An exciting opportunity to work with our groundbreaking Financial Abuse Service NSW. This project will design a best practice model to support financial abuse victim-survivors to move from crisis to financial empowerment and independence.

About Redfern Legal Centre

Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) was founded in 1977 to address the scarcity of affordable legal services for disadvantaged and marginalised people. As the oldest community legal centre in NSW, RLC has been at the forefront of legal service delivery ever since, innovating and expanding to meet the needs of the community.

RLC has a long history of identifying gaps in the legal assistance sector, where people are not accessing justice, and developing innovative models to address those gaps. Financial Rights Legal Centre and the Women’s Domestic Violence Court Assistance Scheme all started as services of Redfern Legal Centre.

About RLC’s Financial Abuse Service NSW

In 2019, RLC established Australia’s first state-wide financial abuse service dedicated to addressing the interconnected legal issues at the heart of financial abuse.

RLC’s Financial Abuse Service NSW provides free, confidential legal assistance to people around the state who have experienced financial abuse in an intimate partner relationship. The legal service currently employs a Team Leader, two expert Credit, Debt and Consumer Law Solicitors and an Accredited Specialist in Family Law. To expand the reach of the service, RLC also train and supervise volunteer solicitors to provide legal assistance in two half-day clinics each week.

 The service most commonly assists people with debts accrued through coercion or fraud and family law property settlement. Since June 2019, the service has supported victim-survivors of financial abuse to waive over $600,000 in debt and facilitated the recovery of over $260,000 enabling victim-survivors to start to move forward with their lives.

The legal service informs RLC’s policy and capacity building work which aims to address systemic issues to improve outcomes for people who have experienced financial abuse. 

The project

Deliver a report detailing:

1. A best practice model for a holistic state-wide financial abuse service in NSW that brings together legal and non-legal assistance to help people who have experienced financial abuse move from crisis to financial empowerment and financial independence; and
    
2. Guiding principles to aid in the establishment of financial abuse services in other Australian states and territories.

To prepare this report you will undertake research using sources such as:

• Quantitative data from RLC’s Financial Abuse Legal Service
• Qualitative data from RLC’s client surveys, stakeholder surveys and interviews with RLC clients, staff and volunteers
• Consultation with community stakeholders and people with lived experience
• Research from leading academics

You will need to assess:

1. What are the legal and non-legal needs of people experiencing financial abuse in order to move from crisis to financial independence and empowerment?
    
2. What needs does Redfern Legal Centre’s Financial Abuse Service NSW currently address? Is this working well?
    
3. What are the unmet needs of clients?
    
4. What are the priority areas considering the service environment in NSW? What other services are available? Who can the model work with?
    
5. What model would best meet the needs? What legal and non-legal services are needed for that model in NSW? For example, what expertise do staff need, how many staff, how they should work together etc.

It is essential that the model:

• Outlines the essential and desirable services in an environment of limited funding
• Considers services that already exist in NSW, and whether they should be duplicated or integrated in another way
• Considers pathways into the model
• Is trauma informed
• Is culturally safe for First Nations and migrant communities
• Is accessible for people with disability  

Remuneration

 There is a $20,000 budget for the completion of this report.

Deadlines

1. Expressions of Interest close 11.59pm on Sunday 28 February 2021

2. Successful candidate must be available to commence the project in March 2021

3. Draft report to be provided to RLC CEO by 31 July 2021

4. Final report to be provided to RLC CEO by 31 August 2021

Please send your expression of interest by email to:

Laura Bianchi
Team Leader & Solicitor | Financial Abuse Service NSW
recruitment@rlc.org.au

Your expression of interest must contain:

1. Current CV

2. Cover letter addressing the following:

a. Experience in evaluating, design and/or service modelling for a community service, preferably involving legal needs analysis. If appropriate, an example of previous written work.

b. Basic outline of how you would do this project.

c. Timeline of milestones for this project, milestones will be discussed and form part of the required contract.

d. Experience working in or with the community sector in New South Wales.

e. Understanding of trauma-informed practice and experience interviewing people who have experienced trauma.

f. Preferred start date

Expressions of interest that do not contain the above information will not be considered.

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