UNESCO Toolkit Feature: The People’s Jury
6th February 2025
Our work with The People’s Jury, Get it Done, Shared Future and Blackburn with Darwen Council has been featured as an example of best practice in the UNESCO Local to Global Toolkit.
The UNESCO toolkit highlights the UK’s extraordinary network of places and people working on important interconnected challenges related to environmental, economic, social and cultural diversity. It provides a range of practical approaches and examples for undertaking audience development and stakeholder mapping.
Get It Done, the People’s Jury and the National Festival of Making began collaborating to engage the public in conversations and collective action around climate change, as well as generate civic pride through creativity and culture.
The project was brought to thousands of people over the National Festival of Making 2023 weekend where the Jury gathered tips and tricks on their giant chalkboard plinth and prompted people to pledge their support for a positive climate future. The content generated from this weekend has informed a web forum built by Get It Done.
Brought together by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and facilitated by Shared Futures, The People’s Jury are a group of residents who could be seen as a mini-population of Blackburn with Darwen, mirroring local demographics in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, ward area and attitude towards climate change.
In 2024 we unveiled a new artwork in collaboration with the People’s Jury and Get It Done. This shadow-based public artwork draws attention to the coming changes in weather and the passing of time as we draw closer to a climate-unstable future.
Together the group came up with the phrase for the artwork and tested it in cardboard. The material for the shadow art was made by Relic Plastic from recycled plastic from Lancashire businesses and can be seen at the front entrance of The Making Rooms.
This project is used as an example of user-centred design; an approach to developing activities and experiences that consider the needs and experiences of users at every stage.
