event_2011-07-21
VLAF Forums
VLAF CALD forum delivers showcase
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Grandparents in Moreland, newly arrived families in Shepparton, young people in Dandenong and Flemington and refugees in Thailand. What do they have in common? All were the focus of the presentations at the VLAF CALD community legal education forum held on 20 July at Victoria Legal Aid.
The Forum, entitled “Early Intervention is the way to go”, was attended by over 60 participants who were taken through a range of community legal education projects. The projects showcased good practice and methodology in legal education by presenters from VLA, Moreland Community Legal Centre, Springvale Monash Legal Service, AMES, the Department of Justice, and National Legal Aid. The attendees came from state and federal government departments, migrant and welfare agencies, the health sector, the courts, the private legal sector and even interstate guest from NSW LAF and the Law and Justice foundation, along with VLAF members and many CLCs.
The keynote presentation was from Katie Fraser, formerly of Footscray CLC and now working on a National Legal Aid project, and Monica Ferrari, the manager of CLE at VLA. Katie Fraser, outlined her work with African clients that led to the development of a report on the African community’s legal problems. Katie undertook a Victoria Law Foundation Fellowship to look at legal education for refugees coming to Australia and finally the research findings all morphed into 'What's the law: Australian law for new arrivals'. This is an education kit to be used in English language programs run settlement education providers and could reach over 50,000 new arrivals. Monica Ferrari talked about the development of the resource and also about how VLA coming onboard to the project, and working with Katie and Footscray on these issues, had informed the CLE practice at VLA.
The VLA CLE team demonstrated how one legal problem can be used to intervene and use legal education to put a community on a path to solve many more legal problems. VLA’s work in Shepparton started out when VLA migration lawyers point to a great deal of unmet need. Angela Costi and Erin Wilkinson explained how vital it was to do close consultation with a community and other service providers and then work at tailoring a solution that was culturally appropriate and effective.
Carmen Tommasi and Lynne Barrett from Moreland CLC explained their project on the rights of children and grandparents in a CALD community, and the multiple techniques of presentation, translated factsheets and web content that is being used to educate an older Greek population about their rights.
Springvale Monash is doing a radio documentary history project with young Australians from African backgrounds who have had unfortunate interactions with Victoria Police. Bec Smith took the audience through the long train of events that has brought the service to conclude that this powerful and empowering project was the right approach – young people talking to other young people about the best way to navigate the vexed area of police racial profiling.
AMES Settlement Services does a massive amount of work to ensure that newly arrived refugees are welcomed and mentored, as well as educated, about their new country. It was very interesting to hear from Stephen Pollard from AMES about how the settlement services and education works from top to bottom, and the vital role that legal education plays in making sure that the transition to a new and strange society in is as smooth as possible.
The Department of Justice Refugee program demonstrates how responsive government can in react to pressing social problems. Samia Baho from DoJ described the fraught situation on the Flemington Department of Housing estate, where police and local young people from emerging communities were at loggerheads, to the ongoing successful programs to empower the young people.
The forum was intense and intensive, but as people networked over lunch it was certain that people had new ideas and inspiration to take away with them, as well as some plans for collaboration in the future.
The forum was also a useful way for VLAF to help guide its work. The VLAF CALD and CLE working groups wanted to take the work of the sector out to a broader audience so that other agencies would know who to approach when they came across common legal problems in emerging communities. But the working groups will also take onboard some of the things learnt from the day:
- We need to build a better evidence base on who the clients are, what is need and how the programs are evaluated
- Partnerships and collaborations are vital
- Appropriate community consultation will tell you what is the best methods to use
- One-off CLE is not always the answer and problems need community engagement using long-term community development models
- Education has to be culturally appropriate and can be very effective if delivered by peers
- The Sector increased funding for CLE that is well-targeted, on-going and able to be easily attained without onerous administrative costs
If you are interested in becoming involved with VLAF Working Groups, or if you wish to be added to our mailing list, please contact simonr at vla dot vic dot gov dot
