Moreland Community Legal Centre Inc
Aims and Objectives
We recognise that our social, legal and economic systems are inherently inequitable, and that sections of our community experience injustice at both individual and collective levels.
In particular, we recognise that these inequalities are present in our catchment areas of Moreland Municipality that have historically been characterised by a range of disadvantages. There are large numbers of people who experience disadvantages and discrimination created by structural barriers including insecure housing, having to survive on inadequate incomes, physical, psychiatric and intellectual disabilities, being new to the country and not speaking/reading English.
Our aims are to:
- Provide a free and readily accessible legal and financial counselling service to people in necessitous circumstances and who qualify under the service's eligibility criteria who live in the suburbs of Moreland Municipality and to such other person as the service may from time-to-time decide.
- Participate in and provide free legal and consumer financial education in the community.
- Participate in and involve persons in the community in the recognition, understanding and solution of their own legal, financial, economic and related problems.
- Participate and practice preventative law.
- Initiate and participate in law reform.
- Initiate and participate in social and economic reforms that promote social and economic justice.
We aim to achieve this by:
- Practising casework that works towards equalising the power imbalances between advisor and client.
- Working in ways that enable individuals to gain greater control over their lives.
- Providing community education and awareness programs.
- Collaborating with other community organisations to address the structural barriers that disadvantage and discriminate against certain sectors of the community.
- Promoting law reform through participation in working groups, networking politicians, preparation of draft reports and legislation.
- Participation in working groups which aim to promote social equality through law reform.
- To initiate and be involved in campaigns.
