Ecrtp Final Report 150724

FINAL REPORT
THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

July 2015
Public Interest Strategy & Communications Inc.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................. 1
BACKGROUND ...................................................................................................................... 1
RESEARCH ............................................................................................................................ 1
FINDINGS ............................................................................................................................... 1
AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT................................................................................................ 3
NEXT STEPS.......................................................................................................................... 5
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 6
PROJECT STRUCTURE ........................................................................................................ 6
THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION...................................................................................... 7
METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 11
OVERVIEW............................................................................................................................11
METHODS .............................................................................................................................11
CLINIC CAPACITY........................................................................................................ 14
DEMOGRAPHIC MAPPING .......................................................................................... 20
COMMUNITY RESOURCE MAPPING ......................................................................... 29
LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................. 35
INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................35
GENERAL SERVICE DELIVERY ...........................................................................................35
RURAL SERVICE DELIVERY ................................................................................................40
SERVING ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES ..............................................................................54
LINGUISTIC SERVICE DELIVERY ........................................................................................58
MEDICAL LEGAL PARTNERSHIPS ......................................................................................60
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH SUMMARIES ................................................................... 64

STAFF FOCUS GROUP SUMMARY .....................................................................................64
CLIENT FOCUS GROUP SUMMARIES ................................................................................70
CLIENT SURVEY OUTPUT ...................................................................................................83
COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDER KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEWS.........................................85
BOARD MEMBER QUESTIONNAIRE ...................................................................................93
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEWS ..................................................96
ISSUES & OPTIONS................................................................................................... 103

REACHING NOT THE USUAL SUSPECTS: ......................................................................103
CLINIC SERVICES ..............................................................................................................113
COLLABORATIVE STRUCTURES ......................................................................................117
CLINIC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ..............................................................................123
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 126

APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. 127
APPENDIX I: Eastern Ontario Community Legal Clinics Memorandum of Understanding ....128
APPENDIX II: Committee Members .....................................................................................135
APPENDIX III: Maps ............................................................................................................136
APPENDIX IV: Works Cited .................................................................................................162
APPENDIX V: Staff Focus Group Questions ........................................................................170
APPENDIX VI: Client Focus Group Questions .....................................................................172
APPENDIX VII: Client Survey...............................................................................................175
APPENDIX VIII: Client Survey Results .................................................................................183
APPENDIX IX: Community Partner Key Informant Interview Questions ...............................191
APPENDIX X: Board Member Key Questionnaire ................................................................193
APPENDIX XI: Executive Director Key Informant Interview Questions .................................195
APPENDIX XII: Back Office Integration Strategies ...............................................................198
APPENDIX XIII: Increased Relationship with LAO ...............................................................205
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
BACKGROUND
Ten community legal clinics across East and Central Ontario have come together to conduct
research to better understand the needs of their communities, the assets available and how they
can work together to better meet those needs.
RESEARCH
The research methodology was developed to engage stakeholders and capture the information
that can best inform local decision making. The process started with background research into
the expertise and strengths of each of the participating community legal clinics. It incorporated
a literature review, as well as the mapping of demographic data, and of community resources
and services available. Community consultations were facilitated, including focus groups with
legal clinic staff and clients, key informant interviews with community partners, stakeholders
and executive directors of legal clinics, and finally with surveys for board members and clients.
FINDINGS
LEGAL CLINIC CAPACITY
Participating community legal clinics have a high level of expertise, and have developed many
different strategies to conduct their work effectively. Some gaps were identified through
mapping the satellite and main office locations of legal clinics. The areas of law that clinics
currently provide and would like to provide in the future were charted, which showed some
common interest in expanding areas of law and ensuring broader access to key areas of law. This
chart also showed a high level of expertise in the region in the most common areas of demand,
especially income maintenance, housing and employment law.
DEMOGRAPHIC MAPS
The demographic maps emphasized that the communities participating in this research project
are very diverse. As a result, there can be no one size fits all approach that could work in the
region, and community legal clinics will have to develop innovative ways to meet the needs of
their distinct demographics. These maps show us areas that might have lower clinic service
delivery, such as rural areas that have many low-income families or areas that would require
outreach to engage specific populations, such as Francophone populations, seniors and
Aboriginal communities.
COMMUNITY RESOURCE MAPS

