Central England Law Centre

CELC does Christmas! Wishing all of our clients and partners a very restful Christmas break. As well as getting into the festive mood in the office with a best decorated room competition in our new offices in Coventry, we have worked with our partners at Coventry Building Society and Salvation Army to provide presents to 100s of families who wouldn't be able to give their children gifts this Christmas.

Really important report by London Funders sheds light on the funding landscape for social welfare advice in London and explores responses to the conundrum of huge demand and limited resources. Our response - activate and embed rights in our community to build a stronger social justice movement bringing together legal and non legal social action. We were delighted to get the opportunity to share in the report what we would like to see from funders to better support law centres and other advice organisations to operate in this way: 💡Be willing to co-fund legal advice and representation that is part funded by legal aid but goes much deeper in helping an individual and a community. This brings benefits of multi-disciplinary working and can create a better impact - it shouldn’t be considered as ‘double funding’. 💡 Invest in core costs that supports leadership, premises, wellbeing and infrastructure development – technological developments are key for the future. 💡 Provide multi-year funding that is impact focussed from a 360 perspective - clients, staff, partners, community and moves away from being output focussed. 💡 Give time to get partnerships off the ground – including funding for work that specialist organisations would not always do to build up relationships especially with grassroots. 💡 Support grantees to say something is not working without fear and value expertise of the sector. 💡 Support rights-based approaches to shift power in communities – give guidance to grantees and help link them up with other projects and learning and funders committed to the same shift. 💡And last but definitely not least - don’t give up on what works!

We enjoyed getting out to Kenilworth today to help inspire the next generation to think about a career fighting for the rights of the most marginalised in our communities. Big thanks to Zoe Leventhal KC for inviting us along and to Mia for all her help getting us noticed! #accesstojustice #lawcareers #younglegalaidlawyers

Our Head of Family Law and Justice First Fellow Trainee Solicitor @CeydaBetulKemanci at #LAPGConf24 last week. High on the agenda, the future of Legal Aid and inspiring future generations of social justice lawyers. Proud of our contribution and our 11 trainee solicitors #buildingthefuture

It's #TrusteesWeek, and a chance to celebrate the amazing contributions made by our trustees! Our committed Board of Trustees provide unwavering support, wisdom and guidance in increasing #AccessToJustice in Coventry and Birmingham and the wider area. A big thank you to Sarah Raistrick, Thomas Bannister, Cllr Abdul Jobbar, Deborah Moss, Graham Moffat, Mohammed Abdul Qadir, Chris King, Henry Whitney, Cllr Linda Bigham

Monday shout out to our fantastic Health Justice Partnership team celebrating 18 months of partnership - read about our impact here.

📢📢 WE ARE RECRUITING SOLICITORS & CASEWORKERS!! 📢📢 https://lnkd.in/eKmRJFar Why join us? ✅Make a difference for individuals living in some of the most marginalised communities by defending and enforcing their rights, challenging unfair decisions and take cases to the highest courts ✅Work with those clients to help them navigate problems better in the future and keep their lives on track ✅Build alliances of organisations committed to identifying and tackling systemic injustice using legal processes 🍰 A conveyor belt of tasty cakes

The Law Centre's Emma Austin uses the diverse personal and professional experiences that have shaped her in order to inspire the next generation at the Strategic Social Justice Clinic with Warwick Law in the Community.

'Central England Law Centre Calls on Next Government to Prioritise Access to Justice' Read our key asks ahead of tomorrow's #GeneralElection2024 And don't forget to exercise your democratic right to vote! https://lnkd.in/e-J87M_C

Ahead of the #GE24 we share some of our key asks for the next Government: 5. Take action to ensure local authorities can deliver vital services to their communities