Here are ten things we achieved together in 2018-19 to increase access to justice for people in need.
1. Thanks to the support of generous donations, RLC assisted 2,474 people in crisis to navigate the legal system, providing 5,915 occasions of advice and 1,073 instances of information and referrals.
2. We inducted and supervised 279 skilled volunteers across all areas of our centre, exponentially expanding our impact and our reach, and providing a vital training ground for the next generation of solicitors.
3. We expanded our Health Justice Partnership (HJP) to new locations and employed an Aboriginal solicitor and Aboriginal access worker. Our HJP provides access to legal help for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other patients in the healthcare system who would otherwise not access legal support.
4. Our statewide Police Powers practice launched our Safe and Sound Campaign in response to a disturbing rise in complaints about traumatic and potentially unlawful police strip searches.
We also commissioned a report from UNSW Law, Rethinking strip searches in NSW, to shine a light on the harmful impact of the overuse of strip searches in NSW.
5. Our International Student Legal Service NSW launched My Legal Mate, a mobile app to provide interactive legal advice in seven languages to international students at Universities across NSW.
In February, our international student solicitor received the NSW Human Rights Medal in recognition of services rendered to the 266,000 international students in NSW.
6. Our Employment Law practice gave assistance on systemic issues such as wage theft and unfair terminations and submitted a joint report #MeToo: Legal Responses to Sexual Harassment at Work to the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian workplaces:
7. In partnership with three other community legal centres, we launched a new state-wide Migrant Employment Legal Service to provide a new avenue of support for communities disproportionately impacted by issues like wage theft, bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace.
8. Our Tenancy service supported over 3,000 tenants, particularly those in public and community housing, and played a leading role in collaborations with other community legal centres on submissions to the Residential Tenancies Act five-year review. Our tenancy team received the Golden Warren Award in recognition for this work.
9. Our Credit and Debt practice provided advice and advocacy in areas such as consumer credit, banking, insurance, debt recovery and consumer complaints. It also helped achieve a ban on direct unsolicited telephone sales of life insurance and consumer credit insurance, which will make a huge difference to the thousands of vulnerable Australians exploited in this way.
10. In response to an identified area of unmet legal need, we established a statewide Financial Abuse Legal Service, which will provide life-saving assistance to survivors of financial abuse in intimate partner relationships.
With your continued support, we can do so much more!
These holidays, give the gift of Equal Justice. Donate to Redfern Legal Centre.
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