Empowering Communities through Rights-Based Public Legal Education
In partnership with the University of Glasgow’s GO Justice Centre, The Marie Trust hosted a series of law workshops exploring homelessness, human rights, and housing law. The aim? Equip individuals with the legal knowledge to challenge decisions, assert their rights, and feel seen and heard.
Our learners took part in powerful conversations, and this new podcast captures it all — from lived experience to legal insight.
“Advocacy should be collaborative… legislation can say one thing, but people’s lived experience is entirely different.” – Jorgi, law student
The podcast features reflections from our Education Manager Adam McIlwaine, learners, and students — demonstrating how legal education in community spaces can transform lives.
Listen to the full episode below.
Empowering Communities through Human Rights-Based Public Legal Education: A Collaboration Between the University of Glasgow and The Marie Trust
Cameron Wong McDermott (Lecturer in Social Change, University of Glasgow)
Nicole Marshall (GO Justice Centre Manager)
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 Marie Trust service users. 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, Curriculum 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:
“[…] it's the core of what we're doing at The Marie Trust, you're trying to make people aware that they have these basic human rights, and they have the right to dignity, and they have the right to, you know, to be able to ask for help and ask for things and expect to get that help as well.”
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 Education Programme and the law workshops, improved their confidence, well-being, and their capacity to advocate for their rights and the rights of others.
“At the time of the workshop, I had actually been homeless for 16 months. I was getting passed about from pillar to post, no two people gave me the same answer […] Coming along to the workshops, it made me realise I was important, what my rights were, and gave me the confidence to actually push myself forward again.” (Lynn, workshop participant)
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.
“I definitely think this experience will stay with me when I go into practice. And it's definitely shown me that advocacy should be collaborative. Everybody's got a good view, and it definitely opened my eyes to legislation and case law can say one thing, but people's lived experience is entirely different.” (Jorgi, law student)
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 such as an enhanced sense of citizenship and social inclusion. These outcomes are difficult to quantify, creating challenges when measuring impact for funding applications.
“[…]in this sort of climate now where funding is so difficult to get, and funding is withdrawn from organisations as well, when you sit in an environment like this and you hear the impact that a workshop has or a course has, how it empowers people, people's confidence is raised, and the ability to feel more human if you want to call it that, then you really do question […] what people will put value on, because this type of education, […] is so valuable and you know from our organisation’s [perspective], it has been fantastic.” (Adam McIlwaine, The Marie Trust)
Last Updated: 10 July 2025