LawAccess NSW Communication Strategy - Aboriginal Communities 2013 - 2015
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LawAccess NSWCommunications Strategy - Aboriginal Communities2013 – 2015
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1. Introduction 2
1.1 Definition 2
1.2 Background 2
1.3 Target audience 3
1.4 Objectives 3
1.5 Consultation 3
2. Current situation 3
2.1 Telephone service 3
2.2 Online service 5
2.3 Raising awareness of LawAccess NSW and other legal assistance services 6
3. Feedback 6
4. Action - key priorities 7
5. Budget 8
6. Strategy priorities 9
7. Document information 14
8. Document history 14
Appendix A 15
We acknowledge the Barramattagul clan of the Darug people as the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. We extend our respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
1. Introduction
The LawAccess NSW Communications Strategy – Aboriginal Communities 2013 -2015 identifies ways LawAccess NSW can enhance its service and tailor its communication programs to raise awareness of its service with Aboriginal communities.
1.1 Definition
For the purpose of the Communications Strategy – Aboriginal Communities 2013 - 2015, a reference to Aboriginal people includes Torres Strait Islander people.
Aboriginal communities is a reference to Aboriginal people living in a geographic area. We recognise each local Aboriginal community has its own diversity with members of a community having different backgrounds, affiliations, needs and views.
1.2 Background
In the 2011 ABS Census 172,621 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people live in NSW representing 2.5% of the NSW population. 68% live in regional, rural or remote areas of NSW.
It is recognised that Aboriginal people living in NSW still experience substantial disadvantage.[1] Aboriginal people are one of the groups more likely to experience transport disadvantage particularly Aboriginal people living in remote areas and in outer urban areas[2] impacting on the ability to access services.
Aboriginal people experience significant barriers in seeking access to information and services to meet their legal needs.[3] Unaddressed family and civil law problems in Aboriginal communities have the potential for the problems to escalate to a criminal law issue.[4]
It has also been shown that legal problems have an adverse impact on the everyday lives of people, particularly where a person is experiencing a substantial or number of substantial legal problems. This impact can include stress related illness, physical ill health and relationship breakdowns.[5]
LawAccess NSW through its telephone and online service can assist Aboriginal people, as a starting point, to help identify their legal problem and to access information, services and advice about their legal question or problem.
The purpose of this Strategy is to identify and reduce barriers to accessing our service and to raise awareness of LawAccess NSW and other legal assistance services.
1.3 Target audience
Our communication programs will target Aboriginal people. The programs will particularly target Aboriginal communities in regional, rural and remote areas.
1.4 Objectives
Our objectives for the next three years are to:
n Identify any improvement opportunities to enhance access to our service by Aboriginal people
n Work together with Aboriginal communities to increase the awareness of our service and the availability of other legal assistance services to Aboriginal people
n Develop partnerships with government agencies and non-government organisations to increase the awareness of our service and of the availability of other legal assistance services with Aboriginal people
n Ensure that the Strategy addresses the needs of Aboriginal people by reviewing, monitoring and evaluating the Strategy
1.5 Consultation
We developed a consultation plan to develop the Strategy. Our aim was to obtain a diversity of views from Aboriginal people and interested organisations across NSW about how to raise awareness of our service in Aboriginal communities.
The detailed feedback and advice we received on ways to raise awareness in particular Aboriginal communities across the State will guide our work over the next three years. We will continue to seek advice and feedback during the course of the Strategy.
See Appendix A for details of the Consultation Plan and who assisted us with feedback and advice to develop this Strategy.
2. Current situation
2.1 Telephone service
LawAccess NSW is a telephone service providing free legal help as a starting point for people who live in NSW or who have a legal problem in NSW.
We provide information, referrals and in some cases, legal advice. Aboriginal people are one of LawAccess NSW’ priority customer groups for legal advice.[6]
Our customer service staff are the first point of contact for our customers. We have two Aboriginal Customer Service Officers.