Community resources, like service delivery agencies, health centres, and homeless shelters, were
mapped in the region, in order to identify where there might be potential partners for
community legal clinics. These maps show that in some areas especially in more rural areas
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there tend to be a lack of resources addressing homelessness, and also lack of resources for some
target populations. In most areas, however, there are health and mental health agencies, which
might direct the type of strategic partnerships that the community legal clinics want to develop.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Existing literature on general service delivery was studied, focusing on the current context that
community legal clinics work in, as well as identifying some promising practices for improving
service delivery. This research highlighted the significant under-resourcing that community
legal clinics face and the importance of sharing knowledge in addressing some of those resource
gaps. Literature on accessing rural populations was also studied, which examined the
effectiveness of outreach strategies like partnerships with other local agencies and methods of
raising awareness like using trusted intermediaries. Aboriginal service delivery was also studied,
with an emphasis on staff cultural competence and respect for this population. Literature on
Francophone service delivery was also studied, which also focused on cultural competence, as
well as on the importance of providing active offers of French Language Service. Finally,
literature on Medical-Legal Partnerships were studied and showed that this can be an effective
partnership to address communitys wellbeing, naming legal health a social determinant of
health.
COMMUNITY CONSULTATIONS
Community consultations, with hundreds of staff, clients, community stakeholders, board
members and executive directors emphasized that the community legal clinics do excellent work
in their catchments, both in service delivery and in community development and advocacy.
Legal clinics were seen as a safe space to access help, and stakeholders suggested that there are
effective outreach tools in place to raise awareness about the work that clinics do. However,
clients often demonstrate that awareness remained low, which leaves room for continued work
in outreach and raising awareness. Stakeholders suggested that the most common benefit of
community legal clinics being community-based is their ability to adapt to changing situations
within their communities quickly, but it was named that not all aspects of clinic work need to be
community-based. Instead, it was suggested that some things, like developing PLE tools, can
happen collaboratively across catchments.
BACK OFFICE STUDY

A back office study included research into back office centralization strategies used by other
community legal clinics and community service agencies. A study was also done on community
legal clinic spending on back office tasks such as bookkeeping and auditing. It was determined
that there was room for community legal clinics to create efficiencies by looking at other models,
with particular interest in the model being investigated by Southwest community legal clinics on
the sharing of administrative tasks. It was determined that to advance this area further a more
extensive study would need to be completed on potential cost savings and efficiencies.
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AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT

From the research phase of this project it is clear that the participating community legal clinics
are highly effective at both serving their clients and advocating for change. However, throughout
these discussions, a number of options for development arose that the community clinics might
explore in the future when they are looking at ways to increase their capacity and efficiency.
COLLABORATION BETWEEN CLINICS

One of the most common themes suggested was increased collaboration between the
participating community legal clinics. Some of the strategies for increasing collaboration
between clinics included sharing tools and expertise, like sharing fact sheets, information,
developing a system of mutual referrals between legal workers in different areas with different
fields of expertise, or even accessing another clinic's legal services through videoconferencing.
Some other collaborative opportunities lay in community development, like establishing a
shared community development and PLE strategies and efforts, and sharing some PLE
workshops or rounds, or developing different networks or roundtables to address some issues
that clinics face like reaching rural populations.
OUTREACH TO UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS

