As the current phase comes to an end, we are delighted to announce that a new host will be taking forward the Strategic Legal Fund for Vulnerable Young Migrants.
Trust for London has hosted the Strategic Legal Fund since 2013, making small grants to support pre-litigation research and interventions in strategic court cases in order to uphold and promote the rights of young people in the UK with migrant backgrounds. The SLF has been administered by our partners, MigrationWork CIC, and co-funded by Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and Unbound Philanthropy.
The funders are proud of the contribution the SLF has made to significant legal and policy progress protecting the rights of young migrants in the UK. The current phase of funding is coming to an end and we are looking to build on its success by embedding the Fund within the sector. We hope this will expand its reach to new applicants and enable wider communication of the knowledge and legal developments generated by its grants.
After two rounds of proposals and interviews, we have chosen the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association to take forward the Strategic Legal Fund.
ILPA is delighted to be taking on the management of the SLF. It has supported the work of the Strategic Legal Fund and its aims and objectives since the inception of the fund. ILPA has identified taking on the Strategic Legal Fund as a key way to realise its objectives of raising standards, disseminating developments and best practice in immigration, asylum and nationality law, and working to achieve just and equitable immigration, asylum and nationality law practice.
While the fund will sit with the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association, it will continue to be available for all work with vulnerable young migrants, whether in immigration, social support, housing, education or more broadly. It is increasingly the case that immigration status affects rights and entitlements in all these areas. ILPA is a member of the Housing and Immigration Group and worked closely with the Housing Law Practitioners’ Association and others during the passage of the Immigration Act 2016 and will build on existing networks and make links with new ones to ensure that the fund is brought to the attention of lawyers, whatever their specialism, who work with vulnerable young migrants.
The first round of Strategic Legal Fund grants under ILPA is likely to be in the Autumn 2017.
The SLF website will be updated with new information as it becomes available.
The funders are grateful to Migration Work for their administration of the Strategic Legal Fund over its first five years.