ATSILS held a stall at the NAIDOC celebration at Ferny Grove State High School on Wednesday 10th July which saw approximately 2000 students and teachers come down to the oval to participate.
The day was a great success with many students and teachers stopping by the stall to ask about what ATSILS does. Some students had great questions about the law and current legal issues. The wristbands and information brochures were very popular and were quickly all snapped up by eager students.
Happy #NAIDOC2024
We all know kids have a right to learn, but last year Queensland state schools suspended and excluded nearly 3,900 more students than the year before – a total of 81,918 kids missed out on their right to learn. Join and share our A Right To Learn campaign now to keep the pressure on the government to call a full parliamentary inquiry!
Join the campaign here https://www.arighttolearn.com.au/pledge
Last week ATSILS’s solicitor Cicilia Halaholo presented our Respect@Work CLE session to a deadly group of students from the Indigenous Youth Mobility Pathways Project (IYMP).
IYMP in Cairns provides a training program for youth from the Torres Strait Islands and Cape York.
Our Respect@Work Legal Service focuses on preventing Workplace Sexual Harassment with casework and community legal education offered as part of the program.
Students showed keen interest during the workshop and are now armed with better legal knowledge to support their journeys into the workforce. The students were also given a range of ATSILS merchandise and legal resources to take home and reinforce their learning on the 
topic.
ATSILS looks forward to forging more community partnerships with IYMP to nurture a solid future for our youth.
Please contact ATSILS for more information on the Respect@Work legal service. https://atsils.org.au/contact/
ATSILS’ Community Legal Education Team recently delivered a talk to a group of young people participating in Youth Justice’s Transition 2 Success Program.
The talk covered topics including: why it is important to understand your rights when dealing with police; understanding the right to silence, the right to have a support person present and the right to ask if you are free to leave; the questions that you are legally obligated to answer in police interactions; understanding police searches; and what to do if you are a victim of crime or want to make a complaint about police conduct.
The young ones were very open and asked great questions. Many spoke of their own experiences and this generated even more yarns about what to do in certain scenarios and the importance of understanding your rights and obligations under the law when interacting with police.
The annual Law Week Walk was held on the 18th of May and the ATSILS Maroochydore team were out in force early at Cotton Tree on the Sunshine Coast to take part.
Out in our Ipswich office, Regional Manager Kevin Rose invites local elders & respected persons to speak to our Ipswich team at the end of every staff meeting.
Making sure the local community has a voice and staying in touch with grassroots people is vital to informing our cultural proficiency and ensuring our legal service delivery is responsive to local community needs.
Well done Kevin and all the team in Ipswich.
During these uncertain times, please be assured ATSILS (QLD) is still currently providing legal assistance both in and out of court for our clients but with changes so as to protect our staff, our clients and our communities from the spread of COVID-19. 