Reconnecting with our priority audiences after COVID-19

Published:: Thursday, 2 March 2023 at 10:01 am

Cartoon of two people speaking to each other while holding an iPad.

Our Community Legal Education (CLE) team has eagerly returned to delivering community engagement programs to our harder to reach priority audiences - people with a disability and prisoners – after the disruption caused during the last three years of the pandemic.

We recently attended a Having a Say conference by the Victorian Advocacy League for Individuals with Disability (VALID) where we guided attendees through the process of using our Legal Help phone line.

Senior CLE Coordinator, Kenton Molloy said the session was invaluable as it helped prepare callers for their first contact with Legal Help.

‘It can be challenging for anyone contacting a large organisation, let alone someone with an intellectual disability who has to produce paperwork, and this session helped reduce that anxiety.

‘It discussed practical steps to put in place when calling our Legal Help line, including having a support person with you, having your paperwork on hand and using the National Relay Service.

‘The highlight of the presentation was a role play where a VALID member with an intellectual disability joined our staff in acting out a call to Legal Help to demonstrate our triage system, and what it actually looks like to make that call,’ said Kenton.

Our work in correctional facilities

We have also returned to our regular monthly visits to correctional facilities and continued our critical work with people in custody.

This includes our work at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre where prison staff were hearing plenty of misinformation being discussed among the female prison population regarding bail laws.

We stepped in and held a ‘Legal Process 101’ session for participants that provided a clear explanation of bail laws, the legal system and what their next steps within that legal system would look like.

Kenton believes these sessions play a vital role in educating prisoners.

‘The sessions explain bail laws, therapeutic courts and legal process to the women in plain language and provide an opportunity to ask questions, as they are often confused by the process that led them to jail.

‘They are also beneficial as they better prepare women to have a more informed and educated conversation with their lawyer, relieve some of the anxiety around the unknown of what’s to come and support women to seek legal help earlier,’ he said.

We will also soon undertake work with young male prisoners in the Penhyn Youth Unit at Port Phillip Prison.

This unit houses people aged mainly 18 to 25 years and is designed to keep them away from the influence of people more entrenched in the adult criminal justice system.

Kenton says this is important work as whilst many of these young people have extensive contact with the youth justice system, they have never been near an adult prison.

‘There is no question that this is one of our highest priority audiences to be working with given this group’s vulnerability, and seeing as this is their first exposure to a maximum security adult prison.

‘If we can do anything to support them, improve their dialogue with the justice system and reduce recidivism in the future, then the positive impact on their lives, the lives of those surrounding them, and the financial saving to Victoria Legal Aid and the justice sector more broadly, is immeasurable.’

Reconnecting with our priority audiences after COVID-19

Our work in correctional facilities

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