What’s your name and position?

Genevieve Bolton, Executive Director/Principal Solicitor, Canberra Community Law

How long have you been with Canberra Community Law, and what do you love most about working there?

I have been at Canberra Community Law since 2003. I will leave it to you the reader to do the maths!
I love my job. Canberra Community Law is a special workplace. Our people care about our clients and each other, and I think there is a real sense of commitment and belonging here. I work with wonderful people who are incredibly talented, creative and are always thinking outside the box to come up with solutions to what sometimes seem like insurmountable problems. I love the diversity in my job and that there is no typical day. My role involves anything from assisting our clients with their legal matters, meeting with politicians and key stakeholders, giving evidence before Parliamentary and other inquiries, working on proposals for new initiatives and projects, briefing the Canberra Community Law Board on governance matters, undertaking strategic work, meeting with staff, and everything in between. It is extremely rewarding and fulfilling to be able to work in an organisation where it is possible to achieve progressive long-term change and make a real difference in the day to day lives of our clients.

What are the primary focus areas and how do you measure the impact on the community?

Canberra Community Law was the first independent community legal centre established in the ACT. What makes Canberra Community Law unique is that it houses under one roof several specialist legal services designed to deliver tailored holistic legal services to Canberrans experiencing intersectional and complex disadvantage. It is the only free legal service in the ACT specialising in public housing, Centrelink, disability discrimination and homelessness law. Our areas of specialisation mean that our clients are the most disadvantaged members of our community with many experiencing homelessness, disability, family violence, mental ill-health and complex trauma whilst subsisting in poverty on social security payments. Our programs are designed to provide wrap-around legal services through a trauma-informed and culturally competent human rights framework. Canberra Community Law measures its impact through a variety of ways, including client outcomes, client feedback, accessibility of our services, our influence in achieving progressive long-term change and our capacity to evolve to meet changes in community need.

As Canberra Community Law celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2024, what key changes have you seen to better address community needs?

There has been more focus on providing holistic, wrap-around around and trauma-informed legal services and involving people with lived experience in the design and delivery of services.
With the amazing support of the Snow Foundation, Canberra Community Law pioneered in the ACT a decade ago a Socio-Legal Practice clinic model that involves an in-house social worker working together to provide intensive legal and social support to help clients progress their legal matters. 10 years on, our Socio-Legal Practice clinic model is still going strong and achieving life-changing outcomes for clients who may otherwise have fallen through the cracks.
In a more recent service initiative, Canberra Community Law has integrated and actively drawn on the expertise of artists with lived experience in our legal education work partnering with Rebus Theatre and Legal Aid ACT to deliver ‘Just Hearing’. Just Hearing is an interactive training performance that supports people with mental health challenges to access the justice system.

Looking ahead, what new initiatives or projects are on the horizon?

We have a range of new initiatives and projects on the horizon including updating our website and resources, establishing a Climate Change Justice Clinic, moving to a new client document management system, advocating for fairer laws for renters and for the right to housing and rolling out new outreach services to name just but a few.