The Aboriginal Customer Service Officer positions are part of the LawAccess NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment strategy which aims to:
n provide an opportunity for Aboriginal law students to develop skills whilst completing their legal studies
n provide an opportunity for Aboriginal law students to complete their 16 week work experience component of Practical Legal Training
n build capacity and future employment opportunities of Indigenous employees within LawAccess NSW, within the Department of Attorney General & Justice and public sector generally, and within other legal or related sectors, and
n enhance the capacity of LawAccess NSW to deliver effective, accessible & culturally appropriate legal information, advice and referral services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities in NSW
All our staff receive cultural awareness training on induction.
Since 2010 we ask all our customers if they are Aboriginal. LawAccess NSW collects this information for the following reasons:
n Aboriginal people are priority customers for getting legal advice from LawAccess NSW. Asking customers if they are Aboriginal will help us identify customers for priority assistance
n Aboriginal customers have the option of speaking to one of our Aboriginal Customer Service Officers
n together with the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, Legal Aid NSW, and other organisations, we are seeking to build a picture of the legal needs of people in NSW. This includes the needs of particular groups of people in NSW, such as Aboriginal people. To do that, it is important that we collect statistics of the number of Aboriginal callers to LawAccess NSW, where they are calling from, and what type of legal matters they call about. We are in a position to provide relevant organisations with valuable data because we take a high volume of calls from all across NSW[7]
In the last financial year, 6% of our customers identified as Aboriginal.[8]
If a customer identifies as Aboriginal, we give the customer the option of talking to an Aboriginal Customer Service Officer.[9]
Our customer service staff and Aboriginal Customer Service Officers can assist Aboriginal customers with legal information and referrals.
The referral to another service can be to a specialist legal advice service. For example, for our Aboriginal customers the referral may be to the Aboriginal Legal Service, Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Service, PIAC or an Aboriginal Tenancy Service.
The referral can also be to a non-legal service where a customer requires non-legal information and assistance. For example, our Aboriginal customers with health problems will be referred to an Aboriginal Medical Service.[10]
Our customer service staff and Aboriginal Customer Service Officers will also consider arranging for the Aboriginal customer to get legal advice. Every attempt will be made to transfer the customer directly to an available Legal Officer for advice, otherwise the Legal Officer will call the customer back.
The customer is also given the option of being supported by an Aboriginal Customer Service Officer if advice is going to be given by a Legal Officer.
The Aboriginal Customer Service Officer can support the customer during an advice session by ensuring that the Legal Officer understands the issues raised by the customer, and to ensure that they are receiving a culturally appropriate service.[11]
LawAccess NSW is contacted through one central 1300 number. The cost of the call is the cost of a local call from a landline.[12] Even though the average time a customer spends in our queue is 43 seconds,[13] we acknowledge the cost of calling LawAccess NSW on a mobile phone can be a barrier to using our service. As part of our flexible service delivery strategy, customer service staff are encouraged to offer to call back a customer where they have limited credit available. We also encourage services to allow customers to contact LawAccess NSW from the service’s landline where customers do not have access to landlines or have no or limited credit available on mobile phones.
2.2 Online service
Our website is a single access point to search for information about a legal problem or question. It allows access to easy to read legal resources such as factsheets, forms and publications from a range of government and non-government legal services such as Legal Aid NSW, Community Legal Centres and Courts.
