Who and how we help
The South West Legal Support Trust is a local arm of the Access to Justice Foundation, the only national charity with a focus on funding and supporting access to justice across the UK. The way in which the Foundation helps accomplish this goal is by raising funds through events and distributing grants to charities that provide free legal advice and or representation for the community.
We raise funds and distribute them strategically to those advice agencies that can make the most difference to the lives of vulnerable people.
We fund Law Centres, local citizens’ advice, independent advice agencies, pro bono projects and national charities, which help to facilitate access to justice
Our current objectives are to:
- Increase funding for the advice and pro bono sectors
- To build on the effectiveness of grant making on both a local and national scale
- To support the sector by providing leadership and encouraging collaboration
The Community Justice Fund
In 2021, the Foundation will be making the majority of its grants through the Community Justice Fund, a joint initiative created to support specialist social welfare legal advice organisations with the impact of COVID-19.
The Community Justice Fund is made up of contributions from a range of sources, including funds from independent foundations and donors.
Here listed are the organisations we have awarded the Community Justice Fund Grant across the South West, supporting their vital work in providing access to justice for all.
We raise funds and distribute them strategically to those advice agencies that can make the most difference to the lives of vulnerable people.
We fund Law Centres, local citizens’ advice, independent advice agencies, pro bono projects and national charities, which help to facilitate access to justice
Our current objectives are to:
- Increase funding for the advice and pro bono sectors
- To build on the effectiveness of grant making on both a local and national scale
- To support the sector by providing leadership and encouraging collaboration
The Community Justice Fund
In 2021, the Foundation will be making the majority of its grants through the Community Justice Fund, a joint initiative created to support specialist social welfare legal advice organisations with the impact of COVID-19.
The Community Justice Fund is made up of contributions from a range of sources, including funds from independent foundations and donors.
Here listed are the organisations we have awarded the Community Justice Fund Grant across the South West, supporting their vital work in providing access to justice for all.
Citizens Advice North Somerset
Grant Awarded: £59, 422
Location: Somerset
Citizens Advice North Somerset is an independent charity that provides free, impartial and confidential advice on a range of issues and holds an AQS Standard Certification for advice with casework in the following categories: Debt, Housing, Welfare Benefits, and Telephone Advice Standard. The Community Justice Fund will allow CA North Somerset to employ an additional full time Welfare Rights specialist caseworker and a part time administrator to support the provision of Welfare Benefit advice. This will allow them to address the increased demand that they know is imminent in light of the increase in demand for benefit advice since lockdown, combined with the increase in Universal Credit claims made within the area during Covid-19. The grant will also cover the costs of adapting to both home working and face to face once lockdown eases.
Bridport and District Citizens Advice Bureau
Grant Awarded: £21, 767
Location: Dorest
Bridport and District Citizens Advice Bureau provide specialist welfare benefits advice and representation at first tier and upper tier tribunals on the full range of benefit issues and is part of the Citizens Advice network across England and Wales. A flexible grant will help Bridport and District Citizens Advice Bureau with the costs of continuing to operate a specialist benefits post, as well as cover the costs incurred by the new ways of working in response to Covid-19, such as additional IT hardware, PPE, mobile phones and phone contracts which has increased pressures on their budget.
Refugee Support Ltd
Grant Awarded: £20, 000
Location: Devon
Refugee Support Devon is an independent charity representing refugees, asylum seekers and other non-EU migrants with complex immigration needs. They have 4 immigration Advisors and provide advice as well as a referral service to the limited number of local Solicitors who carry out immigration work. The CJF funding will allow them to continue to play a coordinating role in the local provision of support for refugees, asylum seekers and other immigrants, in particular by acquiring PPE for their staff as well as training new staff and volunteers on new ways of working.