Throughout the research, different populations were mentioned as target groups or were named
as underserved by the community legal clinics. Some of the populations named were
Francophones, Aboriginal people, newcomers and migrant workers, seniors, youth and Deaf
people. The need for legal services is present in those communities, but it is clear that they are
not accessing community legal clinics. There are a number of possible reasons for this that came
out of the research, including the perception that community legal clinics do not provide
services that meet their needs, such as French Language Services (FLS), family law or
immigration law. Some opportunities arose from the research to overcome these perceptions,
such as cultural competency training for staff, board representation for different populations,
improved signage advertising service delivery, and strategic partnerships with agencies that
serve these groups.
RURAL OUTREACH
Most participating community legal clinics have rural populations in the catchments that they
serve. Although clinics have many strategies for reaching out to these groups, they still reported
having a difficult time serving them. It was noted that there is a need for more satellite locations
to increase awareness of the work that the legal clinic does and offers help closer to home.
Creating relationships with trusted intermediaries located in the rural areas was also identified
as a successful tool. The two biggest barriers that were named for this population were
transportation, and the lack of awareness or visibility of the legal clinic. Some suggestions to
overcome these barriers include implementing more satellites closer to home for rural residents,
more PLE to spread the word about legal clinic services, and more partnerships to increase
mutual referrals.
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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Staff, board members and executive directors all discussed how the community legal clinics
excel in community development, advocacy and public legal education, and how it was
inherently part of the legal clinics identity. Even so, most stakeholders also discussed how more
of this work would be beneficial. There is a need to establish more networks with agencies that
have similar interests and goals to the community legal clinics to facilitate collaborative
advocacy initiatives. There are also additional opportunities for PLE collaboration with other
clinics and agencies, such as delivering collaborative workshops on issues relevant to clients and
other service agencies.
INCREASE CAPACITY
With persistent needs in the community in the areas of housing law, income maintenance,
employment law, and increasingly in Ontario Disability Support Program, and potentially
immigration law, there is continual pressure on resources at community legal clinics. The
community legal clinics are interested in looking into ways of becoming more efficient to
facilitate the delivery of more poverty law services. Some of the opportunities that are being
explored include identifying redundant administrative tasks for possible efficiencies, identifying
opportunities for sharing some administrative tasks in succession planning, and diversifying
funding to be able to implement specific programs or projects that meet community needs.
Developing partnerships to make use of the skills of Pro Bono lawyers, externs, interns, students
and volunteers is also being discussed as a method to increase capacity of legal clinics.
PARTNERSHIPS
Many of the initiatives identified depend on growing stronger partnerships. Partnerships with
trusted intermediaries, partnerships with other service providers that can support referrals and
collaborate on Community development, partnerships with other clinics, even stranger
relationships with adjudicating bodies like OW and ODSP, generated positive outcomes for the
clinics that invested time in them. Expanding partnerships and investing at the front end for
longer term payoffs in partnership was seen as a key part of success in the region. Investing in
trusted intermediaries in commonly accessed places like libraries, currently being tested by the
Rural and Remote Boldness Project, is being looked at closely as a method of reaching more
groups needing legal support.
USE OF TECHNOLOGY
Developing innovative uses for technology was identified as a significant area for growth in
community consultations and in literature. Some participating legal clinics have already started
moving towards relying more on innovations, such as online intake systems, videoconferencing
with far-away clients, faxing or emailing documents rather than mailing, and Apps for
smartphones that trusted intermediaries can use to better connect community members to
services. Areas for growth, identified here and in the Rural Boldness project, included
developing online tools for clients, storing documents online rather than in paper, which takes
up considerable office space, and providing tablets for staff that travel frequently. There was
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some hesitation around the use of technology because of concern that it would take away from
work that clinics do face-to-face, but it was generally accepted as long as face-to-face time was
not affected.
NEXT STEPS
In the East and Central Region Transformation Project, the participating community legal
clinics will be looking more closely at the issues raised in the research, and the options for acting
on them as they investigate ways to address those issues. These discussions will be occurring
from July to October, 2015 through a facilitated discussion among the clinics.
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INTRODUCTION
PROJECT STRUCTURE
The Community Legal Clinic movement in Ontario, begun in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was
an independent movement organized by community legal workers and governed by elected
boards representative of the communities they served. These clinics were dedicated to providing
high-quality legal services in areas affecting low-income people where the private bar had
proven inadequate. Moreover, these clinics were actively engaged in aggressive outreach and
educational activities to help amplify the voices of their clients and to advocate for structural
changes to address policies and laws detrimental to their interests. Services and activities were
meant to be responsive to the communities they served, drawing on client input as much as
possible to devise and deliver services.
From their inception over four decades ago, community legal clinics have adapted to changes in
funding arrangements, political regimes, and landscapes of need, all the while remaining
committed to the core principles still central to their mandate. Operating on shoestring budgets
with dedicated and compassionate staff, they have demonstrated their ability to deliver upon
that mandate efficiently and effectively. Versatility and a strong commitment to the roots of the
legal clinic movement are strengths that clinics in Eastern and Central Ontario hope to build on
and enhance through their participation in the Eastern and Central Region Transformation
Project (ECRTP).
The ECRTP is an initiative organized by 10 community legal clinics across the East and Central
region. Although the participating agencies are both diverse as clinics and in the characteristics
and populations of their respective catchment areas, from the beginning of the project they have
been dedicated to a collaborative approach in this project.
The goals of this project were to better understand both the strengths and unmet needs of the
communities that community legal clinics serve, investigate models that might facilitate the
work that community legal clinics do and ultimately, to provide better services and better access
to services for clients.
The transformation project has been divided into three phases:
PHASE I: NEEDS ASSESSMENT RESEARCH
In this phase of the project the community legal clinics used demographic research, learnings
from literature and community consultations to gain a better understanding the needs of their
communities. In this phase models of delivering quality services and increasing access to justice
were also studied.
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PHASE II: DEVELOPING A MODEL
In this phase, participating legal clinic staff, executive directors and board members will be
working together to analyze which approaches or initiatives they want to pursue in the future,
based on the data gathered in this report.
PHASE III: TRANSITION PLANNING
In this phase, participating legal clinic staff, executive directors and board members will discuss
how they will implement initiatives and models decided upon in Phase II. This will be done in
collaboration with other community stakeholders like clients and community partners.
In other regions of Ontario, community legal clinics are conducting similar transformation
projects. This study will use some learnings from these projects, while at the same time
understanding differences in characteristics between the clinics involved and the catchments
they serve, and therefore looking at new ideas that best suit the needs of the participating 10
community legal clinics in East and Central Region.
THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION

