As a Community Law Centre, we’re using our legal knowledge and expertise to help build a more equal society. We believe that legal rights play a key role in this, and our mission is to activate rights in the communities where we work.

More people are being pushed into hardship

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on people who were already disadvantaged across Coventry and Birmingham following a decade of austerity, cuts to public services and welfare reform.  With thousands more made redundant or with lost income, soaring energy bills, a cost-of-living crisis and the creation of a hostile environment, even more people are being forced into hardship resulting in an increase in demand for the services the Law Centre provides to the community. And we are not alone. Our partners and other organisations on the frontline across the West Midlands are also experiencing increasing pressures on their support services from people most in need. 

In response to this surge in demand we have sought new ways of working; developed new collaborations; built on existing, well-established and strong community partnerships; and innovated in key areas.

At our core, we believe that activating and embedding rights in the community is critical to changing the cultures, systems and behaviours that reinforce unfairness, disadvantage and inequality; and ensuring early and preventative action is taken to protect the rights of socially and economically-disadvantaged individuals and communities.

Read about our Rights in the Community strategy 

How we’re working with partners to help those most in need

We believe that working within communities to activate and uphold rights is the most effective way to tackle both the drivers of issues and the issues themselves, thereby preventing intractable and often cyclical challenges. We form close partnerships with other community-focused services to help to place legal rights at the heart of their work and to activate a rights-based approach in their interactions with service users, blending our work with theirs so that together we can offer more holistic support to people:

• We will support frontline organisations by embedding an early-action, rights-based approach into their day-to-day transactions with individuals and communities;

• We will develop relationships and collaborative action that creates a community of partners united in ensuring people’s rights are upheld and challenging when they’re not; highlighting injustice, inequality and poverty and seeking change in legislation, local and national policy and practice.

This approach is based on some of the key principles that define our work as a community law centre:

We are not gatekeepers of knowledge but seek to make it available to all.	We seek to empower the communities we work in by sharing our legal expertise.	We work alongside partners so that we can better understand the challenges and issues local communities face.

What our partners say about us

Contact us to learn more about partnering with Central England Law Centre 

Coventry Law Centre (CLC) has been at the forefront of thinking and action to protect and improve the prospects of the most disadvantaged people in our city. It has shown exceptional ability to analyse the issues and to work across sectors to create innovations that have real influence and support at the highest levels. These projects exemplify CLC’s ability to respond flexibly and creatively in a hostile environment, not merely surviving as an organization but going even further to deliver its mission.

Clare Wightman CEO Grapevine Coventry and Warwickshire

The Law Centre is the first place we turn to when issues arise. They are one of the very few places who can provide the right expertise because they understand the need for grassroots support in our inner city communities.

Fred Ratley, Faithfull Neighbourhoods, Birmingham