build your own politician
Feature 1
The Electoral Commission established the New Initiatives Fund to support and promote new ways of raising awareness about voting and democracy. This evaluation report provides information about the Build Your Own Politician project funded by the New Initiatives Fund. London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Build Your Own Politician was as a pilot project to explore young people’s perceptions of politicians and to openly consider the barriers that may prevent young people from becoming politically engaged. A core group of young people in Tower Hamlets worked with a local artist and Electoral Services staff and Operation Black Vote to discuss the characteristics that make an ideal politician. Participants did this through group debates, games, research projects, visits, interviews and a range of other creative sessions. Working with the artist, they used these ideas to produce a piece of visual work that was exhibited at a local community centre.
devised by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Electoral Services Department
The exhibition ran for six weeks at the Ideas Store, Chrisp Street, before touring the borough during localdemocracy week in October 2005 with additional drop-in workshops.
Objectives of the project were to:
• raise awareness and stimulate debate among young people about political engagement and the role of the politician in their everyday lives
• raise awareness among young people about the importance of voting
• increase confidence in politics among young people
• create a framework for young people to communicate effectively with local decision- makers
• raise political awareness among the wider community across the borough
• raise awareness of Electoral Services in Tower Hamlets
Target outcomes
The target outcomes were to:
• ensure that between 10 to 15 participants were able to name their political representative, be aware of what they do and explain what qualities make a good politician
• create a display of project work to be exhibited across Tower Hamlets
• allow a further 500 young people to have contact with the project during the exhibition stage and to increase their awareness of their political representatives
• generate borough wide awareness of the project through local press coverage
How successful was the project?
Overall the project achieved and in many cases exceeded its key objectives and target outcomes. The success was evaluated using questionnaires, focus groups and the use of ‘secret ballot boxes’ for anonymous feedback.
Thirty-six young people took part in the initial 10 days of outreach workshops. Following these, all participants demonstrated an understanding of different political structures, the value of democracy and the role of politicians.
From the local community, 484 people visited the exhibition either at the Ideas Store or other locations across the borough. The exhibition created a forum for group members to meet and interview politicians including the Mayor of Tower Hamlets. The project was also successful in raising the profile of Electoral Services thus paving the way for future work in Tower Hamlets. Following the exhibition, the project co-ordinator received a large number of requests from community groups for future partnership work. A local teacher took her class to a workshop as part of their citizenship programme. This shows that the project reached well beyond its original target group and really captured people’s imagination.
Good practice
A number of areas of good practice can be identified:
• A creative and flexible approach to encourage participation contributed to the success of the project. Workshops with the core group included a photography session, a workshop on identity, media and music run by Operation Black Vote and a visit to the Black Power exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery.
• Employing a professional artist produced a very high-quality final product. This had a positive impact on both participants and wider audiences as they felt their ideas were important and being taken seriously.
• Working in partnership with local youth groups and a wide range of young people during broader outreach sessions made a positive contribution to the project.
• The project paved the way for future innovative interventions in the area such as ‘Cotchin with theCouncillors’ a regular forum for young people to meet and discuss local issues with their representatives.
• The innovation of this project has meant that it can be used as a pilot project which can be replicated byothers.