Resourcing communities through legal support for social & racial justice
Sistren Legal Collective is a community of lawyers working at the intersection of law, grassroots organising and movement-building. We use our knowledge of the law as a tool to support the work of leaders, activists, changemakers and organisations centring social and racial justice.
Your guide to legal structuring for social justice initiatives. Drawing on experienced insights from grassroots community organisations undertaking social and racial justice work, this free resource helps changemakers to navigate the legal complexities of setting up non-profit organisations in the UK, fostering resilience and growth for community organisations. Read this resource: Legal Structuring for Social Justice: a Community Legal Toolkit.
In 2023, we researched the legal support needs of grassroots organisations led by and for people from minoritised communities in the UK. Drawing on community voices, this report summarises our research findings and highlights the pressing need for an alternative model of legal support – community lawyering – in the UK. View the findings in our latest publication: Building an Ecosystem of Legal Support for Grassroots-Led Social Justice.
How we work
We provide and resource accessible and responsive legal support to minoritised communities to organise, build and scale, so they can take action on the issues that matter to them. Our work is framed through a collaborative lens, where lawyers play a supportive and enabling role in movements for social change.
RESOURCE
We resource & provide affordable, accessible legal support that centres the needs of Black, Asian, migrant, immigrant, refugee, indigenous and other minoritised communities in the UK
RETHINK
We rethink the role of lawyers to play an enabling role to catalyse social change; and the delivery of legal support by building tools to overcome barriers to accessing that support
REDISTRIBUTE
We redistribute legal power and knowledge into the hands of community leaders, changemakers & activists and situate legal support in the heart of community spaces
Set-up & Governance
We’re working closely with early-stage organisations to help them choose legal structures and governance models that align with their ethos and develop their work in community-centric ways
Legal Toolkits
We’re responding to community requests for knowledge by developing legal resources to support those needs, including toolkits and translated legal resources
Community Legal Workshops
We’re partnering with community organisations to run or resource legal workshops supporting community leaders to set up, build and scale their work
Open-Sourced Legal Support
Where possible, we agree with our collaborators to open-source our legal support on an anonymised basis, so the wider community can benefit from the questions asked and answers provided
Board Allyship
We’re trialling alternative forms of governance support, where lawyers play the role of allies to co-create supportive spaces on boards
Funded Legal Support
We’ve secured a small pot of funding to provide legal support to 2-5 early-stage organisations working on grassroots organising, migration and social change
Collaborators
Testimonals
“Thank you for supporting us through to this stage and through this dimension of our evolution. It has meant so much to us to have you by our sides on this, and to be able to be in community with you both. Thank you for ‘getting’ us. Thank you for dreaming with us. Thank you for honouring the work that we are trying to do. Thank you for being Sistren!”
“I cannot stress enough how amazing these workshops were and what an important piece of the puzzle this is for all Social Entrepreneurs in our community. You have really helped to simplify and demystify something which is often a big barrier.“
“We work a lot with corporate pro bono. I know they’re not used to being in a communities or speaking to hijabi women – I did find them to be a bit patronising. When we work with community lawyers they are like me and you, they come from an immigrant background…. so having your project is a breath of fresh air.”