Free Workshop: Legal Structuring for User-Led Groups with Sistren Legal Collective

Synergi and Sistren Legal Collective are offering a free legal workshop for BPOC, user-led group organisers working at the intersection of racial justice and mental ill health, trauma and distress.

Forming part of Synergi’s Supporting Movement Spaces workstream, the session will discuss ways to structure initiatives legally, whilst also remaining true to the radical roots of the group. The workshop will reference parts of Sistren’s Community Legal Toolkit which can also be downloaded from their website.

Resourcing communities through legal support for social & racial justice Sistren Legal Collective is a community of lawyers working at the intersection of law, grassroots organising and movement-building. We use our knowledge of the law as a tool to support the work of leaders, activists, changemakers and organisations centring social and racial justice.

Sistren Legal Collective

The workshop will be presented using PowerPoint slides alongside regular interactive elements and will cover:

• The tension between radical, grassroots movements and formal legal structures
• Understanding which legal structures (types of legal entities) are available for movement work under English law and their advantages and disadvantages
• Why it’s important to pick the right structure for your strategy
• A focus on not-for-profit legal models, with an overview of for-profits and social enterprises
• A comparison of different types of legal structures (e.g. companies, community interest companies, charities), including case study examples
• Worked examples of how to register common non-profit legal structures and implications of registration
• Signposting to available resources and tools for you to set up your legal structure
• Changing legal structures (for those who might have already registered a legal entity, but may want to change)

Sistren are happy to be flexible with content so please do fill in the pre-registration form to help them frame the session.

Essential information:

• Please join at 11.55am to allow for a prompt start. There will be regular breaks throughout. To avoid disruption to others, please only register if you are able to attend the full course OR can be there from the beginning and remain for at least 1 hour.
• Please ensure you have the latest version of Zoom downloaded ahead of time, in case automatic updates start when you log on, which may delay your entry to the session.

Please register your interest here. This link does NOT enable direct access to the session. After registering, we will review forms and will get in contact with follow-up questions if needed. We will then send out a Zoom Link for entry closer to the date.