Name of Organization: Community Legal Clinic of York Region
Website of Organization: www.clcyr.on.ca
Organization’s Mandate: The Community Legal Clinic of York Region promotes access to justice and the elimination of poverty through legal representation, summary advice, referrals, public legal education and information, community development, and law reform.
Project Name: PLE & Client Intake
Project Type: Public Legal Education (presentations, workshops, podcasts, brochures, blogs, etc.) & Research (memoranda used for internal purposes only)
Project Delivery: Remote
Description of Project: The Community Legal Clinic of York Region (“CLCYR”) is a not-for-profit organization serving low-income residents in York Region. CLCYR supports York residents with a variety of legal matters related to:
– Housing and Tenant’s Rights
– Social Assistance
– Criminal Injuries Compensation Board Claims – Advice on Employment Law
– Advice on Immigration Law
The CLCYR project involves creating content for public legal education (PLE) in their core areas of law (i.e. Social Assistance Law, Housing, etc.) to support clinic clients. Research topics for PLE will be selected each week by students and research findings will be shared with the lawyer supervisor at the end of the week.
In addition to conducting legal research for the public legal education materials, there are opportunities to support client intake by supporting clients in filling out their legal forms (i.e. immigration documents). All completed legal forms will be reviewed and approved by the supervising lawyer prior to use by the client.
Role of Student Volunteers: Students will be involved in legal research or creating content for public legal education. Students will conduct and produce research memos for case workers with a focus on Social Assistance Law but will also include other domains of law such as housing and immigration. At the start of each week students will meet online with their supervisor to discuss a research topic or question and will meet again at the end of the week to discuss the student’s findings. Students may also be tasked with completing social assistance file work and other administrative tasks.
Role of Supervising Lawyer(s): The Supervising Lawyer will oversee the research, legal forms and review and approve memorandums produced by students prior to use by the partner organization.
Type of Law: Various areas of law depending on the research topic assigned, but areas may include: immigration and refugee law.
Main Project Deliverable: Creating produced content (e.g. research memos, brochures, podcasts, etc.)
Number of Student Placements: 2 students
Hours per week the student volunteer(s) will be expected to work: 3-5 hours/week
Regular shifts or a flexible schedule: Flexible
Is there a workspace provided for the student at the Organization: No
Devices and technologies the students will be required to have: Computer, phone, internet, Microsoft office, access to legal databases.
Is there an expectation for the student(s) to be bilingual: No, but speaking other languages is an asset.
Law School Pre-Requisites: N/A
Other Requirements or Expectations: N/A