Govan Law Centre (GLC) welcomed guests and partner agencies to the launch of our pilot Family Rights Project in Glasgow today.
GLC’s Prevention of Homelessness Service (POHS) has always offered out reaches across the city and partnered with wonderful organisations since before 2013. GLC recognises how important it is to bring our service to people and work closely with partners to offer a wraparound service. We aim to ensure our service continues to evolve to deliver what people need.
Currently we work with the Scottish Refugee Council, The Marie Trust, Hospital Discharge project. We work with Good Food Scotland and part of Feeding Britain and have various outreaches at community supermarkets including at Threehills, Sandyhills, Kennishead and Toryglen. Our Money, Debt and Welfare Right advisers attend these, and we also take legal referrals if someone needs assistance with housing and homelessness.
We also partner with AHAP across all of Ayrshire to prevent mortgage repossessions and GEMAP in the east of the city. Our Govan and Govanhill offices are busy with emergency appointments and referrals from local MPs and MSPs. We receive referrals from Shelter Scotland, Glasgow City Mission, Lodging House Mission, and Homeless Project Scotland, and we work with Govan Help, Right There and Social Bite.
Our Women’s Rights Project assists women facing homelessness and/or fleeing violence and we work closely with the Simon Community. Following the success of our Women’s Rights Project, it is increasingly apparent the need for a dedicated project to help families with children.
Monica Rodgers, Lead Practitioner of Early Years Scotland contacted us about families facing homelessness and needing legal advice and assistance. The support families were seeking is in line with the work we do at GLC and we were delighted to meet with Monica and her colleagues. Early Years Scotland offers a wonderful, uplifting environment, respite and support to families facing homelessness.
We are delighted to partner with Early Years Scotland and other like-minded organisations supporting families experiencing homelessness, to help us deliver this new pilot project in Glasgow. Now with our support, we aim to ensure that these families can access free and expert legal support regarding their homeless and housing situation and our Education Law Unit will endeavour to ensure children with additional support needs can access education that meets their needs.
We are really privileged to do the work we do and our partners are key in fulfilling our ethos in offering a holistic, wraparound service to people facing homelessness where we know a person will be supported before, during and after the legal matter has been resolved.
We were delighted to host the breakfast launch on 22 June 2026 of this new innovative, pilot project and bring together our like-minded partner organisations with the same aim to tackle families facing homelessness together. Thomas McMahon, who is the chair of Govan Law Centre’s Board for 30 plus years, also joined us to meet some of our fantastic partner organisations.
Lorna Walker, senior solicitor and Head of GLC’s POHS said: “It is such a pleasure to work with such great, inspiring organisations so we can deliver the best possible service for hard-to-reach people, and we look forward to the impact on families, this new partnership with Early Years Scotland will have to deliver our Family Rights Project”.
