Legislative Theatre for Greater Manchester Homelessness Prevention Strategy

Legislative Theatre (LT) is an innovative participatory democracy tool using theatre to shape policy decisions. Created in Brazil in the 1990s by the activist and director Augusto Boal, and popularised in New York City since 2012, LT brings residents, policymakers and advocates together into creative dialogue, and offers a rigorous and fun testing space for new policy and practice. 

The Greater Manchester Homelessness Prevention Strategy Legislative Theatre project, April 2020-July 2021, aimed to improve the quality of public decision-making through the mechanisms of participatory democracy, and prioritise perspectives of people directly affected by the policies being discussed. A vast intersector network helped engage participants with varying experiences, including recent migrants and people with disabilities. This was crucial, as the experience of homelessness is both diverse and discriminatory in its impact on people facing various forms of social exclusion.

Thirty-five residents came together to create 3 original plays based on their experiences of homelessness services. Their creative process, through games, dialogue and scene development, was also facilitated by people with experience of homelessness. These performances explored the topics of Multiple Disadvantage; Funding & Commissioning; and Structural Racism in Homelessness Services. The facilitation training and process co-design were implemented by Katy Rubin, international LT practitioner based in Manchester.

Three public LT events reached over 300 audience members, including people with experience of homelessness, frontline staff, local officers and elected officials, advocates and residents. Audiences were invited to improvise alternative responses onstage to address systemic problems, leading to deeper analysis and more nuanced ideas, in an iterative process. Audiences were then ready to draft their proposals, including hiring staff with experience of homelessness in public services; redesigning participatory commissioning cycles; and others. Following debate and amendments, 23 proposals were put to a community vote. Due to the pandemic, performances were held as digital / physical hybrids, which allowed for the engagement of a broader audience.

Overall, over 20 suggestions gathered from the LT performances and subsequent workshops were included in the GM Homelessness Strategy 2021-2016, which guides practice and spending across 10 local authorities, with over 2 million residents combined. These focused on harm reduction, joint commissioning, and valuing lived experience in workplaces. Several of these changes have since been funded by national government and private philanthropy. 

An evaluation was conducted using participatory research processes, to reflect on the place of the LT method in the GM decision-making ecosystem, the kind of knowledge produced by the process, along with opportunities as well as barriers to the implementation of this knowledge. The project showcased the ability of the method to address key strategic issues such as commissioning in a nuanced and inclusive manner. This contributed to an appetite for further applying the LT process in other policy-making spaces across Greater Manchester. The project’s impact also encouraged other UK local authorities to experiment with innovative PD practices. Since early 2021, Legislative Theatre has been implemented with, among others, Glasgow City Council and Glaswegian youth, informing equitable climate policy; and Coventry and London Haringey councils, developing new homelessness strategies.

More information.

https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/what-we-do/homelessness/

Greater Manchester Legislative Theatre: Co-Producing the GMCA Homelessness Prevention Strategy