The outcome of the 2018 Grants funding round was announced by the Attorney-General on 29 October 2018. The Victorian Legal Services Board Grants Program provided $4.2 million to 18 projects through the 2018 Grant round.

2018 Grants: $4.2M to 18 organisations.

Unravelling the Complex Infringement System: A Health, Legal and Community Response to Enhance Pathways for Vulnerable Clients with Infringement Debt in the South East

Peninsula Community Legal Centre Inc.
$250,000 over 2.5 Years

This project will work in collaboration with current initiatives being undertaken by West Justice and Victoria Legal Aid to identify opportunities for systemic improvements to the infringements system and share learnings related to their work in addressing infringements in the South East.

Building the Health Justice Partnership (HJP) Pipeline

Health Justice Australia
$150,000 over 3 Years

This project develops a pipeline through which aspirational HJPs can identify when and how they can reorient their service model towards best practice HJPs.

Clean Slates: A Health Justice Partnership between the Gippsland Community Legal Service (GCLS) and Community Mental Health Services

Anglicare Victoria
$260,000 over 2 Years

The GCLS Clean Slates project will provide more accessible and timely access to legal services for people impacted with a mental health illness in Latrobe, and in turn improve health outcomes.

Sporting Change

Springvale Monash Legal Service Inc.
$330,000 over 2 Years

In the City of Casey, Sporting Change educates diverse young people to engage constructively in their community and society by using sport to educate them about the justice system.

Women’s Arts Officer in Prisons & Community

The Torch Project
$100,000 over 1 Year

This project supports the employment of a designated officer with The Torch Project whose primary focus/responsibility is to work directly with Indigenous female prisoners situated in both the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and Tarrengower women’s prisons in Victoria and post release.

Advance Statements

Mental Health Legal Centre (MHLC) Inc.
$80,000 over 1 Year

MHLC will collaborate with providers of mental health services across Victoria to expand the knowledge and understanding of the impact and uses of Advance Statements.

Joining Up Justice: Building smart integrations between justice agencies to improve the experience of looking for legal help and to link more Victorians with pro bono legal help

Justice Connect
$180,000 over 2 Years

This project will result in more lawyers doing pro bono work and more people receiving free legal assistance through improvements to the new Gateway online intake and referral system creating smart integrations between Justice Connect and other agencies including Legal Aid, Community Legal Centres and health services.

Rachel and her Children

Fitzroy Legal Service
$268,000 over 15 Months

This project will pilot a model of collaboration between legal assistance services and child-centred services. It will involve a multi-disciplinary practice (MDP) approach with a lawyer and child focused worker assisting parents who are victims/survivors of family violence.

Eastern Integrated Practice Project

Eastern Community Legal Centre
$495,000 over 2 Years

This project seeks to enhance access to justice and legal support for people experiencing increased vulnerability and disadvantage, through integrated practice approaches between legal and community service professionals.

Stories of Strength: A storytelling and media project for women with lived prison experience

Federation of Community Legal Centres (Victoria)
$120,000 over 1 Year

Women are the fastest growing population in Victoria’s prisons, with their imprisonment having broader implications for their families, social groups and dependents. Stories of Strength will work directly with women, providing them with the skills and platforms to share their stories for personal recovery and systemic change.

First Step Health-Justice Outreach Project and Evaluation (First Step HOPE)

First Step
$100,000 over 2 Years

First Step Legal will provide an outreach legal clinic to Windana Therapeutic Community, providing legal advice and representation to residents actively engaged in treatment and in recovery.

Invisible Hurdles Project – Stage 2

Hume Riverina Community Legal Service (Upper Murray Family Care)
$340,000 over 2 Years

Invisible Hurdles project (Stage 2) will continue the Lawyer’s presence at Partner Agencies, with the addition of a Community Development Worker. Stage 2 will test whether the continued provision of generalist legal services over time, together with a community development approach targeting family violence, will lead to young people gaining increased confidence to access help regarding family violence problems.

Justice in Mind

Mind Australia Limited
$430,000 over 2.5 Years

‘Justice in Mind’ (JiM) combines an early intervention model of directly accessible legal advice and representation at multiple community mental health settings in Victoria, with a program of systemic rights-based advocacy, coalition building, policy development, and legal education across the community sector.

Abused and Abandoned: Family Violence in the Australian Indian Community

Northern Community Legal Centre
$330,000 over 2 Years

This project will respond to the well documented phenomenon of abused and abandoned Indian brides in transnational spaces. It will improve not only local case work but build the understanding of and improved coordination of legal and non-legal responses at a local, state and national level.

The Ripple Effect: Legal education for diverse faith-based communities

Sir Zelman Cowen Centre, Victoria University
$120,000 over 1 Year

Faith-based organisations serve the needs of CALD, refugee and newly arrived communities. This project pioneers a community development model to improve understanding of the Australian legal system, especially the specific governance challenges faced by hard to reach faith-based organisations.

The provision of peer support through legal processes to non-offending partners of people found to be accessing child abuse material online

PartnerSPEAK
$100,000 over 2 Years

The provision of peer support through legal processes to non-offending partners of people found to be accessing child abuse material online and a framework for this support.

Family Violence and Migration Law Project

Refugee Legal
$199,200 over 2 Years

Refugee Legal will improve access to migration law advice and assistance for women on temporary visas or without visas who are experiencing family violence.

Community Legal PACER Partnership (CLPP)

Inner Melbourne Community Legal Centre
$347,000 over 2 Years

The Police, Ambulance and Clinical Early Response (PACER) team in the inner-north west provides an on-the-spot clinical assessment of risk for people experiencing a mental health episode. The CLPP project will expand upon this model to provide specialised, immediate legal assistance to these individuals.