In 2009, frustrated that children couldn’t play outside like so many of us did growing up, friends Amy and Alice got together with neighbours to close their street to traffic and open it up for play. The results were amazing, for children and all ages, and Playing Out was born. Bristol City Council created a unique piece of legislation, called a Temporary Play Street Order, that officially allows street communities to play out every week - and other councils got interested too.Play Streets ha...

The Onion Collective is a social enterprise that was founded by a group of mums from Watchet in Somerset, UK. Watchet is a town with high levels of deprivation and the founders shared a keen desire to make it a better place to grow up for their kids.Galvanised by this shared interest, they came together and commissioned the creation of a visitor information centre and boat museum in 2016, and more recently a vibrant community centre on the harbourside called East Quay, which opened its doors ...

What stressors did COVID-19 cause, and what was their impact on people's political participation?Dr Luca Bernardi is a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Liverpool. He and Ian Gotlib, a psychologist and professor at Stanford University, have been working on a piece of research analysing things like fear about one's health, financial worries, and restricted social contact, and their impact on how people feel about politics.The research so far has thrown up some fascinating findin...

Welcome back to the Practical Democacy Podcast. In this episode, we talk to Julia Wagemann, founder of Women+ in Geospatial, to talk about unconscious bias in the geospatial sector.Women+ in Geospatial was established as a way for women and non-binary or trans people to form a community and provide support, advice and inspiration to each other in a field that's typically male-dominated. The organisation hopes to tackle the unconscious biases and glass ceilings that many women face over the co...

We sit down with Dr Antonis Kousoulis, the Director of the Mental Health Foundation in England and Wales to chat about the relationship between mental health and public participation, the democratic landscape post-COVID and how we can remove the barriers that hinder people from participating.Explore resources: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/Follow Mental Health Foundation https://twitter.com/mentalhealthDelib on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DelibThinksFor more episodes of The Practical Democ...

We talk to Hirra Khan Adeogun, head of car-free cities at Possible about transport through a gendered lens and how inclusive the current system is. Hirra Khan is currently leading on Possible’s landmark programme to kickstart the process of making private cars obsolete in our cities, accelerating the move to a zero carbon Britain built by and for everyone. She’s passionate about designing sustainable futures that centre social justice, human rights and community cohesion.For more episode...

How do changes to our road networks get made? Is the traffic order (TRO) process fit for purpose, and how do we achieve democratic buy-in? Mark Philpotts, a.k.a. the Ranty Highwayman, lifts the veil on how we improve UK roads and the complexities of getting the public on side - particularly those who may be resistant to change.Mark is a technical manager with Sweco UK. He specialises in walking and cycling design, although he has years of experience in general highway design. He has a strong ...

Compliance doesn't always mean inclusion.Join us to take a deep dive into all things accessibility with TetraLogical director Léonie Watson and our very own senior customer success manager and passionate accessibility advocate Lauren LaRocca Léonie is a Director at TetraLogical, member of the W3C Advisory Board, co-Chair of the W3C Web Applications and HTML working groups, and member of the BIMA Inclusive Design Council.With more than 25 years’ experience working for organisations inclu...

On this episode, we’ll be talking about democracy in a time of climate emergency. How are local authorities working towards their climate action plans, and how can we as citizens make sense of it and hold them accountable? Helping us explore these questions and more are our guests Siôn Williams, the outreach and networks coordinator for mySociety’s climate programme and Myf Nixon the communications manager for mySociety.About mySociety Established in 2003, mySociety is a not-f...

The way we travel is changing in the face of a climate emergency, but is the infrastructure we have ready for this change? In this episode, we talk to London walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman about how we can make active travel better for citizens. We deep dive into transport strategy, ask about barriers to participation and ponder the future of sustainable travel that benefits people and the planet.For more episodes of The Practical Democracy Podcast please visit https://www....