April 20, 2026
For our democracy to work, politicians need to hear from the people they are supposed to represent. This idea sounds pretty straightforward and is central to all Hope for the Future’s work, but this simple idea leads to complex questions:
These questions are at the core of our flagship five-year ‘A Future for All’ project, funded by the National Lottery. Through this project, we want to make sure politicians hear from groups that often struggle to have their voice heard, particularly parents, including parents of disabled children and parents from low-income areas. We decided to focus on these groups in particular as they are both likely to be disproportionately impacted by climate change but also are often left out of the decision-making process. So what is stopping people from engaging with their politicians?
Working with the London School of Economics, one of the first tasks was to look into what stops people taking political action on the issues they care about. We kicked off our collaboration with LSE on this project last year by working with student researchers who spoke directly to parents about their experiences of political engagement. The answers were stark (link to LSE blog).
The research clearly showed that parents face a host of real barriers to political action. Some of these are tangible and practical, particularly the fact that caring responsibilities mean parents often don't have the time (or energy) for the often time consuming process of advocacy. But some of these were more abstract, in particular the real lack of hope that many people feel at this current moment was clear and above all, a sense that our political system doesn’t work for them. These issues were further intensified for parents of disabled children, who often have even less time away from caring responsibilities and are likely to already be frustrated with government action on care and education.
These findings have given us a clear sense of where we can play our part as a charity that believes in democratic engagement. Which brings us to the next question: How can we help people have their voices heard by their politicians?
In our first year we organised a programme of events that aimed to help people with just that. First of all we worked with the amazing charity REA (link) to organise a series of woodland interactive circus performances, looking at the climate crisis and how we can play our part in making a better world. REA uses the arts in a powerful way, in particular immersive theatre and circus performances that inspire people and give people that vital bit of hope, central to the ability to take action.
Following these Positive Imagenings performances, participants attended workshops where we worked with parents to develop their ideas on how they could take political action in their communities. An important part of this was that these events were all free alongside forest school activities to engage and inspire children while their parents explored their own ideas around change and political engagement.
In addition, we worked with Contact to make sure these events were welcoming and accessible for all families with disabilities. As someone who spends far too much of his days reading depressing news about the climate crisis, these events had the surprising side effect of giving me hope as well. The conversations I had with parents, and the excitement I saw in children's faces - at being out in nature - have stayed with me and are almost enough to counter the barrage of daily headlines, almost.
As we enter the second year of the project, it's hard to avoid the fact that the political climate is becoming more and more challenging in the UK. Speaking to parents across the country, the sense of disillusionment with politics is palpable. As Hope for the Future, we can do something about this, but we need to be responsive to the political mood and the realities of British democracy. Which brings us to the third question: Who is our current system working for?
Over the winter we’ve been continuing to run workshops aimed at engaging parents in political advocacy. But we’ve made a conscious effort to take this sense of disillusionment seriously, look at the cracks in our democracy, and give people the skills they need to respond. One of the major issues that has come up from parents and other campaigners is that people don’t feel the current system centers their needs.
Whether this is on climate action, Special Education Needs provision in schools, or Personal Independence Payments people highlight that they think the needs of vested interests and corporate lobbyists are being prioritised over their own. The reality is complex, as someone that often speaks to politicians I know that there are a huge number of dedicated amazing MPs. However, it is clear that on certain issues lobbyists are very effective at muddying the waters of government decisionmaking and slowing climate-action.
Therefore, in response, we decided to experiment with adapting our approach and trialing in a new series of workshops looking at how people can counter the influence of corporate lobbyists and influence politicians that they disagree with. For me, it was noticeable that people switch on and pay more attention as soon as they hear you acknowledge the problems with UK politics and treat this, and their life experience, seriously.
For many people the idea of engaging with a politician and immediately successfully influencing them seems profoundly unrealistic. It can, however, seem more achievable to think, I am going to go speak to my MP because I know that a lobbyist probably is, I want to go counter their influence and stand up for what I believe in. This can then be a starting point for conversations between MPs and constituents and long term democratic engagement.
As of now, we’re poised to launch a new summer of outdoor events (our first event is on the 26th of April in Bradford) to continue making climate advocacy accessible and climate policies more inclusive. There’s no getting around that it feels like a tricky time with many challenges and barriers to political engagement. But armed with a bit of honesty, realism, and amazing charity partners, I’m looking forward to speaking to people about UK politics, listening to their frustrations, and together trying to change things for the better and create a brighter Future for All.
