Community legal centres are independent community organisations that provide free advice, casework and legal education to their communities. There are currently 51 centres in Victoria. Some specialise in particular areas of law. For more information see the Community Law website.
We administer funding to most (39) of Victoria's community legal centres and the Federation of Community Legal Centres and monitor their performance against service agreement obligations and service targets to ensure accountability for the use of those funds. We are increasingly focusing on working with the sector to understand and respond to legal need collaboratively through joint legal needs assessment projects.
This year we:
- provided and administered record funding of more than $25.4 million to centres (up 13.9% from last year). We committed $16,403,565 of state government funds to centres, including $2,103,981 in new strategic grants
- held the first round of grants for the Innovation and Transformation Fund, receiving a total of 21 applications from 25 centres. We committed to grants of $636,000 from the fund’s total two-year allocation of $2 million for projects that will commence in 2015–16. The remaining $1.36 million will be allocated during 2015–16
- supported three centres to amalgamate and form the Western Community Legal Centre, a new entity that will provide high quality legal assistance across the western suburbs of Melbourne
- ensured that centres were given appropriate additional funds to increase staff salaries under the Social and Community Services Award Equal Remuneration Order. This additional investment totalled $1,772,354 in 2014–15.
Community legal centre performance outputs
| Activity | 2014–15 | 2013–14 | % change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information | 57,937 | 54,057 | 7.2% |
| Advice | 56,014 | 52,113 | 7.5% |
| Cases* opened | 24,941 | 23,697 | 5.2% |
| Community legal education projects delivered | 1,185 | 1,121 | 5.7% |
| Law reform and legal policy submissions | 107 | 145 | -35.5% |
* Community legal centre case definition is different from a case conducted under a grant of legal assistance. It involves anything that is more than one-off advice – for example, a lawyer looking over documents, undertaking research, providing written advice, making telephone calls, advocating for a person or negotiating on their behalf, or making a simple appearance before a court or tribunal. Occasionally it involves representation in court, including complex matters.
Top 10 matters*
| Matter type | Number of matters |
|---|---|
| Family or domestic violence order | 13,280 |
| Child contacts or contact orders | 7,176 |
| Government/administrative issues relating to fines | 4,598 |
| Road traffic and motor vehicle regulatory offences | 4,112 |
| Property in marriage | 3,718 |
| Divorce | 3,370 |
| Family or domestic violence | 2,628 |
| Motor vehicle accident | 2,625 |
| Child residency | 2,355 |
| Family law (other) | 2,059 |
Explanatory notes for performance outputs
Figures are from a database used by 36 of the 40 community legal centres funded through the Community Legal Services Program in 2014–15. The figures do not include client service and community and law reform activities undertaken by the following funded centres: Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention and Legal Service (Vic), Homeless Law (Justice Connect), Job Watch and Refugee and Immigration Legal Clinic. These community legal centres do not use the common database. Figures do not include client advice provided by the Tenants’ Union of Victoria, which records this activity on a separate database.
Funding through the Community Legal Sector Program
We granted and administered funding to 39 community legal centres across Victoria and the Federation of Community Legal Centres as the sector's peak body. Funding was provided by the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department and by Victoria Legal Aid out of its state funding allocation.
