Break a habit, reach a goal

On #GivingTuesday, the global day of giving, we’re launching our winter campaign: #BreakToMake

We’re asking people to give it up to raise money for AzuKo. Every £1 you donate will enable vulnerable women in Bangladesh to attend essential ‘build for safety’ training. It costs £19 for one woman to join. We’re aiming to raise £475 to train 25 women in January 2019.

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign! You raised £656, which will enable 34 women to attend our training.

This is just the start - we aim to train 120 women in 2019. We’d love your continued support.

Find out more.

Hidden Homeless

We’re proud to be shortlisted for 'Hidden Homeless', a competition seeking innovative approaches to decent housing for homeless young people in London. Our proposal, in collaboration with the award-winning Amos Goldreich Architecture, focuses on building a neighbourhood and providing opportunities through co-living/co-working.

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“Housing benefit cuts, insufficient supply of affordable housing, and cuts in council funding and mental health services have all left vulnerable people with nowhere to go. This new competition encourages designers and architects to tackle these urgent issues head-on.”

— Jon Snow

Homelessness, access to housing and tenancy vulnerability are key areas of our work here in the UK, particularly surrounding temporary accommodation. Our projects empower vulnerable individuals and families to ensure their voices are heard within design processes and service provision.

Visit our projects page for more insights.

Discovering community-led design in China

Read about our latest work in China on the British Council blog.

Many sectors suffer from ‘jargon-overload’. The international development sector and emerging maker community are no different. Words can help us to be more precise, but they can also become a barrier to honest communication; too technical, too full of their own importance and arguably can discrimate against the poor.

Participatory design is not a new approach, but the buzz around these terms (co-, community-led, impact-driven, humanitarian, human-centred…) is hot. Should we agree on their definitions? Can they be overused? Do they mean the same thing in different places and to different groups?

“In November, we set out as explorers. What does ‘community-led’ mean in China? We wanted to challenge our own assumptions, discover best practice and hear from makers. We connected with communities and designers in Beijing, Henan, Hong Kong, Hunan and Fujian, of Chinese, Taiwanese, English, Irish and French origin.”

Read the entire article.