The Guardian said here of this campaign: ‘Charities need to learn fast from an inspiring new wave of campaigns making a real difference to people’s lives…….’

The first campaign meeting took place shortly after I joined Just for Kids Law in 2014. We kept hearing about these amazing young Londoners who had fantastic ‘A’ level results and places at Russell Group universities but were unable to access student finance because of  irregular  immigration status and were blocked from attending. Many had been in the UK since they were 3 or 4. Many were shocked to find they were ineligible for student finance.

A strategic approach was taken to using the law alongside policy and campaigning work. This approach was evaluated late last year by Dr Lisa Vanhala, School of Public Policy, UCL.

You can read the executive summary of her report  here which highlights some of the key lessons learned.

As Co director of Comms and Campaigns – I worked on: the strategic development of the campaign; the messaging; defensive briefing; events planning; social media; and provided media training and media management support.

The campaign has evolved into a youth movement. It achieved a huge amount of national press coverage;  success at the Supreme Court; and created a blue print for this kind of campaigning alongside strategic litigation. I met some wonderful young people and it was one of the most rewarding campaigns I have worked on.