Community Legal Confidence Programme
Refugees require legal assistance at each stage of their movement from country of origin to reception. Access to immigration advice in countries of transit and reception is often limited as is wider support once an individual obtains the right to remain. Lawyers Against Poverty has created a series of workshops to offer members of the refugee community information on their rights as individuals living in the UK in the areas of employment, criminal and family law.
This flexible model allows members to use their research and presentation skills to deliver legal confidence sessions using our training materials and session resources. These sessions can be run online or in person and we encourage volunteers to use work closely with local refugee agencies to adapt and deliver the sessions. There is scope to adapt the sessions according to the needs of participants, the resources available and your own expertise.
Read our Legal Confidence Programme Guide for more information about how it works and get in touch if you’re interested in getting involved.
We work with asylum seekers and refugees, including some who have received been granted leave to remain on refugee or humanitarian grounds. Clients in this group with higher level English were keen to find out more about their legal rights in the UK, and so the Legal Confidence sessions from Lawyers against Poverty were a perfect fit for this group. The lawyer who delivered the session was obviously knowledgeable and adapted really well to presenting the sessions on Zoom.
Stephen Spencer, Islington Centre for Migrants and Refugees
The confidence sessions delivered to the Refugee Resource women’s group was very empowering. It provided a safe space for refugee women to not just learn about their rights in housing, family law, women’s right etc. they also had the opportunity to share their own experiences and learn from each other.
Fatou Ceesay, Refugee Resource, Oxford