Aims and Objectives of The Bright Project

The purpose of Bright is to work with Black and other Minority Ethnic (BME) voluntary sector organisations in the Bristol area, to help to improve access to legal and benefits advice for their communities. We aim:

• To improve the quantity and quality of advice centres for BME communities in Bristol.

• To increase the number of BME agencies having the capacity and resources to offer direct advice services to BME communities.

• To address the particular own-language advice needs within BME communities and reduce the need for interpreting services.

• To address the specific advice needs of refugee communities.

• To ensure effective networking and linkages between BME communities and all other advice providers in Bristol and develop effective referral systems.

It is hoped that the following will be achieved as a result of the Projects intervention:

•  Increased provision of own language advice services to Black and other Minority Ethnic and refugee communities from BME agencies.

•  Establishment of a supported referral system.

•  Higher standards of provision based on Quality Mark and other baseline standards.
•  Greater awareness by all providers of the advice needs of BME communities.
•  Improved networking and collaboration between all relevant organisations.
•  The setting up of a BME Provider's Forum.
•  Greater numbers of BME individuals able to give professional advice for BME communities.
•  Greater confidence of BME agencies and communities in accessing resources and building capacity.
•  Increased access to justice for BME communities.