Past Projects

Project Dates:  October 2018 – March 2020

Project Partners: JobWatch and Goulbourn Valley Community Legal Centre

Project Funding: Victorian Legal Aid via Industrial Relations Victoria

About the Project

Our role within the TWVP was to help temporary work visa holders in the Barwon South West region to better understand their work rights.   During the project, legal education and advice were offered to working holiday makers and international students in the region.

A marketing campaign was conducted to encourage temporary work visa holders to speak up and seek legal advice about their work conditions.  The campaign included community billboards, mail outs to accommodation providers, a dedicated facebook page and a television commercial was created and aired on Channel 31 during December 2019 – January 2020.

You can read more about the outcomes of this project here:

• BCLS Final Project Report
• JobWatch/GVCLC/BCLS Final Report

For more information about this project please contact Sharon in the community team.

Project Dates:  2019

Project Partners: Geelong Illustrators

Project Funding: Victoria Law Foundation and City of Greater Geelong

About the Project

‘Portraits of Justice’ was an innovative community legal education and art project to help young people in Geelong understand legal issues and the free local services that can help them.

Working with local artists’ collective, Geelong Illustrators, young people from a diverse range of backgrounds were supported to create a portrait of a local person who provides services for young people within the justice system.  Portraits were created during live sittings, through a discussion about what ‘justice’ means to young people today, and what legal services and solutions are available in the local area.

The portraits were showcased in an exhibition at the Geelong Library & Heritage Centre and have been included in the legal help referral booklet that has been created for young people.

For more information about this project contact Shane Foyster in our legal team.

Project Dates:  Stage 1: 2016-2017

Project Partners: Bellarine for Refugees, Refugee Legal and BCLS

Project Funding: Grant from R.E. Ross Trust and Crowdfunding Campaign

About the Project

The Seeking Refuge Project (SRP) was established to help Asylum Seekers who arrived by boat between 13 August 2012 and 1 January 2014 to apply for a Protection Visa and navigate the complex ‘Fast Track’ assessment process.

70 volunteers were recruited and helped 76 Asylum Seekers to complete their Protection Visa applications.  In addition more than $80,000 was raised via a crowdfunding campaign to enable the SRP to employ professional interpreters to ensure that Asylum Seekers and volunteers could understand each other.

At the conclusion of Stage 1 of the project, we had received advice from 11 clients that they had been successful in obtaining protection visas. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is continuing the process of assessing the remaining applications.

You can read more about the Seeking Refugee Project here.

For more information about this project contact Mandi in our legal team.

Real Life Research in Partnership – Understanding Civil Law Needs of Older People and Building Research Capacity in Community Legal Centres

In 2020 we received funding from the Victoria Law Foundation (VLF) as part of its Knowledge Grant funding stream for our Knowledge Building Project examining civil law needs of older people in our region.

The purpose of the Knowledge Grants is to support community legal organisations to better understand their data and use it to respond to community need.

Our project partnered with Deakin University and established a partnership with Deakin’s Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Program to embed virtual student research interns within our service to assist with the collection and interpretation of data.

Our research project aimed to:

• develop a new understanding of the civil law needs of older people and barriers preventing access to legal assistance in the Barwon Region;
• better understand referral pathways and service gaps for older people;
• Strengthen our civil law and family violence services by incorporating this research into everyday practice.

The project also built an evidence-based framework for the collection, interpretation and application of available data, which we hope will result in an ongoing collaboration with Deakin to build our research and data capacity across other areas of legal practice.

In May 2022 we launched our research report capturing our findings and recommendations.  

You can access the Summary Report and Full Report below:

Real Life Research in Partnership – Understanding Civil Law Needs of Older People – Summary Report

Real Life Research in Partnership – Understanding Civil Law Needs of Older People – Full Report

For more information about this project please contact the community team.

SAFEStreets – A youth-led crime prevention education and awareness campaign

The SAFEStreets project is a partnership with the fOrT Youth Centre and aims to create a place-based community education campaign that is designed by young people living in the City of Greater Geelong for young people.

The project was established in March 2020 to work with young people and key local stakeholders to co-design an education and awareness campaign aimed at improving their understanding of the Victorian justice system and their legal rights and responsibilities.

A key focus of the project is establishing consistent messaging around key legal topics and developing creative and engaging community safety education resources that can be used across the region.

SAFEStreets was delivered in two phases

1. The first a co-design process led by young people in partnership with key stakeholders in the justice system. Through this process a series of practical workshops were designed along with a suite of creative resources to support the campaign. Due to COVID-19 we were required to deliver these workshops virtually in partnership with the fOrT Youth Centre.
2. The second phase of the program saw the resources created and distributed to local stakeholders in a variety of community legal education settings across the Barwon region.

Check out our SAFEStreets resources below

SAFEStreets established a reference group which oversaw the project planning and implementation and included representatives from the City of Greater Geelong’s fOrT Youth Centre, Victoria Legal Aid, Barwon Adolescent TaskForce, Barwon Child Youth and Family and Victoria Police.

We would like to acknowledge the support of the Department of Justice and Community Safety who have funded this project as part of their Community Safety Fund.