The Greater Manchester Law Centre offers a wide range of rewarding opportunities for volunteering in Manchester.
From the beginning, we have been more than a Law Centre. We are a campaign for free access to justice. We demand free legal advice and representation for all who need it, and we challenge unjust legislation and policy.
In practice, this means ensuring our elected representatives keep Legal Aid on the political agenda. It means calling on the rest of the legal sector to support us in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable. It means building a sustainable volunteer base, because we are run by and for our community. It means producing hard-hitting commentary on topical issues. It means putting our campaigning weight behind legal challenges to unfair welfare policy and legislation. It means working with similar organisations to maximise our shared impact. It means creating innovative ways of funding our survival.
We are our volunteers, and our volunteers are making an impact.
For example, our volunteers made a tangible political impact in 2017. Our Editorial and Research Group was launched in June 2017, and our campaign volunteers set about writing articles on topical legal issues. We paired students with professionals to make the most of our diverse volunteer base. These teams published sensitive and analytical pieces on the legal issues surrounding the Grenfell fire, on the causes of homelessness, and on the trials of those navigating the benefits system. These articles have been picked up by external news sources such as the Legal Voice, and widely shared on social media. We will continue to provide meaningful commentary on topical issues, so that we can use our platform to bring important legal questions to the fore.
We also need volunteers to help with our campaign infrastructure, such as keeping our mailing list up to date. We need volunteers to attend demonstrations to support causes related to our own. We need volunteers to represent us at community events. We need volunteers to appeal to commercial law firms for corporate sponsorship. We need volunteers to manage our social media and web presence. We need fundraisers for our survival.
Many of these roles are flexible, because they involve working outside of office hours and away from our premises. We also welcome volunteers who can give us a few days a month or week to work in the office alongside our development workers, Astrid Johnson and Roz Burgin.