The East and Central Region of Ontario is large and diverse. Addressing its needs and priorities
will likely not benefit from a cookie cutter approach in the study nor in the transformation plan
adopted.
The participating legal clinics are listed below, with the location of their main offices and the
counties they serve in brackets:
Renfrew County Legal Clinic (Renfrew Renfrew County)

The Legal Clinic (Perth and Sharbot Lake Lanark County, Leeds & Grenville United
Counties, northern Frontenac County, northern Lennox & Addington County)
Clinique juridique populaire de Prescott et Russell (Hawkesbury United Counties of
Prescott-Russell)
Community Legal Clinic of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry (Cornwall United
Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry)
Kingston Community Legal Clinic (Kingston southern Frontenac County)
Community Advocacy and Legal Centre (Belleville Hastings County, Prince Edward
County and southern Lennox & Addington County)
Northumberland Community Legal Centre (Cobourg Northumberland County)
Durham Community Legal Clinic (Oshawa Durham County)
Peterborough Community Legal Clinic (Peterborough Peterborough County)
Community Legal Clinic Simcoe, Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes (Orillia Simcoe
County, Haliburton County, Kawartha Lakes)
The East and Central Region is distinctive. Though geographically it is largely rural, it contains
major urban centres including Oshawa, Barrie, Kingston and Peterborough. Though much of the
area is overwhelmingly English speaking, it also included areas of intense multilingual
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immigrant populations in Ajax and Pickering, and even denser francophone population along
the Quebec boarder. A closer analysis of the demography and geography of the region is
provided starting on page 23.
These legal clinics all reflect the commitment, shared by community legal clinics across the
province, to a community based approach. The clinics are rooted in Ontarios uniquely
successful community clinic model, launched in the 1970s under Attorney General the Hon. Roy
McMurtry. Clinics do far more than dispense judicare; they are designed to address root causes
of adverse circumstances for low-income families, through community development, advocacy
and law reform. They all rely on community governance, work to reflect the changing needs and
priorities of their communities and place considerable emphasis on being engaged with and
responsive to the communities they serve.
LEGAL AID ONTARIO STRATEGIES FOR MEETING NEEDS

