Advice Services Alliance is currently running a short research investigation into the support needs of advice service organisations working with diverse ethnic communities in London today. This project, funded by Trust for London and created in consultation with London Legal Support Trust, as well as former members of the Black and Minority Ethnic Advice Network, comes at a time when the challenges facing these communities continue to grow in their complexity and severity.
ASA is acting as the neutral partner in this investigation into the challenges and support needs of small advice organisations working with diverse ethnic communities in London. We will be exploring:
The key challenges facing small advice services in London working with diverse communities in meeting the demand for advice during the pandemic
The support needs of these organisations and whether these are more practical or infrastructure-based, e.g. whether these can be addressed through funding and/or training, or dedicated networks
How we can ensure these small organisations’ perspectives are represented at the strategic level in a sustainable way without placing additional pressure on them
What actions are required to develop the resilience of these organisations by:
Funders and Strategic Bodies
Advice Networks and Partnerships
Advice Organisations
ASA will be launching a survey and running a series of interviews with the representatives from different organisations led-by and supporting diverse ethnic communities in London. We will be producing a report at the end of the project and disseminating widely across our networks.
We encourage you all to either get involved in the survey or interviews, share the survey with your networks and continue to consider what steps we can all take to support small Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic advice organisations going forward.
For any questions about the project, please get in touch with us: info@asauk.org.uk