Grassroots research, ethical storytelling, and campaign design — turning local knowledge into formal policy proposals without surveilling the people you came from.
The Community Route is for members who want to turn lived experience into policy — without flattening the people whose lives the policy will touch. We take the ethics of storytelling seriously, and we teach the craft of refusal as much as the craft of disclosure.
You will learn to listen, to write with consent, and to build a campaign that has a real theory of change. The capstone is a community impact report or campaign framework grounded in a place you know — with a published methods note that another organiser could pick up and adapt.
Async readings, weekly drops, and three advisor sessions across the cohort. Modules build toward the capstone — there is no busywork, and there is no skipping.
Field notes that do not embarrass anyone. Interview protocols that are kinder than they need to be. Why consent is a process, not a checkbox. The first‑person ethical conversation.
Story structure for policy audiences. The ethics of representing a community you are part of. The discipline of refusal — what not to write, and how to say so on the page.
How a campaign is actually constructed. Mapping a coalition you would join. Theory of change without consultant‑speak. What "measurement" means when the outcome is dignity.
Pick a community you know. Build the impact report or campaign brief. Publish the methods note. Hand the artefact back to the community before you publish it more widely.
Every route ends in one Capstone with your name on it — published, archived, and citable. No certificate without it.
Single or collective author, with explicit consent and a published methods note.
Most reports describe communities. The ones that change anything describe what the council still doesn’t know.
A handful of recent capstones from the Community Route — to give you a sense of the scope and shape we expect, not to tell you what to write.
No route is harder than another — they reward different temperaments. Here is who tends to thrive in Community, and who is probably better served elsewhere.
Every member is paired with a senior advisor. The names below are representative of the Community Route advisor bench across recent cohorts.
15+ years across regional policy. Reads two drafts and runs a 60‑minute session with each advisee.
Currently serving in government, an NGO, or a research institute. Brings a live sense of what is plausible this year.
Blinded review of your draft, paired by the programme team. You will be a peer reviewer for someone in turn — that is part of the work.
↗ The full advisor bench is listed on the Team page.
If your question is not here, write to us. We read everything.
Email us ▸Not necessarily. Some capstones are first‑person field notes, others archival, others coalition mapping. Method follows question.
Carefully. We teach a process — initial, ongoing, and revocable — and we will not publish work where consent is shaky.
Yes. We require it. The community read‑back is a graded step of the capstone.
It can be. We are honest that we do not pretend to be neutral about whether young people deserve a seat at the policy table.
Members usually arrive certain about one route and leave curious about the next. Each route is sixteen weeks; some fellows have done two over consecutive cohorts.
Express interest for the next cohort. We open intakes four times a year and you can roll your application forward at any time — no penalty, no fee.