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On Friday 11th November we celebrated 30 years of the Barwon Community Legal Service assisting the community with an event for our staff, volunteers, board members and supporters both past and present.
An exciting part of the event was the screening of the new BCLS movie which showcases the work that we do for our community and our various projects.
The impressive 30th Birthday cake was cut by inaugural BCLS lawyer Elsie Stokie, who was last year awarded the Community Lawyer of the Year by the Law Institute of Victoria for her fantastic contribution over the past 30 years.
Ms Stokie commented “it has been a privilege to be doing work that I believe is really worthwhile: providing access to justice for the disadvantaged and lobbying for law reform. It has also been a pleasure to work with past and present colleagues who share these views.”
Executive Officer, Nick Hudson, said he was “incredibly proud of the work of our service over the past 30 years, and it must be amazing for those involved from the beginning to observe how their efforts have paid off and all that has been achieved for the local community.”
Each year our service provides legal advice and assistance to over 3,000 marginalised members of the community who would otherwise be unable to access legal assistance.
“A really important part of the work community legal centres provide is free legal education. Over the last 30 years we have run thousands of free legal information sessions and been involved in many innovative community development projects,” said Jillian Chapman, Community Education and Development Coordinator.
In addition to assisting the community with legal issues, BCLS also educates the next generation of lawyers by providing practical placements while studying at University or after graduation.
We look forward to many more years ahead assisting our community and expanding our service.
View the movie…
