Natasha Jaczek, University of Ottawa
Abstract: Imagine a Public Legal Education (PLE) program that was wildly popular among a group of urban Inuit youth, while also remarkably effective at building these young people’s conventional legal capability skills. Now imagine that the program only included 25 percent substantive common law content. The other 75 percent of the program involved sharing meals, youth-led Inuit games, Elder-led Inuit legal traditions and traditional teachings as they relate to modern everyday legal problems. Inuusuktunut Maligalirinirmut Ikajuqtiit was just that: a PLE program based on youth-led, culturally responsive, everyday legal pluralism.
Objectives: To showcase a transformative justice education model and provide an evidence-
based example linking contextual legal pluralism and legal empowerment for urban Inuit youth in Ottawa.
Key Topics:
- Decentering the Common Law
- Understand the importance of contextual legal pluralism and its role in culturally responsive PLE.
- Strategic community-centric approaches, minimizing lawyers’ influence.
- Slow Approach Community Trust-Building
- Importance of trust-building in community-based PLE.
- Techniques for creating a supportive and inclusive learning environment.
- Youth-led Critical Legal Pedagogy
- Strategies for engaging youth in their own legal learning.
- Youth-led development and facilitation of workshops.
- Alternative Evaluation Methods
- Assessing the impact and success of PLE initiatives.
- Key findings from the Inuusuktunut Maligalirinirmut Ikajuqtiit program relating to time, space and place.
Methodology: Employing quantitative data, qualitative insights, and interactive elements, this presentation blends personal testimonials with audience participation to offer a holistic perspective.
Expected Outcomes:
Participants will:
- Understand the significance of legal pluralism in PLE.
- Gain insights into engaging marginalized youth in PLE.
- Learn trust-building approaches for community-based PLE providers.
- Acquire evaluation techniques for PLE initiatives.
Conclusion: Inuusuktunut Maligalirinirmut Ikajuqtiit showcases legal pluralism’s potency in PLE. Prioritizing cultural traditions, community engagement, and youth empowerment, the program addresses legal capability and fosters trust within marginalized communities, bridging the justice gap and ensuring accessible and culturally responsive access to justice.
Diana Lowe, Reforming the Family Justice System
In Canada there has been a longstanding and ever-increasing concern about the family justice system. People who work in the system, families who turn to the family justice system for help, and reports about system reform speak about the crisis in family justice. Whether involving separation and divorce, child welfare situations or family violence, we know that the system is not working for families and in fact, is often doing more harm than good.
Over the past decade, Alberta’s Reforming the Family Justice System (RFJS) has been working to reimagine family justice. The RFJS is a multi-year, multi-sector collaboration, designed to effect system-wide change in the family justice system in Alberta, based on evidence of brain science, Adverse Childhood Experiences and resilience. It involves a paradigm shift in the approach to family matters, which is seeking to shift the focus in family justice matters away from adversarial, legal responses, to making supports available to assist families with the social, relationship, parenting, financial and health issues that arise in family matters. The outcome collaborators are seeking is family well-being, which we define as “Helping Families Thrive”.
The RFJS is designed to bring about system-wide transformation in the family justice system in Alberta, based on the evidence of brain science, resilience and the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). This science has helped us to understand that the toxic stress arising from unresolved family disputes can have negative consequences for parents and their children. Brain science confirms not only the impact of ACEs on future health and social outcomes, but also the ability to build resilience and buffer the effects of toxic stress through supports and skills-building for families and children.
We will describe the changes that are underway to improve outcomes, based on an understanding of brain science, which helps us to know what causes harm, and what we can do to prevent or reduce that harm through fundamental changes in our systems. While the RFJS is a province-wide initiative, over the past four years we have been engaging with collaborators from across many sectors in Grande Prairie, Alberta – which has become a demonstration community for the initiative. Supported by Strategy Mapping and a platform that supports the many efforts that are underway, collaborators are working together to increase the community’s capacity to support families who are restructuring. This support will equip families with the skills required to communicate well, make decisions with the well-being of their children at the forefront, and will assist families with the social, relationship, parenting, financial and health issues that arise in family matters.
Kristen Wallwork, CEO, South-East Monash Legal Service
Ashleigh Newnham, South-East Monash Legal Service
- Interventions and approaches to enhance equality in access to civil justice for underserved groups;
- Research regarding the outcomes and impacts of legal services, or the return on investment regarding the delivery of legal services; and
- The place of access to justice in legal education
Proposed Topic: Access to justice and Legal Education: a program case study
Schools and teachers are with the complex issues facing young people today. Social media, toxic masculinity, mental health crisis are just some of the issues young people are learning to navigate in 2024. Many young people are encountering the legal system for the first time. Whether dealing with family matters, employment, consumer problems, criminal charges, or understanding the legalities of social media, our young people need assistance in navigating these complex issues.
Young people are disconnected from the justice system. They lack understanding of how the justice system works; their legal rights and responsibilities and – crucially – they lack trust and confidence in key stakeholders within these systems, such as police, lawyers, and courts.
Sporting Change
South East Monash Legal Service developed Sporting Change, in collaboration with schools and councils in our region. The program consists of two main components: the school lawyer program and the after-school education program. The school lawyer is part of the wellbeing team at the schools once a week and provides free confidential legal advice to students from any year level. Through legal education, young people are empowered to understand their rights at work, in public spaces, in the home, and when making purchases. Sporting clubs co-facilitate the sporting session together with SMLS staff where we explain the sporting links between the activity of the day and the module. After the sports has finished, SMLS staff facilitate interactive learning about the law. We use fun and engaging activities to teach young people about the legal consequences of highly relevant issues such as drugs, weapons, sexual assault and family violence. It is a free and voluntary program that runs one day a week in the school gym.
Many of the young people who sought legal advice from the school lawyer have never been in trouble with the law before. The integrated school lawyer can assist young people to deal with legal issues before they become a crisis. Research indicates that timely, accessible legal advice improves young peoples’ outcomes in the justice system and prevents issues from escalating.
Informed students, aware of their rights and responsibilities, tend to make better decisions and proactively seek timely legal advice, thus avoiding escalating, negative encounters with the law.
Teaching young people about complex issues such as sexting, relationships, family violence and consent is complex and requires the development of authentic communication strategies with young people- where they do not feel judged or made to feel like their culture or religion is at odds with other values.
IMPACT
Since launching in 2017, the program has demonstrated positive outcomes for students by reducing the impacts of legal problems on school connection and community participation. Evaluations demonstrate that students have:
- An increased understanding of their legal rights and responsibilities;
- An improved ability to navigate the service delivery system;
- An increased resilience and ability to engage constructively in negative situations;
- A decreased likelihood of negative encounters with the justice system;
Beyond legal knowledge, the program has also fostered in students:
- An greater capacity to remain living at home and attending school;
- A positive attitude toward authority and society;
- An improved sense of well-being;
- Continued interest and engagement in sports programs;
- An interest in pursuing law and youth work careers.