About CAD-HR
Our Work
Who We Are
CAD-HR was established by Askia Warne, whose lived experience as a migrant from a marginalised background helped shape the organisation's purpose. After his education was disrupted by the civil war in Sierra Leone, he was later able to study law in the UK.
CAD-HR was established to use legal knowledge, community action, and institution-building to help migrant and marginalised communities overcome the barriers they face in integrating and living dignified lives in the UK.
Our Vision
We envisage a world in which migrant and marginalised communities have access to legal services in the same way that people have access to healthcare in the UK.
We equally envisage a world in which migrant and marginalised communities are supported to build the social and economic structures that enable them to live decent and dignified lives, free from debt and financial insecurity.
Our Mission
Under our human rights advancement work, our mission is to ensure that every migrant and marginalised person has access to free, language-accessible and culturally appropriate legal services delivered by trusted, trained and accredited Community Lawyers.
Under our development advancement work, our mission is to ensure that the migrant and marginalised communities we support have the social and economic structures and systems they need to participate fairly in building wealth and securing economic freedom.
What We Do
Over seven years of providing free legal services to migrant and marginalised communities across South London, including in a range of West African languages, CAD-HR learned that language and culture can be barriers to justice just as much as cost.
In response, CAD-HR shifted from frontline legal service provision alone to training and equipping the communities it supports to address legal need more directly themselves. Through the Community Law Initiative, CAD-HR trains Community Lawyers and supports them with the accreditation and resources they need to respond to the legal needs of their communities.
Through our community wealth-building work, we have also supported beneficiary communities to establish a Community Development Finance Institution and a Community Investment Platform to support enterprise initiation, development, and growth.
How We Work
The Community Law Initiative helps bring the law closer to the communities that need it most through trained and accredited Community Lawyers, Community Law Hubs established across South London, and Young Community Lawyers learning through practice and mentorship.
CAD-HR has also worked collaboratively with the beneficiary community to formally establish the MRU Community as a charitable organisation. It has supported the community to obtain CDFI status and secure FCA authorisation to operate a Community Investment Platform that supports enterprise development and growth.
What We Are Building
Under our human rights advancement work, CAD-HR is helping to build a distinct legal service and legal profession shaped by the realities of the communities it serves. Unlike conventional legal services, this approach is relational rather than transactional. It focuses on the whole person, including the root causes of legal and social problems, and seeks solutions that are responsive to cultural values and lived experience.
Under our development advancement work, CAD-HR is helping to build an economic system through which migrant and marginalised communities can access the tools, resources, and institutions they need to participate fairly in community wealth-building, strengthen resilience, and thrive.