As some issues identified in this document have already been identified as areas for growth by
Legal Aid Ontario, the community legal clinics funder, they have taken steps to tackle some of
those issues. For some time the eligibility criteria has been named as too low, as it often excludes
individuals and families who earn an income higher than the eligibility cut-off for clinic services,
but are still living in poverty, unable to afford a lawyer. The eligibility cut-off has therefore been
increased across community legal clinics, and LAO has made available Financial Eligibility
Guidelines (FEG) funding. Additional funding has been provided to some clinics, which may
provide room for growth and innovations for better meeting need.
Gaps have also been identified based on specific populations who may have higher needs or face
greater barriers to accessing community legal clinic services. Some of these populations
identified have been Aboriginal peoples, people with mental health issues, Francophones and
women who have experienced gendered violence. To help address these issues LAO has also
developed strategies that to address needs among those vulnerable populations.
The Aboriginal Justice Strategy developed by LAO in 2008 outlines four areas for development
to better serve Aboriginal populations, the first being removing barriers that this population
faces in accessing services by developing partnerships and satellite services as well as providing
cultural competency training to LAO staff. The second strategy is to increase Aboriginal
representation in governing bodies. The third strategy aims to increase Aboriginal
representation in legal workers by setting recruitment goals and techniques. Finally, the fourth
strategy aims to increase capacity to provide legal services most relevant to Aboriginal
populations, by providing funding to programs that seek to close this gap, such as the Ontario
Federation of Indian Friendship Centres Community Justice Program.
The Mental Health Strategy is still in its development phases, but some of the priorities that
have emerged from LAOs consultations have been; facilitating access to legal services for clients
with mental health issues, developing holistic services that meet multiple needs of the clients,
training for staff to better work with clients with mental health issues, increasing LAO capacity
to meet needs through partnerships, networks and evaluation, and finally supporting clients to
self-advocate with the goal being empowerment and recovery.
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The French Language Services Strategy outlines four general areas to build on, the first one
being increasing the capacity in community legal clinics to support this population. This
includes raising awareness about FLS obligations to community legal clinic staff, recruiting and
implementing designated bilingual positions and training employees to be able to better support
clients who require FLS. The second area that this strategy aims to develop is increasing
awareness of the availability of FLS to Francophones who might need legal services which
includes creating partnerships, developing a website and promoting active offers of FLS. The
third area for development is integrating FLS into community legal clinic planning,
accountability and governance to ensure that FLS remains a priority in future developments.
Finally, the strategy builds research and evaluation into development, to understand the
community and efficiency of the programs implemented.
LAO is also developing Domestic Violence Strategy to be able to better support and conduct
outreach to women who are facing violence. This report will be available late summer, 2015.
Although these strategies were well-researched and developed, there is concern from
community members that there is a lack of resources to implement the recommended strategies
in each paper. Therefore these three strategies should be taken into consideration in options of
moving forward, but may need more systems in place to implement them.
TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

Because of changing needs of low-income people and the changing environment of social service
agency funding, the participating community clinics have developed innovations and initiatives
frequently.
These initiatives include partnerships, networks and programs that sometimes involve
collaboration between participating clinics, such as the 5 county network. This initiative links 4
clinics that combined serve 5 counties to look at innovative intake and outreach practices. Some
of the outreach practices developed have been road shows or clinic workers travelling to
different locations to provide workshops on legal rights and issues. Three clinics have also
collaborated to establish the paralegal Student Legal Aid Services Societies (SLASS) project that
recruits paralegal students to intern at community legal clinics. Some clinics have also
collaborated to develop the Clinic Information Partnership, an online intake form that creates
efficiencies in the intake process. Some clinics are working together to better understand the
needs of rural populations and to advocate for better service delivery to these groups through
the Rural and Remote Boldness Strategy. Finally, the clinics have developed a KnowledgeNOW
online portal for sharing information and tools.
Apart from these collaborative initiatives, many clinics have developed their own pilot programs
for delivering more effective legal services. The Legal Clinic provides information on family law
services in the county to better connect clients to those services. A Migrant Worker Health Fair
was held by Northumberland Community Legal Clinic to provide information and links to
resources for migrant workers. In another example, Renfrew County Legal Clinic is delivering
services by videoconference to better access their rural populations. The Durham Community
Legal Clinic is currently setting up a system that makes it easier to transfer documents between
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the clinic and the Social Benefits Tribunal and are piloting videoconferencing for Social Benefits
Tribunal hearings. Some clinics have developed systems to better manage ODSP cases, like
Peterborough Community Legal Clinics project re-design. The Clinique juridique populaire de
Prescott et Russell frequently advocates for French Language Services in court and tribunal
hearings to better meet the needs of their Francophone population. The Community Legal Clinic
of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry is moving towards a tablet-based approach, where all staff
members use tablets to collect intakes and store dockets, rather than using hard copies, with
creates efficiencies because there is less transfer time and storage space for files. The
Community Advocacy & Legal Centre and the Community Legal Clinic of Simcoe, Haliburton
and Kawartha Lakes have developed systems of training trusted intermediaries to identify legal
issues, one through training tools, and one using the Clinic IP program. The Kingston
Community Legal Clinic relies heavily on faxing and emailing for document transfer, which
helps reduce the frequency with which clients must visit the community legal clinic.
Even though the East and Central Region Transformation Project is still in the research phase, it
is important to note some of the innovations brought together through this project already.
Throughout the needs assessment process, the participating community legal clinics and their
community partner agencies maintained a learning focus, working collaboratively to assure that
the best data could be collected in their catchment areas. This lead to collective decision-making
based on what is best for clients seeking services, rather than clinic interests. Given that the
participating legal clinics are geographically dispersed, there has also been space for innovations
to connecting these regions. Some of the methods used to share information and documents
involved uploading meeting minutes and agendas, research findings, and videos of research
presentations to Dropbox, the project website and KnowledgeNOW. While there were many inperson meetings held in a central location, many meetings were also held using online
videoconferencing through GoTo Meeting.
These initiatives and innovations are discussed throughout the report in some cases as
promising practices, or as potential models for implementing in other community legal clinics.
In moving forward with the East and Central Region Transformation Project, it is important that
the transformation process connects the work that legal clinics have done in the past and are
currently undertaking to both prevent research replication, but also to ensure knowledge and
research transfer across the region.
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METHODOLOGY
OVERVIEW
A Steering Committee of four executive directors and an Oversight Committee of 20 executive
directors, staff and board members was struck. A full listing of the members of both committees
can be seen in Appendix II. Steering Committee meetings were held bi-weekly, while Oversight
Committee meetings were held monthly, four of which were held in-person. These in-person
meetings facilitated constructive discussion on research findings, promising models and
structures, and increased collaboration amongst participating clinics.
In order to gather the clearest picture of the needs and strengths of communities and clinics
participating in this needs assessment, the following research methodologies were used.
Clinic capacity assessment

