Community Legal Education

Community development is a major part of our work and providing Community Legal Education (CLE) is essential to this role.

CLE can be defined as: “…the provision of information and education to members of the community, on an individual or group basis, concerning the law and legal processes, and the place of these in the structure of society. The community may be defined geographically or by issue.” (National CLE Committee, 1995, p1)

This might include:

• talking to community groups on specific issues
• undertaking joint projects with other local community groups on local issues that have a legal or related impact
• providing advice to groups about the legal rights and obligations of incorporated or unincorporated associations
• participating in statewide education projects being undertaken either by the Federation of Community Legal Centresor other organisations
• preparing legal education and self-help materials for the community
• liaising with community networks
• participating in the management of other community agencies
• connecting members of the community with common interests and problems, or
• helping members of the community to develop self-help skills, materials and projects.

Some CLCs employ a community legal education or project worker. However, most CLC staff are involved with community legal education and development in some way.

More information

Visit the different websites of our CLCs to see what CLE work is being done across individual centres. You can also use the Find a Local CLC or Find a Specialist CLC page to find the websites.

The Federation also facilitates theCommunity Legal EducationWorking Group. The working group brings together CLE workers within different CLCs. For contacts, see the working groups page.