Our Principal Lawyer is in Melbourne this week at the National Association of Community Legal Centres Annual Conference. She spoke yesterday about “Piecing together the puzzle: the perspective of community organisations about legal need”, a project undertaken by HRCLS in two stages, about legal need in North East Victoria and Southern Riverina NSW. One of our fabulous students, Tessa, was employed as a Projects Officer earlier this year to survey community organisations in our catchment area, analyse the results and compile this report.

Community organisations provided a key insight into their perception of legal need, when and where they are likely to refer their clients, and what barriers they face in doing so. This paper aims to use these findings constructively, to suggest prospective solutions that will help to build sustainable community partnerships between legal and non-legal service providers and further, help provide supported pathways for clients to ensure they can access legal services.

To read this report, click here.

 

Originally published 26 August 2015