Navigate
Grant Awarded: £55, 400
Location: Somerset
Navigate specialises in accessible advice to people with complex, multiple needs facing isolation & exclusion. Delivering Money, Debt, Welfare Benefits & Education services through comprehensive, specialist-level casework; unique in delivery as one of the only charities providing home visiting services. Increased costs, coupled with increased service demand means that the flexible grant will support Navigate by enabling redirection of funds to the areas where additional costs have been identified including; covering the additional costs of delivery for items such as PPE, staff travel and an increase in the Delivery Manager/Advice Supervisors project time to support the increased demand.
Bristol Law Centre
Grant Awarded: £5, 400
Location: Bristol
Bristol Law Centre is a charity providing free legal advice in specialist areas of social welfare law, and also represents clients in court. They help over 2,400 people a year access the justice system supported by funders, sponsors and committed staff and volunteers. They also offer legal education and training, enabling people to understand their rights and challenge decisions, and work to influence policy. This grant will help Bristol Law Centre achieve their goals of preventing poverty, keeping people in jobs and homes, reinstating benefits, keeping families together and give people independence and dignity.
CHAS Bristol (Churches Housing Aid Society)
Grant Awarded: £47, 713
Location: Bristol
Established in 1965, CHAS Bristol has provided specialist advice, support, and advocacy for people in housing crisis. A team of highly skilled advisors provide legal advice on housing regulations and policies, homelessness legislation, procedures and local authority duties. The primary challenge for the Society is to continue meeting rising demand, as more people fall into financial distress and hardship. This grant would enable CHAS to meet their budget, with its increased advisor and volunteering needs as well as securing office premises which are fit for purpose for the return to face-to-face appointments. The grant will also allow the organisation to dedicate ongoing resource to outreach via crisis pathways such as mutual aid groups, food banks and community volunteers.
Bristol Refugee Rights
Grant Awarded: £20, 000
Location: Bristol
Bristol Refugee Rights supports people in the asylum process and other migrants with unsettled immigration status and No Recourse to Public Funds. They offer advice on: asylum support entitlements, understanding the Asylum System, explaining letters and helping respond, finding a solicitor or addressing problems with a solicitor, problems with National Asylum Support Service (NASS) support or accommodation problems with healthcare with National Asylum Support Service (NASS) support or accommodation, problems with healthcare, education or social services. This grant will allow the service to continue providing support despite the uncertain funding landscape and will ensure that they are able to deal with a 50% increase in demand for their services.
Gloucester Law Centre
Grant Awarded: £6, 000
Location: Gloucestershire
Gloucester Law Centre is a registered charity which has been providing free, confidential, impartial legal advice to Gloucester residents for over 27 years. They aim to use the law to help combat inequality, discrimination and the causes as well as the heightened effects of poverty due to the pandemic to ensure that people have someone to champion their rights through legal challenge. The Community Justice grant enable the Centre to help residents of Gloucestershire with housing issues such as possessions actions, evictions, severe disrepair, and homelessness as well as welfare benefits for tenants of Gloucester City Homes.
Isle of Wight Law Centre
Grant Awarded: £1, 800
Location: Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight Law Centre is an independent registered charity established in 2003 with the aim of providing a comprehensive approach to social welfare law. The Law Centre deals with all aspects of social welfare law: housing, debt, welfare benefits, employment, and community care. The Law Centre is primarily a case work driven organisation which can give both individuals and communities free legal advice and support, and also represent people in Court and tribunals. With this additional funding, the organisation can focus on getting the best outcomes for individuals and families, and further provide legal education services to empower people to take control of their lives.
North Bristol Advice Centre
Grant Awarded: £41, 950
Location: Bristol
North Bristol Advice Centre (NBAC) is a registered charity delivering services in deprived communities across North Bristol and South Gloucestershire since 1984. A community- based organisation, their core work is providing specialist debt and welfare benefits legal advice, as well as digital inclusion and other services, supporting more than 2,400 people annually. A flexible grant will help support their Covid-19 plan and provide flexibility and extra resources to transition services, including the continued development of remote working systems and adaptation of the premises to allow staff to safely use the facilities, as well as coping with sudden increase in demand.
