Rizwan, founder and director of Jawaab, a non-for-profit that creatively campaigns on socio-political issues faced by youth, with a particular focus on the British Pakistani community. By mobilizing youth through strong grassroots action and social media, Rizwan aims to tackle social injustices and inequalities affecting local communities.In 2011-2012, Rizwan worked as a Faiths Act Fellow for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Combining elements of interfaith and international development, Rizwan effectively campaigned on the improvement of maternal health and child mortality rates in countries like Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. In the past Rizwan worked at Islington Council Children Services department, on the Young Muslim Voices project.His work empowers and engages young Muslims via civic participation campaigns, as well as helps to shape and influence policies that may affect them. Rizwan also set up the Young Refugee Voices project that let young refugees and asylum-seekers use art methods to express the experiences, stories, and traumas that they have faced in their lives. Rizwan is currently working on 12 Cities Network “Kick Islamophobia”. The project intends to combat Islamophobia Europe-wide and rally a grassroots movement confronting anti-Muslim hysteria.
I’m one half of Diversify Policy, a campaign that Brhmie and I are developing in order to take the homogeneity of the policy world to task. Last year I co-wrote the NEON Campaigner’s Power & Privilege Handbook, which looks at how those of us in political groups and orgs can make then more inclusive. In my day job, I manage the comms team across two student unions, LSE and UAL.
Brhmie is a Senior Researcher in the RSA’s Economy, Enterprise and Manufacturing team. She leads the RSA’s research on the sharing economy. She was previously a researcher for the Independent Review of the Police Federation and for the influential RSA City Growth Commission. She has experience exploring issues of institutional reform, economic inequality and labour market disadvantage. Brhmie joined the RSA from the Institute of Public Policy Research and was formerly at The Work Foundation. She is now especially interested in diversifying the policy sphere that she works within and is keen to experiment with an array of campaigning tactics, including direct action, to inspire changes in the sector.
I am a Southern European feminist who has lived in London for the past few years. I am proud team member of Chayn, a gender and tech project providing women living domestic violence with tools, information and support. I am also the founder of Chayn’s Italian chapter. I am currently working at New Economy Organisers Network supporting the creation of NEON Europe – a European network of activists and organisers working for an economy based on social and environmental justice. After a few years engaging in feminist activism back in Italy, I am now mostly involved in diasporic projects which include Archivio Queer Italia, an online open source platform for queer art, theory and activism. My background is in Political Science and Gender, development and globalisation studies.
Hera is the Founder of Chayn, an open source gender and tech project that builds platforms, toolkits and runs hackathons to empower women facing violence & the organisations supporting them. Raised in Pakistan and living in London, Hera knew from early on she wanted to empower women found herself drawn to tech start-ups and how technology can be utilised to solve social issues. She is also a keen member of social innovation networks such as Wikipedia, MakeSense, Startingbloc, WEF’s Global Shapers and Yunus&Youth. Hera was named one of the 17 Local Globalists by GOOD magazine, presented by UN Foundation.
I have been involved with a wide range of groups and organisations. I have worked directly with people suffering from oppression since the early 1990’s. I was a Welfare Rights Worker for Young People at a Trade Union unemployed Centre, I a Housing Advice Worker at Glfoysh a small charity based in Gloucester which I also ran for several years. I also worked for Shelter in a peer education project where I made films with young people around housing issues. I have also done freelance film making and have an MA in documentary film making. I currently work for Transition Network where I develop systems of support for Transition Groups Internationally. Outside of work I have helped setup Neighbourhood Projects, was involved in running Bristol Indymedia for 5 years, run my own website www.permanentculturenow.com and www.alternativebristol.com have been involved in putting on radical events for Bristol Radical History Group and Bristol Anarchist Bookfair amongst other things. I am currently involved in Bristol Neon as part of the organising group and have helped organise the Local Organisers get together. Through this work I have developed a range of skills and knowledge on running organisations, developing projects, developing systems of support, engage communities and so on. I have read widely around economics, politics, sociology and psychology. I studied at Ruskin College and Bristol University where I read Sociology and Social Policy and have an MA in Documentary Film Making where I focused on film making and social change. I am really interested in psychology and social change and how networks develop, as well as systems thinking and cybernetics. Outside of work, I am interested in growing food on my allotment and my back garden and building stuff out of scrap wood. I also write electronic music and am currently learning to play the guitar quite badly. I am really interested in linking up with other people in other movements and sharing skills and experience.
I grew up in a village near Slough and went to the local grammar school. After a year studying chemistry at Oxford I dropped out and later graduated with a Politics BSc from Southampton in 2002. I moved to Bristol in 2006 and now live in Easton with my partner and daughter. I’ve worked in a variety of jobs – financial services, book-keeping, database development, sound engineering, loudspeaker cabinet making, pub landlord. I’ve been involved in a lot of political and direct action organisations – Socialist Party, Socialist Alliance, Kebele Social Centre, Bristol Anarchist Bookfair, Bristol Housing Action Movement, Co-mutiny, Classics Free Shop, Industrial Workers of the World, ACORN, Left Unity, NEON Bristol, Momentum, DIEM25. I also spent several years squatting when I first moved to Bristol, organised several free-parties, and have organised and promoted music gigs. I’m interested in modern history and in new approaches to political economy – particularly monetary circuit approaches, systems engineering and dynamic modelling.
Marienna (‘Mya’) is a journalist & activist specialising in austerity, state violence, climate justice & the refugee crisis. She was a founding organiser of the Brick Lane Debates collective and co-ordinated This Changes Everything UK last year. She studied Politics & International Development at SOAS starting in 2010, when she joined the student movement against education cuts and in solidarity with Gaza.
