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Case study example 1:  Metro CLC

PROBLEM - SOLUTION - RESULT/OUTCOME

Newly arrived migrants are often unfairly targeted by unscrupulous credit providers to take out loans, resulting in unsustainable levels of debt.

​Metropolitan CLC noticed that they were receiving an increase in referrals for debt and credit issues from the local immigration settlement service. Through regular meetings with the local settlement service in quarterly inter-agency meetings, Metropolitan CLC and the local immigration settlement service noticed a trend of the same credit providers signing up clients from the Somali community to financial products that were complex and misunderstood. The local settlement service was concerned that the debt issues were resulting in higher levels of stress in the community which resulted in unusual levels of violence.

Metropolitan CLC worked with the local immigration settlement service to:

• Meet with Somali community leaders to understand how the community could be assisted
• Develop and deliver specific community legal education sessions about credit and debt issues to the migrant community called 'Fair Go'
• Develop specific legal education resources about credit problems which were distributed in partnership with the local immigration settlement service
• Develop a warm/facilitated referral pathway with the local immigration settlement service to ensure Somali migrants with credit and debt issues had priority access to Metropolitan CLC services.

​As a result of the partnership work with the Metropolitan CLC, the local immigration settlement service said:

Since the Fair Go program started, we have noticed that there has been a steady decrease in the number of people with debt problems.  We have heard from the community elders that the people are getting help before signing up to financial products and the level of stress in the community is reducing.

Case study example 2:  Rural CLC

PROBLEM - SOLUTION - RESULT/OUTCOME

Community access to quality services can be difficult in rural and regional parts of Queensland.

​At a Regional Legal Assistance Forum (RLAF), Rural CLC, along with other regional Legal Assistance Services in the area, identified that the community of Small Town had to travel long distances to get legal assistance, as a local private solicitor’s office had closed down, leaving only one firm in the town. This meant that people in the community were conflicted out for assistance and that Small Town community members were ignoring their legal problems.

Rural CLC worked with the local Legal Aid office to develop a legal outreach program to Small Town, which was hosted in the Small Town Community Centre. ​

Rural CLC worked together with Legal Aid and the Community Centre to develop a monthly roster of legal outreach, with administrative support and space provided by the Community Centre. In the first 12 months of the legal outreach program, the allocated 10 appointments per month were fully booked, with legal advice provided to over 100 clients. ​The Community Centre has received a lot of positive feedback about the service from the community:

It's great that we have somewhere we can refer people for legal help. Just last week, a woman said she couldn’t see the local solicitor as her ex had already seen them, so she was relieved to have another local option, as she has 3 kids under 5 years' old.

Working in partnership with the local immigration settlement service has meant the local Somali community are better informed about credit and debt issues, resulting in fewer Somali clients being locked into unfair credit contracts.

As a result of working with Legal Aid and the Community Centre in Small Town, Rural CLC was better able to meet the legal needs of the Small Town community. ​

Case study example 3:  Schoolies community education

PROBLEM - SOLUTION - RESULT/OUTCOME

Schoolies Week is a long standing tradition for school leavers in Queensland, but unfortunately, young people sometimes find themselves in trouble with the police and the criminal justice system. In 2017, after reading the legal information on Young People’s CLC’s website, Suburban High School approached Young People’s CLC to provide their Year 12 students with some legal education about how to stay out of trouble at Schoolies.

Young People’s CLC developed a community education session specifically about Schoolies and delivered the training to 200 Year 12 students at Suburban High School. Suburban High School received positive feedback about the session and have subsequently invited Young People’s CLC to provide the training every year. As a result of Suburban High School spreading the word, Young People's CLC has rolled out the community education session to five more high schools in the past year. 

Students that attended the session at each school were surveyed for feedback. Over 80 percent of the students said they better understood how to stay out of trouble at Schoolies, and Suburban High School commented:

Our students have learned so much about their rights and how to stay safe through the Schoolies training, and their parents and the teachers here feel a lot more secure too!