Partners and funders
East European Resource Centre is proud to champion Eastern Europeans in London and in the UK. In order to achieve that, we work with partners and collaborators; we represent our communities in forums and networks; we conduct community consultations and research; and we engage with the media.
Current partnerships
EERC works in formal and informal partnerships with other organisations to further our mission. If you are interested in collaborating with EERC – please contact us.
CATCH consortium
Led by GALOP, a specialist LGBTQ+ hate crime charity, CATCH consortium provides independent hate crime advocacy to diverse communities of London. Our role is the provision of hate crime advocacy to Eastern European migrants.
Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU) and Anti Slavery International
EERC is a partner to ATLEU and Anti Slavery International’s project. In this project ATLEU train EERC and other London charity’s caseworkers. We also feed into Anti Slavery International’s policy work. Together we are improving the quality of independent advocacy and evidence base in this area.
London Legal Support Trust
EERC is one of the partners supporting a group of funders led by the London Legal Support Trust to strengthen the advice provision and enable more low-income people to access the justice they need. Through our work at the Steering Committee and advisory panels, we hope that our expertise and experience in providing specialist advice and advocacy services to vulnerable cohorts might help to develop good practice benefitting advice charities for minorities and otherwise marginalised users.
Citizenship and Integration Initiative
EERC is one of the partners to this initiative. EERC has seconded Esther McConnell on a part-time basis to the Greater London Authority. This secondment aims to support the Authority to better prevent and address migrant labour exploitation in London.
Previous partnerships and collaboration
Campaign on voting rights – with the 3million and Greater London Authority (2022)
EERC provided outreach to aid the campaign to raise awareness of changing voting rights of EU nationals as well as changes to voter ID regulations.
Modern Slavery Advocates – with Work Rights Centre (WoRC) (2021-22)
EERC and WoRC were supporting people to exit exploitation and build safe working lives in the UK. In this project EERC led a project of advocacy to survivors of labour exploitation and WoRC provided follow on employment and career guidance.
IPPR and Crisis (2021)
EERC was a partner to IPPR and Crisis’ researching the vulnerability of EEA nationals to homelessness. In this project EERC distributed surveys and conducted interviews with over 70 participants. Together we learnt more about the experiences of marginalised EEA nationals in the UK.
Doctors of the World UK (2020-21)
Over the covid pandemic EERC worked with Doctors of the World UK to translate health guidance and regulations into community languages. Together we are keeping all communities safe and informed.
Maternity Action (2020-21)
EERC worked with Maternity Action to translate and distribute maternity and parental rights guidance to Eastern European workers.
Hate Crime SOS – with Polish Expats Association/Centrala and Europia (2019-20)
EERC led a partnership with Polish Expats Association/Centrala in Birmingham and Europia in Manchester to raise awareness and provide support to Eastern European migrants affected by hate crime: advice, counselling and self-defence classes. We also engaged with the police services and local authorities to improve and encourage reporting and access to criminal justice system.
Eastern European EUSS Centre – with Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) (2019-21)
EERC led a partnership with POSK London and Polish Expats Association/Centrala in Birmingham to deliver outreach, information, advice and assistance to Eastern Europeans in applying for EU Settled Status. Our project was opened in may 2019 by minister Caroline Nokes from Home Office thus becoming an official launch of the EUSS support scheme in the UK.
EU Rights Campaign – with Law Centres Network (2017-19)
EERC was a member of a large partnership led by Law Centres Network to conduct extensive outreach to European communities in the UK in order to raise their awareness or their rights as EU nationals in Britain and provide advice on matters of labour rights and immigration.
Eastern European Hate Crime Advocates – with Roma Support Group and UKREN (2016-17)
EERC led a first of its kind project addressing needs of victims of hate crime who are Eastern European Migrants. With Roma Support Group and UK Race and Equality Network (UKREN) we provided extensive awareness raising outreach to our communities, engaged with the Metropolitan Police on ways to improve hate crime reporting among this victim group, and published a guidance for victims and NGOs explaining what tools are available to access criminal justice.
Eastern European Peer Navigators – with Lift (2013-15)
EERC worked in partnership with a homelessness charity Lift (currently Crisis Skylight Brent) to develop and test an innovative model of support to Eastern Europeans rough sleepers who were mission out on support available from day centres and specialist homelessness organisations due to linguistic and cultural barriers. Our model has been mainstreamed in homelessness services in London.
Eastern Europeans in London Survey – with Lift (2013-14)
EERC commissioned a homelessness charity Lift (currently Crisis Skylight Brent) to provide training and support to community researchers to build a picture of lives of ‘average Eastern European Londoners’ in 2013. Based on hundreds of responses, we published a unique snapshot of migrant lives- the document is available in Publications section on this page.
BME Advice Network – a consortium (2008 – 2013)
EERC was a member of a large consortium of advice charities that cater specifically to migrant and diaspora communities of Greater London. BME Advice Network (BAN) was a long-running successful consortium that reached thousands of vulnerable minority ethic Londoners and addressed their welfare, training and immigration advice needs lifting people out of poverty and uncertain status.