Our community engagement work
The School of Law, Politics and Sociology is committed to sharing our collective knowledge, skills and experience with the local community, through mutually beneficial partnerships and activities.
Staff and students are continually developing new and innovative ways of engaging with our community. Our clinical legal education programme grows in reach year-on-year; we are developing a pilot staff volunteering scheme, and are providing training and funding support for our members to undertake work in the local community.
If you are from a local organisation and would like to discuss collaborating with us, please email the LPS co-leads for Community and Public Engagement, Dr Judith Townend - judith.townend@sussex.ac.uk and Dr Lucy Finchett-Maddock - L.Finchett-Maddock@sussex.ac.uk
You can see some of our community engagment work below:
- Sussex Clinical Legal Education (SCLE)
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Sussex Clinical Legal Education facilitates a variety of pro-bono (not for profit) projects, which have benefited the local community and have provided students with experience in:
- giving direct legal advice and assistance to the public
- assistance in the County Courts
- working on projects assisting local charities with community issues such as homelessness and employment rights
- research for actions groups and other non-governmental organisations in legal challenges.
- Sussex Salon
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The Sussex Salon takes place at the Brighton Dome and brings together experienced academics and the public for an evening of lively debate on the most pressing and often controversial topics of the day.
Previous salons have debated topics as diverse as:
- corruption
- prisons
- healthcare
- MPs expenses.
- Street Law
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Street Law is an approach to teaching practical law to grassroots audiences using interactive teaching methodologies. Elements of practical law taught include:
- awareness of human rights/civil rights
- democratic priniciples
- conflict resolution
- the advocacy process
- criminal and civil law
- employment law
- family law
- consumer rights.
Sussex Law School's street law programme has educated students on topics as diverse as street art and graffiti and land rights.
- Widening Participation
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The School of Law, Politics and Sociology is committed to improving access to higher education for all young people.
Widening participation is about breaking down barriers and helping all young people through the decision making process so that they can access the right course and university for them. It is about supporting all students to succeed, grow in confidence and progress to a graduate level job or further study.
The departments of Law, Politics and Sociology are all involved in a range of pre-university widening participation programmes including Taster Subject Session days, the Making Choices Programme for year 10 students and the Sussex Study Experience.
The Sussex Study Experience (SSE) is an extended academic programme designed to offer Year 12 students with a real experience of university life both socially and academically. Students visit campus over a number of days and take part in a Welcome Day, 3 academic subject days and a graduation ceremony.
Find out more about the Widening Participation in Law programme
- Research and volunteering
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Staff and students from across LPS volunteer at a range of different organisations. Our academics are also working with the community on ground-breaking research projects.