The YOU Trust (Advice Portsmouth)
Grant Awarded: £27, 700
Location: Portsmouth
Advice Portsmouth is part of the YOU Trust, which provides free specialist legal advice to over 28,000 people every year across West Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset, the Isle of Wight and Somerset. YOU is a member of Advice UK and the National Homelessness Advice Service. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, Advice Portsmouth have had adapt to a method of home-working to ensure they can still meet their clients’ needs. The flexible grant will help cover the IT costs incurred, as well as the purchase of PPE equipment and the changes needed to redesign the advice centre in order to reopen that abide by government guidelines.
Southampton Citizens Advice Bureau
Grant Awarded: £49, 596
Location: Southampton
Part of the Citizens Advice network in England and Wales, Southampton Citizens Advice Bureau is regarded as the city’s ‘front door’ for specialist advice in debt, employment, welfare benefits, housing and family relationship matters. The Community Justice Fund grant will help Southampton CAB to more widely promote their specialist services, enhance and expand their existing tribunal service, and support a move to a ‘mixed ecology’ home/ office volunteer framework.
Citizens Advice Cornwall
Grant Awarded: £50, 850
Location: Cornwall
Citizens Advice Cornwall is an independent charity and a member of the Citizens Advice Service. They offer free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to individuals on their legal rights and responsibilities, valuing diversity, promoting equality and challenging discrimination. This grant will help CAB Cornwall to develop new ways of working to provide specialist support remotely and look to strengthen the team by setting up a Task Force to co-ordinate resources, improve skills and expand to ensure expert advice is available either within the organisation or via closer links to local organisations.
Citizens Advice Portsmouth
Grant Awarded: £40, 000
Location: Portsmouth
Citizens Advice Portsmouth is a registered charity and a member of the national Citizens Advice organisation. They have a track record of delivering legal advice in debt, asylum, immigration, public and administrative law and welfare benefits. A flexible grant from the Community Justice Fund will enable them to expand their Welfare Benefits legal work and employ additional specialists in Housing law and to add a new specialism of Employment law to help with the spike in demand for their services.
Citizens Advice Taunton
Grant Awarded: £25, 000
Location: Taunton
Citizens Advice Taunton delivers professionally indemnified advice regulated by AQS including casework in debt, discrimination, employment, housing, immigration, public and administrative law welfare benefits, and others. Over the last two years they have helped 7,932 clients, facilitating amongst other outcomes income gains to clients totalling nearly £1.9m. The flexible grant will enable CAB Taunton to continue their Domestic Abuse service at a time when it is needed more than ever because of the increased prevalence of abuse from Covid, and the backlog of enquiries from survivors who have not been able to access services whilst they have been in close proximity to their perpetrator. The grant will also assist in adapting the office for the return of face-to-face delivery.
Wiltshire Law Centre
Grant Awarded: £6, 000
Location: Wiltshire
Wiltshire Law Centre are a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. They are a not-for-profit agency, meaning that all funds received is reinvested in the Law Centre for the benefit of our clients. Wiltshire Law Centre currently provides free and confidential legal advice and representation in Welfare Benefits, Housing Law, Employment and Debt. They operate in the same way as any solicitors firm in the high street, employing advisors to provide high quality professional legal services. However, their expertise lies with solving everyday problems, or ‘social welfare law’. With this grant, the Centre can help residents of Wiltshire claim benefits they did not realise they were entitled to, assist people facing eviction and help people struggling to cope with personal debt.
Citizens Advice Devon
Grant Awarded: £73, 196
Location: Devon
Citizens Advice Devon, and the seven local Citizens Advice (LCAs) which make up the consortium, provide specialist legal advice in a number of areas including debt, employment, housing, welfare benefits and family law. A flexible grant would enable them to meet the extra demand for specialist advice that is currently occurring and they expect to continue throughout 2020/21. The grant enable Citizen’s Advice Devon to expand and strengthen new legal advice projects in Teignbridge and Plymouth and increase their internal capacity to provide specialist advice during a period when external provision such as that provided by university law clinics has reduced.
