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Health effects of air pollution

Amplifying voices for clean air

Our Amplifying Voices strand supports the communities who are most affected by air pollution to advocate for change.

Patrick Lee

Communications Manager

Farid Kelekun

Portfolio Manager

At Impact on Urban Health, we believe the people whose health is most affected by air pollution should be at the heart of the solutions to improve it. Through our Amplifying Voices strand, we support community-led work that brings lived experience, local expertise, cultural knowledge, and grassroots leadership into air quality policy, research, and campaigning.

Why do we fund this work?

Air pollution doesn’t affect everyone equally. In urban areas like London, people from racialised communities, people from lower income areas, and children are among those whose health is disproportionately affected by air pollution.

These groups are often more likely to be exposed to air pollution. But they are also at greater risk of being harmed by air pollution, due to other social causes of ill-health, and have less power than others to do something about it. All too often, their voices are unheard by decision-makers.

What is the Amplifying Voices strand?

We believe that supporting the communities most affected by air pollution will be a catalyst for equitable change. Amplifying their voices means doing what we can to make sure their perspectives and experiences are heard and valued by the media and decision-makers.

Who do we support?

We support work which pushes for systemic change and has a focus on social, racial, and economic justice. We partner with organisations that are rooted in Lambeth and Southwark’s communities, represent those most affected by air pollution, and are determined to make a change.

In these films, you can hear from two of our partners in their own words:

What do we do?

Our support starts with providing funding. But we do more, including:

Supporting organisations to strengthen their capacity.
Strengthening the knowledge base on air pollution and advocacy.
Convening organisations for conversations around common aims.
Facilitating connections and opportunities for communities to work with decision-makers.
Centring the perspective of those most affected by air pollution when speaking about the problem and the routes to change.

Why does amplifying voices matter?

The groups most affected by air pollution are often overlooked, meaning they can be ignored or disregarded when advocating for change.

The clean air sector, including its campaigning element, is not traditionally diverse. That means the perspectives of those most affected by air pollution are neither central to debate nor decision-making. We believe meaningful inclusion of these voices is essential, to make sure all solutions consider and centre those most at risk of harm from poor air quality.

What do we hope to achieve by amplifying voices?

By 2030, we hope that:

People most affected by air pollution will have the power of voice and choice. They will be valued by decision-makers and peers as key clean air advocates, involved in improving air quality and influencing decisions to reduce air pollution.
There will be a vibrant and resilient clean air ecosystem, made up of sustainable equity-led community organisations. This network will provide support, coordination, advocacy and opportunities to the communities and leaders most affected by air pollution.
Decision-makers will follow the lead of, and be accountable to, the people most impacted by air pollution, resulting in meaningful change.
People most affected by air pollution will be equipped to speak out on the links between racism, poverty and the health inequity of air pollution.

We believe these changes locally will translate to improved air quality nationally. Crucially, we believe air quality will be improved equitably.

Over the next five years, our partners have concrete plans to make this happen. These include building a space to convene on issues of air pollution and racial justice. For example, creating shared recommendations for more local, equity-driven solutions to air pollution and united campaigning for clean air policies.

What have our Amplifying Voices partners done so far?

Our Amplifying Voices portfolio is diverse. We support committed campaigners, community organisers, and researchers, all of whom want clean air and better health for their communities. They are also united by a desire to see air pollution accurately positioned as an issue of racial justice.

We fund and support our partners to innovate, share knowledge and perspectives, spread awareness in and beyond their communities, build people’s power and agency, and campaign for equitable change.

Here are some examples of how our Amplifying Voices strand is helping to drive that change:

Campaigning for clean air justice

We partner with campaigners like the Ella Roberta Foundation and community-led movement Live + Breathe, led by musician Love Ssega.

Rosamund is leading calls for parliament to implement Ella’s Law, a bill strengthening UK air quality protections in line with World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Rosamund’s daughter, Ella, was the first person to have air pollution listed as a cause of death when she died of an asthma attack aged nine. While Live + Breathe’s public activism, such as their collaboration with Poetic Unity on the ‘Clean Air For the Ends’ bike ride and rally, makes noise to highlight air pollution as a health and social justice issue.

Engaging and empowering communities on clean air

We work with organisations like Rooted and The Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP) to cultivate grassroots activism on air pollution. Whether that’s Rooted’s work with Black community leaders on environmental issues or TSIP creating a network of campaigners and funding practical, community-led ideas for cleaner air, including a pilot which builds awareness of local air quality via outdoor air pollution monitors located in public spaces.

Community-focused research

We help to get innovative research projects off the ground. Our partner Centric Lab is putting power in the hands of people living in air pollution hotspots. Working with communities, campaigners and health researchers at University College London and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, they have co-created a symptom tracker so residents can track and report pollution-related health symptoms to their GPs. While Black-led organisation Global Child and Maternal Health has published ‘Black Child Clean Air’, pioneering community-based research on Black mothers’ views and experiences of air pollution in London.

In this film from 2024, Love Ssega talks about Live + Breathe and the value of amplifying voices.

Full list of current Amplifying Voices partners

We also want to recognise the organisations whose contributions over the past years have shaped our Amplifying Voices strand, including Centric Community Research, ClearView Research, Community Collective, and Changemakers Unlimited. Their work has been key to getting us where we are today.