Our CLE Team in NQ participate in the ‘Everyday Legal Training for Frontline Workers’ event
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Our CLE Team in NQ participate in the ‘Everyday Legal Training for Frontline Workers’ event

ATSILS CLE Our Community Legal Education staff in North Queensland participated in the ‘Everyday Legal Training for Frontline Workers’ CLE event in May, coordinated by LawRight and hosted by James Cook University in Cairns.

This full-day event saw presentations from LawRight, ATSILS, North Queensland Women’s Legal Service, Cairns Community Legal Centre and Basic Rights Qld. Kimberly Thornley and Paige Ryan of ATSILS presented sessions to the group of 70 frontline support workers on the topics of ‘Rights and Respect in the Workplace’ and ‘Supporting families with child protection matters’. Other sessions included legal options for victim-survivors of violence, debt solutions for people in financial hardship, effectively interacting with Centrelink and legal protections for people who buy a lemon car.

The purpose of this CLE event was to provide a series of in-person presentations and smaller workshops designed to provide specialist, practical training to help frontline workers navigate the complex legal systems impacting the people they support. Attendees on the day included staff from local and nearby regional services such as various neighbourhood centres, Anglicare, Relationships Australia, DFV support workers and counsellors, social workers, homelessness support workers and JCU students seeking to broaden their knowledge. This event provided a great opportunity for services to collaborate through CLE delivery and facilitated active audience participation and discussion. The team had a great day and thoroughly enjoyed taking part and sharing knowledge with all in attendance.

ATSILS and QATSICPP partner to deliver Community Legal Education (CLE) Webinar Series
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ATSILS and QATSICPP partner to deliver Community Legal Education (CLE) Webinar Series

ATSILS CLEATSILS and QATSICPP are collaborating to deliver a Community Legal Education (CLE) webinar series to empower community-based staff supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families facing the Queensland youth justice system.
ATSILS’ Pree Sharma, Legal Practitioner, Law Reform and Community Legal Education and Rod Morgan, Legal Practitioner, Criminal Law (Youth Crime Specialist) recently delivered a webinar in partnership with the Youth Justice Peak body, QATSICPP, for staff of community-based organisations that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people, and families, particularly those involved with or at risk of becoming involved with the youth justice system with a focus on the rights of children and young people when interacting with police.
ATSILS has a longstanding partnership with QATSICPP in delivering community legal education to its members. This particular webinar is the first in a three-part webinar series that is part of QATSICPP’s Knowledge Bites offering. It is designed to support the professional development of staff within community-controlled and community-based organisations and strengthen advocacy and service delivery in child protection and youth justice. Through these sessions, QATSICPP aims to equip frontline workers with practical, up-to-date knowledge that informs and empowers their critical work.
The first webinar explored several key topics including:
• Knowing Your Rights: Understanding children’s rights when stopped, questioned, or searched by police.
• Children as Victims of Crime: Knowing the steps to take when a child is a victim of a crime.
• Concerns about Police Conduct: Guidance on how to raise concerns or lodge complaints about police conduct.
If you are interested in ATSILS delivering community legal education sessions such as this, in person or online, please reach out to us on info@atsils.org.au.
Need help to make a Will?
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Need help to make a Will?

ATSILS has a statewide civil law team that can assist clients in making a valid Will.

Check out the video below to understand why having a Will in place is important.

To contact an ATSILS office close to you please visit: www.atsils.org.au/contact/

#ATSILS
#legalhelp

QUT Community Stall – Promoting Legal Careers with ATSILS
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QUT Community Stall – Promoting Legal Careers with ATSILS

Last week, ATSILS took part in the Community Stall Expo, which was part of Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Pre-Orientation Program for the Oodgeroo Unit community of students at the Kelvin Grove campus. The Oodgeroo Unit at QUT offers educational and support programs and spaces specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, aiding them in their higher education journey.
During the expo, new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students starting their studies had the opportunity to connect with various organisations, including ATSILS. These organisations work closely with the community and can serve as valuable networks for students pursuing law at QUT. We were pleased to see many students engaging with our stall, and we hope this interaction inspires them to consider working with us in the future!
Hervey Bay Community engagement and Service Access
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Hervey Bay Community engagement and Service Access

ATSILS Hervey Bay

Our team in Hervey Bay joined the vibrant community Colour Run organized by @DeadlyChoices this week. Hundreds of Indigenous and non-Indigenous kids participated in the 2km Fun Run, along with some young-at-heart adults.

Our team was thrilled to be a part of this exciting event, and attended alongside local community organizations that included PCYC, The Neighbourhood Centre, Deadly Choices, and The Wesley Financial Counselling Service. We had a great time engaging with the local community and spreading awareness about our services.

More than 600 kids attended the event and were sprayed with coloured powder creating a kaleidoscope of colour. There was great community spirit present, and you could see it wasn’t just about winning, but about enjoying the experience to the fullest. The positive energy and infectious enthusiasm made it a day to remember.

