St Giles Trust and Open Justice – a career affirming experience

Student Rachel Plaskett writes about her experiences working on a new project to support the St Giles peer advisors in 'The St Giles Pantry'. Peer advisors support clients in a number of different ways including providing legal information and support. In this project students worked in small groups in collaboration with peer advisors to produce employment and housing law handouts to support their work with clients

Having the opportunity to be a part of this project with the St Giles Trust and Open Justice was exciting and within a short space of time actually opened my eyes to the significance of accessibility to the law and legal information. It was so nice to talk to like-minded people and, although we came to the table with different backgrounds, it was always a pleasure to meet and discuss our thoughts and opinions. It is sometimes isolating studying on your own, especially given the events of the last 18 months, but the project gave us all the opportunity to do some ‘hands on’ work with our peers.

We often forget, as Law Students, that The Law is not just a ‘subject’ to be taught and learn for a grade or qualification, it is such an intrinsic aspect of our day to day lives, and even more so to the clients of St Giles. They are not trying to learn the Law they need to navigate it, when they are facing any number of obstacles. We take for granted our abilities and knowledge, as we progress through our studies, as they can be so invaluable to some people. Sadly, though, a value is often placed on this knowledge, and at a high cost and this means many people fall through the gaps due to their finances or other barriers. That is why these projects, and any pro-bono work is so important.

The first meeting with St Giles helped us establish, as a group, what information we may need to provide to the peer advisors for them to best equip their clients and following the meeting I was allocated to the housing team. Housing Law is complex and can be difficult to navigate so interpreting the rules on housing eligibility as well as providing more specific material for various groups of vulnerable clients of St Giles was a challenge. Trying to visually interpret it was ever harder! Whilst working on the project I happened to visit a family court with a friend and the posters that were displayed there helped me see how the most simplistic designs actually are the most impactful. I tried to apply this to how I created my leaflets and spent a long time drafting and redrafting to try and design it in an easily digestive way.

I’d not heard of Public Legal Education (PLE) before starting the project and through research and the resources we received from Open Justice it made me realise it is such a vital resource. We need to educate and inform the people, who require this lifeline the most, in an easy and succinct way and help them understand how to navigate the system.  We discussed how this project has benefited us as a group but on a personal level it has helped me think about my future legal career and made me think about the importance of the word accessibility and how important PLE is and made me consider pursuing this after my studies have finished.