JUSTICE SOS

ARTICLE

JUSTICE SOS

DO WE NEED A TV SHOW TO ENCOURAGE US TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

DIY SOS, the TV show hosted by Nick Knowles have you seen it? If you have, chances are you’ve shed a tear, or ‘had something in your eye’ at an inopportune time. If you haven’t seen it, consider yourself warned!

The show introduces the viewer to people from around the UK, all of whom find themselves in urgent need of help with a building renovation or repair, and no financial or practical means of putting things right. Featured families have often been forced to live in unsafe accommodation, or housing that is not fit for purpose, for some time. A dire experience that has put health and family relationships under extreme pressure.

The show brings together skilled tradespeople, volunteers and suppliers who are able and, perhaps more importantly, willing to assist. Hundreds of people, all keen to help to improve complete strangers’ lives, offering families hope and the chance to move into the future much better equipped to cope with everyday pressures and stress, with what is for the specialist q relatively a simple intervention.

During the show tears flow, social media is flooded with messages #DIYSOS I’m gone [crying emoji] what a great community spirit/restores faith in humanity … it couldn’t happen without our wonderful volunteers. Water cooler conversations (remember those) echo the sentiment ‘Did you see it, those poor people. Ah, if only I lived closer / was a plumber / was an electrician / could plaster / could fix a roof. It seems many of us feel that desire to assist but are often hampered by not being sure where to start or lacking the required skill.

The great news for the Shropshire legal sector, is that you don’t need a TV Show or to be a plumber, decorator, or building engineer to help vulnerable people in the region. You don’t even need to be the lawyer or law firm providing the specialist legal advice. Simply support our work at the Access to Justice Foundation, as we raise funds to provide vital resources, and you will be doing exactly that.

The Access to Justice Foundation

The Access to Justice Foundation is a charity, created by the legal professions, to support communities excluded from accessing justice. These individuals and communities often experience multiple disadvantages and are in crisis requiring many kinds of support.

The Access to Justice Foundation funds interventions which break these cycles and improves people’s lives. We do this by giving grants to advice organisations to increase the availability of vital free legal advice, using expertise to work strategically across the UK to target and divert funds to area and communities who are most in need and at risk.

Our work means that thousands of people, across the UK, are diverted from crisis, keep a roof over their head, remain in paid work, avoid mental health crisis, and experience positive life changes.

How you can help

Arrange to donate your firm’s residual client balances. Put dormant funds to active use, supporting clients without the means to access free legal advice. Our SRA approved indemnity means your firm’s donations are risk free!

Participate in, or sponsor, a regional community fundraising events such as the Great Legal Quiz of a Legal Walk

Deliver your own event, something that is of specific interest to you, your organisation, or your local community. Here are just a few ideas – the only limitation is your own imagination Go the Extra Mile for Justice

Pro bono costs orders if you are providing pro bono advice in civil matters, be sure to utilise pro bono costs orders. They can work to redress the balance where previously there had been considered to be no costs risk to the party that is not represented pro bono. They are also a means of securing vital funds which can be diverted back into the sector, via a Foundation grant, to support the provision of free legal advice in the region.

The Access to Justice Foundation would like to support as many frontline legal advice providers as need help, we want to see access to justice to be available for all at a time when it is needed. With your support we get closer to making that happen.

I’d welcome the opportunity to speak to you about how you or your firm could work with us.

As one of our recent residual balance donors commented ‘if the legal sector doesn’t support access to justice, who will?’.

I look forward to hearing from you, and if this article slips your mind, I hope that the next time you see DIY SOS, you will think of it once more and be reminded that, perhaps you can’t change the world, but you can help to can change someone’s world.

Lynne Squires

Development Director

Access to Justice Foundation

lynnesquires@atjf.org.uk

Tel: 0204 522 8414