The website includes LawAssist, a website set up to assist people who have a legal problem in NSW and who are representing themselves. Each LawAssist topic[14] gives:
§ step by step guides to running a case
§ instructions for filling out court forms
§ checklists and frequently asked questions
§ information on alternatives to court
§ contacts for further information and service
2.3 Raising awareness of LawAccess NSW and other legal assistance services
Since 2007 our communication program has included:
n implementation of our Communications Strategy 2007 – 2009[15]
n design and distribution of the ‘Are you Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander & Need Legal Help?’ resource in a range of formats
n development and implementation of our Communications Strategy - Older Persons[16]
n development and implementation of our Communications Strategy - people from CALD communities
n development and implementation of our Communications Strategy – people with disability 2012 -2015[17]
n promotion of LawAccess Online including LawAssist
3. Feedback
We learnt from the feedback received that each local Aboriginal community has different ways of raising awareness of services in its community. Some of the feedback we received included:
‘The most important way to raise awareness is to visit the community and put a face to the service…’
‘Word of mouth and one on one communication gets the word out…we can help with this..’
‘The protocol for the Community is to do this kind of thing (raising awareness) at a meeting of the Community Working party…’
‘Let Aboriginal organisations know about the service …people looking for help will go to the organisations for help…’
‘Only two organisations (in the community) … the Community Working Party may be the better way to go - attend a meeting to raise awareness …’
‘Local community paper … is a good way of getting word out…’
‘Display posters in AMS and the Land Council…’
‘Need to get to broader community if they are not affiliated with one of the organisations - do this by radio…’
‘Can put a flyer in each person’s mail box…’
‘Someone from LawAccess attend a community meeting - a number are held …men’s group, women’s group, working party meeting, Local Aboriginal Land Council meeting…’
‘important to attend all three meetings to meet all members of the community…do announcements on local radio … a lot of people do not read the local newspaper but listen to the radio…’
4. Action - key priorities
We will focus on enhancing access to our service by consulting with peak organisations and community working parties to identify improvement opportunities to enhance access to our service by Aboriginal people.
We will continue to listen to advice and feedback from a broad section of people in local Aboriginal communities and we will tailor our activities to raise awareness of LawAccess NSW to Aboriginal people living in that community.[18] We acknowledge that a “one size fits all” model will not work to deliver the outcomes of this Strategy.[19]
For example, we will tailor our media campaigns to specific Aboriginal communities. In the local Aboriginal communities in Bourke, Brewarrina and Weilmoringle, for example, radio is a source of information for the community. One of the stations that the community listens to is 2CUZ FM. With the Muda Aboriginal Corporation, we will develop radio advertisements using local voice talent to be played on the station. The station also broadcasts to communities in Goodooga, Lightning Ridge and Walgett. We will also work with the other identified radio stations, Outback Radio 2WEB, National Indigenous Radio Service and Koori Radio, to get the message out about our service in these communities.
We will also work collaboratively with government agencies and non-government organisations to identify opportunities to increase awareness with Aboriginal people of our service and of the availability of other legal assistance services, including:
n Commonwealth government agencies and State government agencies that support Aboriginal people through programs and services or that provide funding or grants to organisations delivering services to Aboriginal people
n Local government shires and councils through their Aboriginal Development Officers
n Legal Aid NSW, Aboriginal Legal Service and NSW Community Legal Centres, in particular, specialist Community Legal Centres providing services for Aboriginal people such as Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Service and family violence prevention services such as Thiyama-li Family Violence Service
5. Budget
The implementation of this Strategy will generally be met from the LawAccess NSW’ operational budget. Additional funding may be sought in the event that an initiative will involve greater cost to LawAccess NSW.
LawAccess NSW Communication Strategy - Aboriginal Communities 2013 - 2015
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6. Strategy priorities
Identify opportunities to enhance access to LawAccess NSW
Key priorities / Action / Timeframes / Success Indicators /1. Establish and build partnerships to identify opportunities to enhance service / Obtain feedback and identify opportunities to enhance access to the service through consultation with:
§ relevant Justice Cluster Agencies[20]
§ Aboriginal peak organisations or Aboriginal advisory bodies
§ Partnership Community Program Communities / 30 June 2014 / Opportunities to enhance service identified
Take steps to deliver service enhancement opportunities / 30 June 2015 / Delivery of service enhanced
Increase awareness of LawAccess NSW and other legal assistance services