes to feel more confident in influencing policy and campaigning for change.