An initiative will launch in summer 2020 aiming to ensure that people who use the UK immigration system can access justice and thrive.
Justice Together is a unique collaboration by independent funders. It will invest in free legal advice and national policy advocacy to support the lawful and fair functioning of immigration, nationality and asylum processes.
Over the next five years, more than £8 million of new funding has been committed by founding funders with others likely to join.
The initiative responds to the challenges faced by the legal advice sector, and evidence that people in communities around the UK are struggling to access justice. Justice Together will help people access legal advice and representation, strengthen sector organisations over the long term, and coordinate to achieve wider improvements so that advice is accessible, effective and sustainably resourced. As well as offering funding, the initiative will support partners to improve the power and influence of people who use the system.
Justice Together aims to operate for a decade. Funding will target particular regions and areas of need, to be decided based on mapping, further research and consultation with stakeholders.
Funders recognise that this initiative cannot fill the gap left by the removal of public funding. However, trusts and foundations provide vital independent resource for legal advice and representation on immigration, nationality and asylum law. Justice Together is rooted in the belief that a better coordinated and more strategic approach will help address these systemic challenges in partnership with the non-profit sector.
We are delighted that Hazel Williams has been appointed to lead the initiative, working with the legal and migration sectors, with directly affected communities, and with the contributing funders to develop the strategy and operating model, build relationships and an evidence and learning approach. Hazel is currently National Director at NACCOM, a membership organisation working to tackle migrant destitution, and was previously Director of the Asylum Support Appeals Project. She is Chair of Metropolitan Migration Foundation and a Trustee of the North of England Refugee Service. Hazel will take up this role in August and we are now recruiting the rest of the team. More information on the recruitment can be found here.
Justice Together is hosted by Justice Collaborations, a registered charity and subsidiary of The Legal Education Foundation. Further details of the geographical focus, the funding opportunities and the detailed timeframe for applications will be announced in the coming months.
Contributing funders include: Paul Hamlyn Foundation, AB Charitable Trust, Baring Foundation, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Comic Relief, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Oak Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy, and Trust for London. Tudor Trust have made an aligned contribution.
