NCADC – Campaigning for justice in the asylum and immigration system

Unheard Voices interviews Lisa Matthews of the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns group (NCADC) about what they do, how to run a succesful campaign and why she got involved with helping asylum seekers.

What is NCADC and how do their campaigns work?

Founded in 1995, NCADC is a national organisation that supports community-led campaigns for justice in the asylum and immigration system, with a focus on supporting people facing forced removal.

According to Matthews, their news emails go out to over 4,000 people, their campaign alerts go out to nearly 800 people and they have nearly 15,000 twitter followers and facebook friends. Matthews said:

If we send something out people act really quickly and if we haven’t sent something out people ask why, they get in contact and tell us about it. So there is a really passionate and committed support base that makes all this possible.

However, NCADC are not exclusively an online organisation:

Our information service is entirely online, but we also go out and do training sessions and have regional meetings. Internet tools are really important for spreading things quickly to a wide audience but there is nothing to match face to face contact and communities getting together.

Matthews, coordinator of NCADC, tells us more in a skype interview from her London office…

Rethinking campaigning and what makes a succesful campaign

Matthews tells Unheard Voices about their new campaigning toolkit, how to campaign succesfully and about the Stop Deportations to Afghanistan Campaign

Listen to a clip from our skype interview with Lisa Matthews:

How did you get involved with helping asylum seekers and refugees?

Lisa Matthews, 29 years old, tells Unheard Voices about her inspiration for working with refugees an asylum seekers and her passion for human rights campaigning.

Listen to the clip from our skype interview with Lisa Matthews: