Advice re Third Sector/NGO work

[username345]

I've been off work for a few years with an illness and am looking to back next year.

Now I really don't know how to approach this so advice would be appreciated.

My ideal job would be advocacy/casework/advice. I have a lot of experience in charities for example I trained up as an advisor at the CABx which obviously involved casework. I was a caseworker at the
Redcross working with refugee women in crisis. I set up and ran a legal domestic abuse clinic. I worked as a legal advisor and caseworker at an immigration charity. All of these however have been on a voluntary basis.

I have an LLM (Masters) in International Human Rights and Development and did an internship with the Office of Human Rights at the UN. Ideally I'd like to work in casework and advocacy on human rights issues such as torture, genocide, the death penalty, trafficking etc.

This just seems impossible! First I don't know how to get in as jobs advertised require a lot more experience than I have. Second, I've thought about more volunteering. I've been researching local charities and there's one looking for people to support people in detention in the UK. It involves giving advice and providing emotional support - via phone calls, not as in counselling.

That doesn't really get me towards my ideal job which is working in Human Rights, it seems more of a step sideways and yet more unpaid work!

To make it more complicated, my LLM was a long time ago and I've forgotten a lot of what I studied as I've been off ill. It would be great to brush up but I don't know how to do that. I don't want to study more, I already have three degrees.

I've looked at the big hitters; Amnesty, The Equal Rights Trust, Plan International but don't seem to have the necessary experience to get a foot in the door. I did get a position at Redress but due to a malicious reference, they didn't take me on.

Where do I go from here? All thoughts appreciated.

Law Centre? I'm not sure that it's core area of general local law centres' work, but if you google Law Centre and human rights a few things come up.

Thank you so much. I'm only educated in international law and am not trained in UK law. Although I was doing casework for detainees, it was a voluntary position under supervision from a barrister. Regarding my refugee work, we had an in house lawyer and I didn't give legal advice.

I did look up my local law centre though and will see if they take on volunteers to assist with casework. It's certainly an idea.

Clooney Foundation for Justice often have great legal vacancies. Also Impactpool and Genderjobs.

I will definitely check them out. I'm so grateful for the advice.

Sounds like you have lots of valuable experience. Don't underestimate how competitive the charity sector can be, especially the likes of amnesty etc. You might need to start local or in a small organisation then go from there.

In Scotland most charity jobs go on the Good Moves website, that's a good place to start. Not sure of the equivalent for England?

The women's sector might be a place to look, supporting women with no recourse to public funds, for example. Or policy roles, I can see your legal background being useful for those.

What kind of salary range are you looking for? And what qualifications do you have?

Here's 3 examples of posts that might work.

goodmoves.org/vacancy/a4sP1000000aLtxIAE/womens-refuge-and-follow-on-worker?distance=16.09344&keywords=Women%27s%20aid

goodmoves.org/vacancy/a4sP1000000a7cTIAQ/policy-and-campaign-officer?distance=16.09344&page=9

goodmoves.org/vacancy/a4sP1000000XodxIAC/welfare-rights-officer?distance=16.09344&page=15

Sorry I see you did cover your qualifications. I'd look at the key skills for different jobs and see how your experience can line up.
Academic qualifications will be secondary to practical experience so really sell that!

Thank you. I don't know what the England equivalent would be, probably Charity Job. Wage wise, as long as I can cover the rent and bills, I m really not too bothered.

Qualifications wise, I have an undergraduate degree and two Masters degrees plus a lot of professional qualifications such as Project Management, Advice, level 5 in Business Management and so on.

I've also got training in gender based violence, refugees and asylum seekers, welfare, detention, immigration, research and of course advocacy and casework.

Internship wise, I did six months at the UN working on human rights issues such as the death penalty, LGBTQ rights, torture and others.

I looked at those job suggestions and they're not really the way I want to go. I appreciate the suggestions though. Thanks

You sound well qualified with lots of relevant and transferable experience. Your issue might be that you're being too specific in what you are looking for. Those kinds of jobs don't come up very often and often go to people already in the field.

For example, Amnesty is known to be notoriously difficult to break into and very closed shop. That's why I suggested looking at smaller, local organisations, to build relationships and open doors, plus paid experience.

Is there a specific area of human rights you're interested in? I ask because CAB covers a lot of human rights so is it that you want to work at a more strategic level? I agree with a PP that smaller charities might be the way to go and I've noticed that many advertise on their websites first.

I think it's a good idea as well. I don't think I'm m being too specific, I'm looking at anything to do with human rights at the moment. For example in my OP I said that I had found a voluntary position for a detention charity in a support role.

My interests would be trafficking and Modern Slavery, Gender Based Violence, Detention, Refugees and asylum seekers, torture, freedom of expression etc

I'd be happy to work for an anti Trafficking organisation, a Refugee Organisation, an organisation addressing GBV or any of the other human rights causes.

My legal experience is international law not UK law, though I'm happy to learn. Ideally I'd like a position that involves advocacy and casework. Though I'd be happy to do research/collate evidence for example to support cases.

Be sure sure to include "work for us" as well as your specific interest in your web search.
Also, not sure if you're aware that the Salvation Army have the government contract for supporting victims of trafficking and slavery so that might be a good place to look.

Again, thank you. Yes I know the Salvation Army does good work in Trafficking and I am keeping an eye on their postings.

What do you mean by 'work for us', do you mean 'Trafficking work for us' ?

It needs to be a bit more specific than that. So instead of trafficking (which can have a lot of meanings), I'd say anti-slavery and trafficking. Also, include UK or London if you want to work in a specific area. The "work for us" will bring organisations, with jobs and volunteering opportunities, to the top of the list (assuming you ignore the sponsored entries). Many small ones you won't even have heard of. Hope you find what you are looking for.

That's a great tip. Thank you!

Btw for everyone who has been giving advice, I've been searching away looking at all the organisations and search engines.