About Us

CLEAR stands for “City Life Education and Action for Refugees” and has been a project of City Life Church since 2001 when Southampton became a dispersal city for people seeking asylum and refugees. For more than 20 years, CLEAR has supported people through the process and helped them rebuild their lives and integrate into the UK

The Need

It is difficult to imagine a group of people whose lives have been as comprehensively destroyed as asylum seekers. They arrive here usually with only the clothes on their backs; traumatised by persecution or military conflict in their home country or by the circumstances of their journey to safety. On top of this, there is the sense of uncertainty, insecurity and loss – of country, family, status, career or property.

Partnerships and Accreditation

We are registered with the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, which means we are regulated and permitted to supply immigration advice in line with the levels and categories awarded. You can confirm our registration and verify that we are regulated by clicking on the logo below.

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Advice in Southampton is a partnership of high-quality accredited advice, information and guidance services for Southampton residents. The current partners are Citizens Advice Southampton, CLEAR, Age UK, No Limits, the Environment Centre and SEND IAS (provided by the Rose Road Association).

We work together to provide a seamless service between generalist and specialist advice services, so the people who need our help don’t have to repeat their story to get the support they need.

All our services provide free, confidential and impartial advice.

We are part of the FIAP provided by Refugee Action and set up to help organisations provide accurate, good quality advice to vulnerable migrants. Without it they face injustice and destitution.

FIAP train advisers and help organisations to register with Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC), then we continue to support them in their practice.

The Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) is a professional association and registered charity, the majority of whose members are barristers, solicitors, advocates and OISC regulated advisers practising in all aspects of immigration, asylum and nationality law.

Advice UK are the UK’s largest support network for independent advice organisations. They strengthen and support advice services and create opportunities for networking and sharing of sector knowledge. They provide complementary products and services, tailored to the needs of the advice sector and speak up for their members at a national level with the ultimate aim of making life easier for those in desperate need of help.

NACCOM is a national network of over 130 frontline organisations and charities across the UK, working together to end destitution amongst people seeking asylum, refugees and other migrants who aren’t able to access to public funds because of their immigration status.

NATECLA (National Association for Teaching English and Other Community Languages to Adults) is the national forum and professional organisation for ESOL teachers.

The Refugee Resource Centre was set up partly at the request of Christian groups working with refugees in Britain today, who pointed out a gap in bringing together all of the expertise and experience of those across the country involved in this vital work.

Initially a partnership between Jubilee+ and the Boaz Trust, it is now embedded within Jubilee+, since it shares a national remit. Our vision is to see churches increasingly playing a major role in welcoming, loving and supporting refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK, both through practical action and as a voice for justice, so they can integrate, flourish and play a full part in society.

This website has been set up to facilitate churches and individual Christians (of all denominations) to work effectively towards that vision.

Our vision is for every refugee in the UK to be welcomed by their local church.

Funders

We are so grateful for the support of individuals and the following organisations: