The London Refugee Advocacy Forum was established in 2018 by the Refugee Council with City Bridge Foundation funding. The forum is dedicated to supporting refugee community organisations (RCOs) to champion the needs of refugee communities in London.

In 2023, the Refugee Council—which continues to facilitate the forum—was awarded further funding by City Bridge Foundation to continue its mission.

It now brings together 45 London-based RCOs and supports them to develop their skills and use their reach, insight and evidence to engage with and influence decision makers and achieve positive change for refugee communities in the Greater London area.

Thanks to our renewed funding, the forum and Refugee Council continues to work closely to bring the lived experience of refugees into policy and practice, and support RCOs to work together successfully.

This will be achieved by:

• Building the advocacy and influencing capacity of members and delivering annual campaigns on selected issues.
• Providing RCOs with relevant tools, information, training and one-to-one support to build capacity to develop and deliver the most effective services to their clients.
• Supporting RCOs to share the lived experiences of their members to foster a more accurate understanding of issues affecting them and inform policy and decision-making. This will build on the forum’s research and publication of Going Full Circle: the primary needs of refugees and people seeking asylum in London [PDF].

All forum members are London-based, refugee-led community organisation who provide a range of important services, activities and advice for refugees and people seeking asylum in areas such as health and wellbeing, English proficiency, employment, housing and others.

The forum is currently governed by a board of seven individuals elected by its members. The board plays a leadership role over the forum’s advocacy work and shapes the forum’s strategic direction.