Quantitative data gathering and analysis
Literature review
Focus groups
Key informant interviews
Surveys
Community resource mapping
Clinic skill assessment
Back office study
METHODS
CLINIC CAPACITY ASSESSMENT
Understanding that the community legal clinics already possess a high level of expertise and
skill, a study was done investigating clinic areas of expertise, areas of law practiced, locations of
satellites and volume of cases. This information was studied to gain a clearer picture of what
expertise is available within the community legal clinic system. In this research, community
legal clinics identified the areas of law they currently practice and those they would like to
practice in the future. Knowledge was also drawn from the Big T Little t initiative, which
assembles and describes innovative initiatives and practices that community legal clinics have
participated in in recent years.
QUANTITATIVE DATA GATHERING AND ANALYSIS

Demographic data was reviewed to better understand the communities in which the community
legal clinics work. Datasets including Statistics Canada data from 2006 and 2011 as well as tax
filer data from 2012 were used. Income levels, income sources, immigration patterns and status,
language, sex, age, and family composition were studied as potential indicators of community
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legal clinic need. Community legal clinic case files were also accessed to study the geographical
density of where they deliver most services, or where there might be service gaps.
COMMUNITY RESOURCE MAPPING

A database of community agencies and resources was developed using 211 listings, an online
resource for finding supportive services, and community legal clinic resource lists. These lists
were pulled for certain fields, like mental health or housing, and for certain target populations,
like Francophones or seniors. This database was then mapped to create a visual representation
of the accessibility of those resources. The database and maps were developed to assist
community legal clinics to better understand where and what type of resources are available in
their communities or neighbouring communities, and ease the development of new partnerships
and maintenance of pre-existing partnerships.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A review of relevant academic and grey literature was conducted. In this literature review,
practices of poverty law services in Canada and abroad were studied, as well as specific
initiatives the community legal clinics were interested in, such as Medical-Legal Partnerships, as
well as models of assessment, evaluation and data gathering. Literature on reaching specific
target populations that the community legal clinics identified, such as Aboriginal populations,
Francophone populations, and people living in rural and remote communities was also
reviewed. The goal of reviewing literature from these fields is twofold. The first is to better
understand the existing context and environment within which community legal clinics work,
and second is to identify promising models of service delivery, collaboration, or outreach
strategies that might be transferable to the community legal clinics of East and Central Ontario.
FOCUS GROUPS
Separate focus groups were conducted with clients and staff of each of the ten participating
community legal clinics. Focus groups were used as a tool with clients and staff to establish and
encourage thoughtful and constructive discussions on the needs and strengths of their
communities and community legal clinics.
Focus groups were two hours in length, and were held in French and English.
KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEWS

Key informant interviews were conducted with executive directors of the ten participating
community legal clinics and with 25 community members from partner agencies, clinic board
members and funders. Key informant interviews were used to gain insight from individuals with
specific knowledge or experience with a topic, and to engage stakeholders who will be affected
by any transformation early in the process to build community trust and buy-in.
SURVEYS
A client survey was developed and administered online but with the option to fill out by hand at
the community legal clinic offices. Because of the physical dispersion of the community legal
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clinics, this was an effective way to increase participation in the research process for clients
living in rural areas.
A board member questionnaire was also administered. Again, in hopes of addressing some of
the challenges that arise from such an expansive region, board member feedback into the
research process was received in the form of a questionnaire.
BACK OFFICE STUDY