 

 

🌟 Community Legal Education Workshop on Palm Island 🌟
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🌟 Community Legal Education Workshop on Palm Island 🌟

Our Community Legal Education Team in the Northern Region, led by Paige Ryan, recently delivered an insightful workshop on Palm Island. At the request of the Palm Island Community Company, the team covered important topics such as the recent changes (in September this year) to the Evidence Act regarding preliminary complaint witness evidence in DFV offences, s229BC of the Criminal Code, and the use of counselling notes in sexual offence proceedings.
 
Paige, along with Nico Rump, one of our Criminal Lawyers from the Townsville office, co-wrote and presented the CLE session with Molly Mahlouzarides, in-house Counsel for LAQ in Townsville. The session was well received and attended by staff from various providers servicing the Palm Island community.
 
The team thoroughly enjoyed the experience and noted it was a stunning summer’s day to travel to Palm! 🌞
Engaging with police recruits to enhance understanding of services and communities
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Engaging with police recruits to enhance understanding of services and communities

ATSILS @ QPS Market Day 


On 20 November 2024, ATSILS Brisbane’s CLE team attended the Queensland Police Academy Market Day. This event invites various agencies, organisations, and QPS units to the Queensland Police Service Academy to showcase their services and how they might be relevant to recruits’ future policing duties. ATSILS had a stall at this event alongside the deadly team at Murri Watch Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Corporation.

Close to 900 current police recruits attended this event and had the opportunity to engage with our stall and ask questions about what ATSILS does. Many police recruits stopped by and advised that they were already aware of ATSILS, as part of their training included information about the obligation on police officers to facilitate a call to ATSILS in the event of an arrest of an individual who identifies as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander so that the individual can have access to legal advice at that critical stage.

There were many productive conversations with police recruits about the importance of cultural training and understanding to give pause and consideration of the impact of intergenerational trauma, other challenges that an individual at risk of being in contact with the criminal justice system might have and their story. There were also many discussions about the importance of diversion away from the criminal justice system to allow a pathway to addressing key needs and providing key supports to those at risk. Some recruits were not aware of the policy work that ATSILS does with respect to Closing the Gap, prevention and early intervention and the delivery of community legal education and it was great to be able to share that information as well.

Masterclass event on the changes to the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991
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Masterclass event on the changes to the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991

The UQ Pro Bono Centre and Community Legal Centres Queensland recently held a Masterclass event on the changes to the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 for legal practitioners in the community legal assistance sector.

At this event, there were short presentations from ATSILS, the @Institute of Urban Indigenous Health, Legal Aid Queensland, the Queensland Human Rights Commission, The University of Queensland and Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion.

ATSILS’ Kate Greenwood and Pree Sharma presented to the group on key changes to vilification laws in Queensland. It is hoped that this event will help equip civil lawyers to understand key changes to the legislative framework so that they can best assist their clients with discrimination and vilification matters once the changes come into effect next year.

International Men’s Day – Cairns
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International Men’s Day – Cairns

Today our Cairns CLE team attended the first International Men’s Day event in Cairns. There was a big turnout in the Cairns heat and it was great to join the locals to celebrate “Positive Male Role Models” and recognise their contributions to our community.

We thank the hosts for organising the games, free BBQ lunch & drinks. It was an honour to connect with the locals and various organisations sharing our legal education resources, creating awareness of our services, and providing referrals to assist.
ATSILS Community Legal Education Outreach – Mt Isa and Cloncurry
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ATSILS Community Legal Education Outreach – Mt Isa and Cloncurry

ATSILS Community Legal Education outreach is just one of the ways we assist clients in overcoming the tyranny of distance in remote locations to enhance access to justice. These sessions help ensure the community is more aware of its legal rights and the range of legal services available from ATSILS.

Paige (Solicitor – Coronial, Community Legal Education & Public Sector Monitoring) from our Townsville office recently partnered with NQWLS to deliver DFV Community Legal Education and stakeholder engagement sessions in Mt Isa.

The team met with AIDRWA and discussed DFV and Child Protection matters, to increase staff understanding of these legal topics to better support their clients and discussed local ‘hot’ issues the service is seeing. They spent valuable time with the community justice group (NWQICSS), 54 Reasons, Gidgee Healing (Family wellbeing team) and the social worker team at the Mt Isa Hospital (NWHHS) to discuss future CLE opportunities, ATSILS & NQWLS services, referral pathways and NQWLS’ monthly legal clinic in Mt Isa.

The team also journeyed to Cloncurry where Paige partnered with Sharn Fogarty from Mitakoodi Aboriginal Corporation (Cloncurry), Joshua Gibson (criminal solicitor at our Mt Isa office), Natasha Chong (Throughcare, Mt Isa based) to deliver in-person CLE in Cloncurry. All in all the feedback received from the community and stakeholders was very positive.