Artwork: 'Justice For All' (2020) – Sharon Smith.
This year COVID-19 brought even more stress and uncertainty for our clients and ourselves. Once again our incredible staff, volunteers and partners kept advising, representing and providing Access to Justice, and this year helped more people than ever before!
There are many other achievements documented in our 2020-21 Annual Report that warrant celebration. I want to highlight two of them: our work in advancing First Nations Justice and our work in strengthening measurement and evaluation for the Centre, both of which were goals in our strategic plan.
Our partnerships with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations have resulted in some incredible work in response to the Black Lives Matters movement, and in increasing access to justice for First Nations communities. This year, 36% of our casework was for First Nations clients, almost 10% of our staff are First Nations people, and our Chair Kerry O’Brien, is a proud Koori man.
Next year we will be launching our First Nations Justice Unit, which will continue to expand our partnerships and service delivery. There is more work to be done: more truth-telling and listening to be had, and we will continue to walk together with First Nations people to achieve greater Access to Justice for all Australians.
This year, I am also extraordinarily proud to be launching our inaugural 2020-21 Impact Report, which documents our work in measurement and evaluation of our Theory of Change and Outcomes Framework. This body of work allows us to better understand the difference our programs make to the communities we work with, helps inform and guide our partnerships, and allows us to continually reflect, improve and pivot to ensure that we maximize our impact.
After nearly 12 years in this role, it is time for change. I have resigned as CEO, and I will be departing in February next year. The Board will be commencing a recruitment process for RLC’s next CEO in the next few weeks.
RLC is an incredibly difficult organisation to leave, but I do so with great pride in what our staff, Board, volunteers, partners and supporters have collectively achieved. Thank you for supporting RLC and for ensuring that people experiencing disadvantage secure access to justice.
Joanna Shulman
RLC CEO
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