Projects we've funded

Continuation of the Sex Worker Legal Program which provides legal assistance, education and advocacy so that current and future Victorian sex workers can live and work in a society that respects and upholds their human and legal rights.

This project will deliver legal education on citizenship to migrant and refugee high school students to improve access to tertiary education support and opportunities.

To scope an online tool aimed at increasing the number of people who can access support for debt waivers.

To develop and publish legal toolkit to equip Victorian lawyers with human rights, health and wellbeing arguments to effectively represent pregnant women and mothers who are incarcerated or at risk of imprisonment.

Replication of a public awareness campaign, Ask for a lawyer, in the Northern Grampians region to improve legal responses to family violence.

A tool to support bicultural workers, paralegals, and administration staff in identifying and triaging legal inquiries.

Digital educational resource to increase secondary school students’ literacy on common youth law issues to make learning about the law fun and engaging using relatable stories.

Improving course materials and exploring how to best collaborate with past participants through volunteering. Focusing on women with experience of family violence and disadvantage, as well as First Nations women, women from CALD backgrounds and recent arrivals.

Funding for interpreters and translators at the Citizenship Clinic, providing legal advice and assistance to vulnerable permanent residents to apply to become Australian citizens.

Provide legal assistance, support and information for Self-Represented Litigants involved in intervention orders in Melbourne and Geelong.

Community legal education resources for fines and infringements that use game play as an informative and engaging medium for building the legal capacity of legal and non-legal practitioners in community service organisations.

Provide advice and assistance to young workers in casual employment to apply to convert to ongoing employment under the new changes in the Closing Loopholes legislation.

Two resources for migrant and refugee women facing coercive control (CC) including translation into 12 languages. One to assist professionals, and one to help women recognise and seek support.

Consultation and case study video creation featuring clients impacted by Consumer issues as part of the developmental process to ensure resources are targeted and appropriate for the communities’ needs.

Plain English and translated resources on the legal rights‍ and responsibilities for parents, especially those from migrant and refugee backgrounds‍ wishing to travel with their children overseas.

A video project and Advocacy Guides designed to increase awareness and use of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights by showing how the Charter benefits people.

Justice Connect offers over 100 digital self-help resources for individuals providing essential legal information to those who might otherwise lack access to legal assistance. ‍This project will design and undertake an evaluation of self-help resources to assess their effectiveness and understand what’s working, for whom, and for which matters.

Building on previous work, Westjustice will identify and investigate correlative patterns between police responses to domestic and family violence and victim-survivor demographic and identity characteristics. Police-authored applications for family violence intervention orders will be analysed in relation to marginalised victim-survivor demographics, including First Nations, migrant, refugee, CALD, LGBTQIA+, and/or those who are regionally located. This is a collaborative project across six Victorian community legal centres and La Trobe University.

Climate disasters, and responses to them, reinforce and exacerbate existing inequities and vulnerabilities, increasing complex legal needs and legal need problem clusters. This research project will explore the longer-term outcomes of renters who are evicted due to climate disasters, refining the role of community legal centres in disaster response spaces and determining whether access to legal information or advice might positively alter outcomes.

This project will focus on building the knowledge and capacity of workers and agencies supporting young people in the out-of-home care system to identify, understand and respond to their unmet civil legal needs.

Enhance data systems to better demonstrate impact, improve decision-making and service design, and meet clients’ needs. The project involves integrating evaluation and reporting mechanisms within existing processes and systems and building staff capability to incorporate these activities into daily workflows.

Villamanta will develop and implement an outcome measurement framework to better understand community need, target those in most need and improve services and impact.

To better support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people navigate the justice system, the Victorian Aboriginal Child and Community Agency and Inner Melbourne Community Legal will collaborate to deliver culturally safe pathways to legal help.

Using findings from its Knowledge Grant research, South-East Monash Legal Service will develop and deliver a legal education program for legal professionals to support the sector to effectively respond to disclosures of reproductive coercive abuse.