West London Equality Centre

Logo of WLEC

West London Equality Centre, WLEC, (the operational name of Ealing Equality Council) is a Human Rights organisation. Its mission statement is "Advancing equality and rights for all". For over 30 years it has been running the Community Advice Programme (CAP), a legal clinic providing free legal assistance to members of the public. WLEC are specialists in matters related to several areas of law and the Equality Act 2010, delivering key legal services to the minority ethnic, refugee and migrant communities in West London.

WLEC has Human Rights expertise at every level of the organisation from governance to frontline delivery and shaping local and subregional policy. This makes WLEC unique to West London. This is as a result of:

  • WLEC’s relationship for over 30 years with the University of West London [UWL], its law department, law tutors and law students, we have found ourselves operating at the forefront of the equality and human rights agenda. For several years WLEC has been strategically positioned as the leading Equality and Human Rights champion for this part of London.
  • The Management Committee being composed of Human Rights specialists /academics/ practitioners – and volunteers drawn from the social sciences and legal disciplines, familiar with human right issues, both international and domestic.
  • Trustees include a wide range of distinguished academics and experienced legal practitioners including Professor Kwame Akuffo, retired judge Bernard Andonian, Solicitor Barbara Karayi, and Barrister Josephine De Souza.
  • WLEC staff and trustees have advised EHRC on human rights issues and advised Southall Black Sisters in their case against Ealing Council when the local authority threatened to decommission a separate domestic violence service for BMER women.
  • Our Anti-Hate Crime work has included Hate Crime support services in Hounslow (funded by Hounslow Council) and West London (funded by London Mayors Office). The Hounslow service was cited as a model of good practice by the Deputy Mayor of London and lead on Hate Crime in the capital. We are also members of the pan-London MOPAC Hate Crime delivery group for thirty-two municipalities. With the support of the National Lottery Community Fund, we are in the second cycle of our hate crime tackling project providing multidimensional approach of victims’ support, bringing perpetrators to justice, facilitating awareness campaigns, and increasing statutory and voluntary sector collaborative working to combat hate crime.
  • Our previous international projects include SMART: Funded by the EU, a partnership with Ealing Council and Italian VCSE partners delivering a migrant assisted returns service, based on ‘outhouse/shed’ housing abuses and other issues uncovered by LBE, the Police and WLEC. Our organisation delivers help and advice to mainly vulnerable people in matters related to undocumented migrants, homeless families not entitled to public funds, trafficking, forced labour, immigration advice, etc, using Human Rights and other law to achieve better outcomes. The MILAR project aimed to integrate Refugees and Asylum seekers into society economically by way of employment, socially and through education. Working closely with multiple organisations, both from a national and international platform including Germany, Sweden and Italy; the project was based on researching and developing social community enterprise and most importantly the implementation of a successful pattern tested model. The West London Equality Centre carried out and conducted the United Kingdom aspect of the work. The project was aimed to evaluate and apply a ‘bottom-up’ approach specifically by empowering individuals, providing refugees and at least 24 asylum seekers with the skills, knowledge, and tools to enable their individual development, thus increasing community cohesion.
  • In our generalist and specialist advice, (ongoing for over 30 years in Ealing), we provide advocacy and casework service, through highly motivated law graduates and undergraduates who have studied Human Rights as part of their legal training. In partnership with the Community Advice Programme, we service annually thousands of enquiries consisting of telephone advice, face-to-face triage for drop-in clients without phones, internet, etc, face-to-face appointment advice clinics, casework, referrals, and signposting.
  • In addition to generalist advice WLEC’s service covers Domestic Violence, Honour Crimes, Hate Crimes, Human Trafficking, Caste discrimination and other areas relating to equality.

The quality of our service is reflected in our high calibre pro bono volunteers, who have included: Queens Counsels, Judges, Magistrates, Solicitors, Barristers and local law students and our quality assured volunteering programmes.

Adress

84 Uxbridge Road
Ealing, London, W18 8RA
United Kingdom

Tel. +44 20 8231 2575

www.wlec.net