Methods of back office centralization used by other community legal clinics in the province, as
well as other community service agencies, were studied for promising practices. A back office
analysis was also done using information on the ten community legal clinics administrative
costs. The goal of this study was to establish whether there might be any cost or resource savings
from centralizing some back office functions between clinics.
GROUP PROCESS
The clinics involved played an active role in the development of the research. Many interactive,
in-person meetings were held with clinic staff and Board members to review data as it was
emerging and assess it and contribute to its interpretation. The Steering Committee used
technological solutions to enable face-to-face meetings over the internet as well. The learning
focus of the process enable participants to gain information at every stage but also progressively
contribute to the development of the conclusions it led to.
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CLINIC CAPACITY
There is a great amount of expertise within the 10 participating legal clinics, and there might be
room for shared expertise. In order to get a clear picture of the strengths of the current
community legal clinic structure, information was collected on satellites and access points that
the participating community legal clinics offer, areas of law that community legal clinics offer
and what they hope to offer in the future, and low income populations in each catchment were
assessed.
MULTIPLE SITES OF ACCESS

FIGURE 1
The map above shows the permanent offices of the participating community legal clinics as well
as their satellite offices or other access points. Satellite offices and access points are locations,
usually hosted by other social service agencies, where community legal clinic workers provide
legal services at scheduled times. The goal of these services is to increase community awareness
of legal services and provide services that are more easily accessible for clients. This map
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provides insight into areas that might still have need for more services, but do not currently
have ready access to a legal clinic location.
It is important to remember when studying this map that geography is significant, but that
density should also be considered. For example, Ajax, just West of Oshawa, although physically
very close to Oshawa, has a very high population, and so might be identified as a priority
location for a satellite.
Another issue to consider is barriers that clients face in accessing legal clinics, beyond
geographical barriers. This map effectively shows us that community legal clinics are dedicated
to providing services to people who face geographical barriers. With some populations, such as
senior populations and Aboriginal populations, there might be a satellite location within the
same town as a community legal clinic office, but that they would be much more likely to access
services, for example, at an institutionalized home for seniors located in town, or an Aboriginal
Friendship Centre.
The participating community legal clinics have different methods of providing satellite services
that increase their efficiency, and that can be taken as learnings for other clinics in the project
and in the province. This includes providing services at locations that potential clients already
access, like mental health services, employment services, or churches. This also includes
providing services at times that potential clients might be at those agencies, such as outside of
working hours, so that working individuals can access the satellite, or during programs that the
host social service agency provides, like community dinners. Finally, community legal clinics
stressed that regularity of hours are crucial, so that it is clear as to when they provide services.
CATCHMENT SIZE
Below is shown the amount of staff supported by LAO funding, the amount of individuals under
the Low Income Cut-Off, and the total population, the percentage of total population that is
considered low-income, and the physical size of each catchment by square kilometre.
Please note that the low-income data has been provided by LAO and was retrieved from Census
Canada for the year of 2006. It reflects the Low Income Cut-Off as a measure, not the Low
Income Measure used in this report. This chart will display data slightly different than data
shown on maps included further in the report, since those maps use a different set of data, low
income measured differently, and for the year of 2012.
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PAGE | 15

