Dr Chris Atmore, Senior Policy Adviser, Federation of Community Legal Centres (Victoria) Inc.

This article was first published in Parity magazine, a publication of the Council to Homeless Persons.

Community legal centres (CLCs) play an essential part in the Victorian response to family violence. Most obviously, 20 CLCs provide duty lawyers for family violence intervention order matters in 29 Magistrates’ Courts around the State. These CLCs mainly assist victims – the majority being women and their children – so that they can be effectively protected from the perpetrator’s violence. The fact that CLCs specialise in this way helps victims, because those CLCs are aware of the appropriate support pathways, have close relationships with other family violence service providers, and are trained to work with traumatised clients. Continue reading →