November 2015

Realising the Legal Rights of Migrant Children and Young People in Practice

Grant: £120,000
November 10, 2015

This project will develop new, innovative training and capacity-building interventions aimed at professionals, carers and young people to further our objective of improving the implementation of children and young people's rights in practice.

This proposal builds upon an existing training programme, which seeks to build capacity amongst non-legal professionals e.g. social workers. To enhance this practice-improvement work, Coram are seeking to develop complementary legal education interventions for additional beneficiaries:

• to promote best practice amongst lawyers working with children;
• to develop children and young people's (and their carers’) understanding of their legal rights;
• to train young people as legal education providers; and
• to maximise the use of online resources to scale up our impact and reach the greatest number of beneficiaries.

By supporting professionals who are at the coalface of implementing children’s rights Coram are ensuring a comprehensive approach to improving the experiences of a group of children amongst those most at risk of breaches of their legal rights.

Through this project Coram aim to directly train and support 510 professionals and young people, and provide resources and remote training to over 3000 per year.

Post 16 Pilot Project

Grant: £35,000
November 10, 2015

This is a pilot project to expand access to public legal education in order to;

• Increase public understanding of how SEN Law applies to young people and
• Enable young people (and those who support them) to use the new SEN Law to get the right educational support.

This pilot project will;

• Develop new resources designed specifically for young people with SEN
• Create a training programme for our volunteers so that they are equipped to inform, advise and support young people
• Pilot a service specifically for young people (using volunteers who have completed this training).

The Children and Families Act 2014, including the special educational needs (SEN) and Disability Code of Practice 2015, replaced the old SEN Law. The old Law dealt primarily with the entitlements of children. The new law is also about children but it also includes a new definition; that of a “young person”.

The new SEN Law benefits children and young people from the ages of 0 – 25. The new definition of “young person” covers those aged 16 to 25 years old.

Increasing the Scope and Scale of PLE in Northern Ireland

Grant: £46,461
November 10, 2015

The aim of this project is to affect a measurable improvement of young people in Northern Ireland’s understanding of the law and their capability to use it by:

• Increasing the number of young people from economically disadvantaged areas of Northern Ireland that take part in the Citizenship Foundation’s Bar Mock Trial.
• Increasing the number of young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in Northern Ireland that can take part in the Citizenship Foundation’s Lawyers in Schools programme.
• Increasing the number of young people at Integrated Colleges in Northern Ireland who take part in Bar Mock Trials and Lawyers in Schools.

The programme of work is:

• Establish a second Bar Mock Trials heat in a Derry in 2016 to; make it more accessible to more schools and colleges, build on the experience of and learnings from the second Belfast heat 2015 of Bar Mock Trials and build a sustainable model for the future.
• Deliver 12 Lawyers in Schools sessions at a school or college in Northern Ireland that draws its students from both Catholic and Protestant communities in an area of economic disadvantage – with the objective of building a self-sustaining Lawyers in Schools programme in Northern Ireland.

Make Our Rights Reality

Grant: £195,485
November 10, 2015

MORR will be a pioneering major national programme designed to inspire disadvantaged young people’s participation in public legal education and PLE-related social action activities to increase their own and others’ legal capability.

MORR will foster opportunities for young people (aged 15-24) to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to engage in civic society as informed and responsible citizens; supporting them to become forces for change by giving them a voice to shape a society in which the law is seen by them and others as a tool for tackling everyday problems. MORR’s vision includes a cultural shift so that public services and the wider community see the value of young people understanding their legal rights.

The aim is to get local communities to encourage and support young people to understand and exercise their rights and responsibilities as emerging adult citizens. Working in partnership with a network of carefully selected front-line legal and youth agencies across England, Youth Access will lead the development and implementation of this unique and innovative national project. MORR will harness an unrivalled breadth of expertise from across the youth and legal sectors coupled with reach to young people across a wide number of communities.

Young People, Housing, Homelessness And The Law Film Project

Grant: £51,250
November 10, 2015

The aim is to,

• Produce 4 short films in partnership with other organisations. Promoting an understanding of legal rights to young people, including accessing advice, having confidence to challenge, knowing and using your rights effectively. The films tackle issues affecting young people; homelessness and problems with the private/social housing sector. Offering clear advice, educating on the law and signposting towards other organisations.
• The films will be shown on Fully Focused’s youtube channel which young people access via their various devices, widening the messages reach.
• There will also be a 25 date youth-led screening/Q&A tour promoting the films, visiting universities, colleges, schools, youth groups, young offender facilities, care homes, homeless shelters and organisations like Centrepoint. Educating young people and hard-to-reach groups on their rights, sparking debates which can be captured and shared as an evidence base for legal education and service bodies.
• The films will be produced in consultation with Fully Focused young team who have experienced the housing sector/homelessness. Pooling ideas from their real accounts and combining with partners' evidence to develop creative briefs for how films will look and how key messages feature to achieve best outcomes.

Evaluation and Scoping Project

Grant: £33,000
November 10, 2015

A project to research and develop IT solutions that will expand access to public legal education in order to;

• Enable IPSEA to increase understanding of SEN Law
• Increase public capability of using SEN Law
• Facilitate getting what all children and young people with SEN are legally entitled to.

This project will;

• Evaluate the existing provision of IPSEA’s information and advice
• Consider alternatives and/or supplements to our existing provision
• Provide new ways for IPSEA to measure improvements in legal capacity.

IPSEA will use experts to help with this project in order to ensure that it is drawing on cutting edge information and communications technology and proven experience to future-proof our work. These experts will work with IPSEA’s staff, volunteers and beneficiaries in order to ensure that they are involved in these developments. They will also work to define the IT functionality that is needed now and in the future before researching options and then preparing a specification report.

The production of a further 500 School Curriculum Training Packs

Grant: £7,000
November 10, 2015

This is funding to produce a further 500 copies of materials for the Law and Justice component of the Citizenship Curriculum Stage 3 in order to meet requests from schools.

Originally a pilot programme was undertaken with 8 schools, 25 teachers and 600 pupils. The resources produced received the quality mark from the Association of Citizenship Teachers (ACT). However, in order to meet demand from schools there is a need to print a further 500 copies of the materials.