At the Glasgow Open Justice Centre (GO Justice), part of the University of Glasgow’s School of Law, we are committed to empowering communities and individuals to use the law to access justice and to achieve social and economic inclusion.

Our collaboration with The Marie Trust, a leading charity supporting people affected by homelessness in Glasgow, illustrates this approach through a rights-based public legal education project. This partnership is explored in a new podcast episode featured in the University of Glasgow’s School of Law podcast series.

In March 2025, law students from GO Justice designed and facilitated a series of interactive workshops for the people who use The Marie Trust services. The workshops focused on practical aspects of housing law and human rights, including accessing statutory homelessness services, challenging local authority decisions and remedies under housing law, and standards in temporary accommodation.

The podcast brings together various voices involved in the project, including Adam McIlwaine, Education Manager at The Marie Trust, who highlighted the charity’s holistic approach to addressing the impacts of homelessness, including support through intervention and outreach work, counselling, and access to education through the charity’s Education Programme. Reflecting on the collaboration in the context of Scotland’s human rights agenda, Adam emphasised the importance of public legal education in supporting both service users and the Trust’s staff to develop sustainable legal knowledge:

At the heart of the podcast is a wide-ranging conversation between workshop participants Neil, Lynn, and Eleanor, and law students Niamh Dennis and Jorgi Kelly. Participants reflected on the transformative impact of the project, sharing personal insights into how participating in the project improved their confidence, well-being, and their capacity to advocate for their rights and the rights of others.

Participants also reflected on the importance of future legal practitioners engaging with communities directly through strategies such as public legal education. They recognised this approach as key to ensuring future lawyers have a meaningful understanding of the lived realities of those they seek to support.

The project also challenged students to think more creatively about using the law as a tool for social change, which in turn broadened their perspectives on careers in social justice and the importance of community collaboration.

Looking ahead, GO Justice and The Marie Trust plan to work in partnership to develop new workshops, and we are particularly interested in exploring creative methods such as legislative theatre, photography, and creative writing as engaging ways to promote rights awareness and understanding of the law. This summer, GO Justice will also be working with the British Red Cross’ Voices Ambassadors, people with lived experience of the asylum process, to design and facilitate workshops on housing rights.

While often used in human rights discourse, it is difficult to define what is meant by the term ‘empowerment’, or even what it means to be ‘empowered’. This discussion, we hope, illustrates how collaborative learning environments in community settings can help build an understanding of the law, and ultimately, confidence in one’s ability to advocate for those rights. Community spaces, such as The Marie Trust, play a key, but often less visible role, in contributing to positive outcomes including an enhanced sense of citizenship and social inclusion. These outcomes are difficult to quantify, creating challenges when measuring impact for funding applications.