The Bright Project
The Bright Project was set up in 2005 to improve the standard and availability of legal advice, e.g. benefits, debt, housing, etc. to Black and other Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Bristol. The Project works mainly with BME communities' own voluntary organisations to help them develop their legal advice services. The work of the Project is directed by a consortium of organisations which together plan and monitor the support and development services.
The members of the consortium are currently:
- Avon and Bristol Law Centre
- Bangladesh Association
- Black Carers Project
- Black Development Agency
- Bristol Pakistani Community Welfare Organisation
- Refugee Action
- Sikh Resource Centre
- St Pauls Advice Centre
The Bright Project was originally funded for 30 months from April 2005. Under this funding the project had a considerable impact on advice services for BME communities, improving advice standards, providing advice training and working with both BME and mainstream community organisations to increase the availability of legal advice to BME communities. The two project workers, Lucia Gillespie and Kate Stobie, were inspirational in the way they helped the BME sector to develop its valuable potential as advice service-providers to their own communities and build strong links with other advice providers.
An independent report on the project produced in October 2007 recommended that the solid foundations laid by the Bright Project should be built upon and extended. Funding for advice provision in Bristol is set to change dramatically over the three years from 2008 and it is vital that advice services are geared to meet the needs of Bristol's BME communities which have a much higher need for legal advice than the population as a whole.
An Advice Network will be developed which will bring all advice provider agencies together to improve access to advice and maximise quality and efficiency in service provision. The consortium is committed to working with BME organisations, mainstream advice agencies, Bristol City Council and the Black Development Agency to ensure that the advice needs of BME communities are at the heart of this Advice Network.
Currently the consortium is contracting an agency to maintain advice support services to the BME sector and secure funding for the next three years of the Project. Once funding is obtained, the project aims to help BME organisations to find the best way to pool and combine their resources and those of the whole advice sector to guarantee that high quality, accessible and culturally-matched advice services are delivered to Bristol's BME communities.
Contact
If you would like to know more about the advice support services which the project can offer to BME provider-agencies or any other information about the work of the project, please contact Jo McDonald or Andy King.
| Tel: | 0117 9248662 |
| Fax: | 0117 9248020 |
| Minicom: | 0117 9245573 |
| EMail: | mail@ablc.org.uk |