| Community legal centre | Commonwealth funding* ($) | State core funding ($) | Total payments ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention and Legal Service (Vic)** | 0 | 304,028 | 304,028 |
| Barwon Community Legal Service | 476,934 | 509,090 | 986,024 |
| Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre, Community West | 238,121 | 595,894 | 834,015 |
| Broadmeadows Community Legal Service | 254,017 | 336,795 | 590,812 |
| Casey Cardinia Legal Service | 296,273 | 273,996 | 570,269 |
| Central Highlands Community Legal Centre | 264,670 | 351,862 | 616,532 |
| Consumer Action Law Centre** | 284,633 | 983,357 | 1,267,990 |
| Darebin Community Legal Centre | 186,106 | 463,703 | 649,809 |
| Disability Discrimination Legal Service** | 205,931 | 51,160 | 257,091 |
| Eastern Community Legal Centre | 422,110 | 718,075 | 1,140,185 |
| Emma House Domestic Violence Service | 59,029 | 79,349 | 138,378 |
| Environment Defenders Office (Victoria)** | 0 | 179,417 | 179,417 |
| Federation of Community Legal Centres (Vic)** | 0 | 775,290 | 775,290 |
| Fitzroy LegaI Service | 191,760 | 460,367 | 652,127 |
| Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre | 101,276 | 248,868 | 350,144 |
| Footscray Community Legal Centre | 92,046 | 398,118 | 490,164 |
| Gippsland Community Legal Service, Anglicare Victoria | 341,713 | 260,583 | 602,296 |
| Homeless Law, Justice Connect** | 162,723 | 315,571 | 478,294 |
| Hume Riverina Community Legal Service, Upper Murray Family Care | 461,735 | 252,320 | 714,055 |
| Job Watch** | 0 | 449,757 | 449,757 |
| Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre, Advocacy and Rights Centre (including Goulburn Valley Community Legal Centre) | 217,887 | 809,046 | 1,026,933 |
| Monash Oakleigh Legal Service | 207,529 | 27,869 | 235,398 |
| Moonee Valley Legal Service | 91,289 | 258,024 | 349,313 |
| Moreland Community Legal Centre | 105,281 | 227,404 | 332,685 |
| Murray Mallee Community Legal Service, Mallee Family Care | 476,989 | 167,874 | 644,863 |
| North Melbourne Legal Service | 220,255 | 224,542 | 444,797 |
| Peninsula Community Legal Centre | 720,772 | 964,897 | 1,685,669 |
| Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre** | 0 | 162,519 | 162,591 |
| Senior Rights Victoria, Council on the Ageing** | 78,673 | 565,989 | 644,662 |
| Social Security Rights Victoria | 213,977 | 44,171 | 258,148 |
| Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau** | 80,749 | 4,017 | 84,766 |
| Springvale Monash Legal Service | 444,014 | 246,784 | 690,798 |
| St Kilda Legal Service | 107,922 | 300,959 | 399,881 |
| Tenants Union of Victoria** | 119,853 | 614,479 | 734,332 |
| West Heidelberg Community Legal Service | 101,236 | 192,966 | 294,202 |
| Western Suburbs Legal Service | 99,445 | 199,123 | 298,568 |
| Whittlesea Community Legal Service, Whittlesea Community Connections | 244,518 | 450,423 | 694,941 |
| Women's Legal Service Victoria** | 1,044,044 | 317,433 | 1,361,477 |
| Wyndham Legal Service | 245,864 | 349,329 | 595,193 |
| Youthlaw, Young People's Legal Rights Centre** | 143,208 | 164,136 | 307,344 |
| Total | 9,002,582 (38.6%) |
14,299,584 (61.4%) |
23,302,166 |
* This funding includes Commonwealth funding to the Community Legal Sector Program. It does not include other Commonwealth funding allocated directly to centres.
** Specialist community legal centre
Explanatory notes for funding
These funding amounts include core grants and contributions from the Commonwealth and Victorian governments to assist funded community legal centres to meet increased staff salaries under the Social and Community Services Award Equal Remuneration Order.
Victoria Legal Aid’s ‘Comprehensive operating statement’ (see the 'Financial statements' under Our finances) excludes Commonwealth grants (core and one-off) to community legal centres because we do not control these funds and we do not make the decisions that enable these investments in the centres. As such, these Commonwealth grants cannot be considered Victoria Legal Aid revenue.
Special projects strategic grants
We also committed an additional $2,103,981 in strategic grants for special projects in 2014–15. These included grants to centres for innovation and transformation fund projects to be implemented from 1 July 2015, including:
- Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention Legal Service to develop a Koori Women’s service hub at their new premises
- Eastern Community Legal Centre to develop a triage and intake process enabling eastern suburbs clients to be referred better into a range of community legal centre and Victoria Legal Aid services
- the Federation of Community Legal Centres to help community legal centres better measure the impact and effectiveness of their services
- Eastern Community Legal Centre to provide more legal help in Healesville and throughout the Yarra Ranges.
- inTouch Multicultural Centre against Family Violence to provide better legal help to culturally and linguistically diverse victims of family violence.
- Loddon Campaspe Community Legal Centre and Women’s Legal Service for two-year pilot projects to deliver child protection and family law legal services.
- Wyndham Legal Service to fit out significant new premises in Werribee which have become the main office of the newly formed Western Community Legal Centre.
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