On January 30, 2014, we are hosting a symposium followed by a celebration to mark 40 years of providing legal service to our community. We hope you'll be able to join us for this exciting and fun event! Please Register electronically below (Registration is required).
When: January 30, 2014. The Symposium's morning session will begin at 9:30am. The afternoon session will begin at 1:30pm. The Celebration will begin at 4:45pm. Where: The Symposium will take place 246 Sackvile Street, Toronto. The Celebration will take place across the street at the Paintbox Bistro at 555 Dundas Street East. FREE catering will be provided at the Paintbox Bistro, and a cash bar will be available. What: A full schedule and summary of the day is below, along with biographies of the speakers. Each part of the Symposium will feature 2 keynote speakers and a panel discussion. The morning discussion will be on Access to Justice for lower-income persons. The afternoon session will focus on what it means for community agencies to be providing front-line services in an era of austerity and budget cuts. |
Click here to read short biographies for each of our speakers!
Panel 1 Précis: Access to Justice The income gap between those who can routinely pay for legal services and those who qualify for legal aid is widening as prices for legal services increase and financial eligibility guidelines remain stagnant, fixed at levels already too low in the last century. The judicial system at the same time seems to have been hijacked by those with money: those who have the means can hire lawyers to translate and navigate the requirements to be met in pursuit of rights or claims and they have the capacity to ride any wave of misfortune. Those without means and without a legal aid assistant enter the system to the chagrin of regular participants; even if they are able to persist their outcomes are seldom positive. Anyone without means and/or with an urgent problem is very likely to be frustrated. The capacity within the civil legal aid community has been seriously eroded in the past decade. Burgeoning problems and funding restrictions have narrowed the availability of services dramatically to the point that few clinics are able to provide substantive legal services outside cases involving “irretrievable” benefits (eviction from subsidized social housing, loss of welfare or disability benefits, loss of status and deportation). By far, most clinic cases today face a “government” lawyer or agent on the other side. This is the state of access to justice today. What strategies can be developed to make justice more accessible? Panel 2 Précis: Delivering front line services Service deliverers face pressures that pull them in different directions: scarcer funding means “doing more with less” and more clients with increasingly complex needs means it “takes more to deal with fewer clients”. While organizational leaders continue to rattle the cages of funders to provide more, program managers and front line workers are left to face the every day realities of providing service. There is wide spread recognition of deepening poverty in our community and its increased racialization, of the social determinants of health and well being, and of the cascading effect of problems. These are deeply systemic problems but they and their consequences present through many of our clients in our offices every day. Case management, holistic service, service hubs, service co-ordination, self help and greater use of technology are but a few of the code words used to describe or encourage alternate ways of working that will (?) help alleviate the pressure. What are effective strategies for more effectively working with our clients and for supporting our workers? Click here to read short biographies for each of our speakers! |
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