FIGURE 2
Clinic
LAO paid
staff
LICO 2006
Population
2006
LICO
percent
Sq. KM
Durham Community
Legal Clinic
6.0
52,200
561,258
9.3%
2,523.62
Kingston Community
Legal Clinic
4.0
18,470
137,296
13.5%
1566.66
11.0
47,735
512,912
9.3%
12,014.08
4.0
16,445
133,080
12.4%
3,847.77
9.0
15,560
172,072
9.0%
9812.03
6.0
14,350
110,399
13.0%
3,308.84
10.0
22,925
194,000
11.8%
8641.94
5.0
9,030
97,545
9.3%
7,440.81
4.0
6,160
80,963
7.6%
1,905.34
6.0
5,565
80,184
6.9%
2,004.44
65.0
208,440
2,079,709
10.0%
53065.53
Community Legal
Clinic - Simcoe,
Haliburton, Kawartha
Lakes
Peterborough
Community Legal
Centre
The Legal Clinic
Stormont, Dundas
and Glengarry Legal
Clinic
Community
Advocacy & Legal
Centre
Renfrew County
Legal Clinic
Northumberland
Community Legal
Centre
Clinique juridique
populaire de
Prescott-Russell
TOTAL
AREAS OF LAW
Shown below is a chart of the areas of law that each community legal clinic provides and the
areas of law that they are interested in providing in the future. This chart shows that there is
significant support for income maintenance in Eastern and Central Ontario, as well as support
for tenants with housing issues, employment issues and wrongful dismissal. This chart also
shows that many community legal clinics offer consumer & debt law services, but those that do
not are interested in doing so. There is also significant interest in providing immigration legal
services and services for small claims court. Some of the specialized services that community
legal clinics offer are education law, healthcare, small claims court, and family law through
referrals.
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The goal of developing a chart of the practice areas of law in each clinic is to better understand
the capacity of community legal clinics for meeting legal needs. Once this is better understood,
there might be opportunities for community legal clinics to share knowledge and expertise,
either through peer-training or inter-clinic referrals. Ultimately, this will make it easier for
clients to access different types of legal help that they need through this increased
connectedness among the clinics.
In the following chart, the boxes marked with an X are those that the corresponding clinic
offers as a practice area of law, for example CALC offers legal help for issues with the Canadian
Pension Plan. Those boxes shaded in are those that the corresponding clinics are interested in
offering in the future, such as NCLCs interest in offering Aboriginal law. Those that indicate
refer mean that the corresponding clinic is able to provide assistance for that type of law
through referring clients to another agency. Those that indicate advice mean that the
corresponding clinic offers advice in that type of law but not representation. Those that are
indicated represent in purple means that the corresponding clinic currently offers some
support in that area of law but would like to be able to represent clients with that legal issue.
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FIGURE 3
Practice Area
CALC
NCLC
DCLC
Kingston
PETE
Prescott
Russell
RCLC
Aboriginal
Affidavits,
swearing of
Canada Pension
Plan
Education Law
Employment
Insurance
Employment
Standards
Family
FINAL REPORT
X
(advice,
refer)
X
X
(advice,
refer)
X
X
(limited)
represent
X
(advice)
X
(advice)
X
(advice)
X
(refer)
X
(advice)
X
(refer)
X
(refer)
X
(advice)
X
(advice)
represent
Incorporations
Information &
Privacy
X
X
Healthcare
Human Rights
Immigration &
Refugee
TLC
Contract Law
Criminal Injuries
Compensation
Criminal Law &
Youth Justice
Denials of Legal
Aid Certificates
SHK
X
(limited)
Children's Aid
Society
Consumer & Debt
SDG
X
X
(refer)
X
(advice,
refer)
X
(advice,
refer)
X
X
(refer)
PAGE | 18
Practice Area
CALC
NCLC
DCLC
Kingston
PETE
Prescott
Russell
RCLC
SDG
Insurance Law
Tenants Rights
Tenant Duty
Counsel
Occupational
Health & Safety
X
X
X
X
Student Loans
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
(advice,
refer)
X
X
X
X
(refer)
X
X
(refer)
Workplace Safety
& Insurance
Wrongful
Dismissal
Income Tax Law
X
X
(advice)
X
(refer)
X
X
(advice)
X
(advice)
POAs
X
X
X
(advice,
refer)
X
(refer)
X
(limited)
Consent Capacity
Medical
suspension of
license
240 Canada
Labour Code
TLC
X
(limited)
X
ODSP
Old Age Security
OW
Prison Advocacy Federal Inmates
Provincial
Offences
Small Claims
Court
Wills, POAs,
Estates
SHK
X
(advice,
refer)
*Please note that in this chart Aboriginal law means Aboriginal rights, such as hunting and fishing rights or land rights.
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PAGE | 19
DEMOGRAPHIC MAPPING
Demographic characteristics of the catchments of participating community legal clinics were
studied. The datasets used to develop these maps were 2006 and 2011 Statistics Canada reports,
tax filer data from 2012, and case file data provided by the participating community legal clinics.
Some of the items analyzed using these maps were income and income sources, family
composition, age, sex, Aboriginal populations, immigrant populations, and language spoken
most often in the home. The maps most relevant to the needs assessment are discussed below.
FIGURE 4
*Points indicated in pink represent First Nations reserves.

Figure 4 is a map of the raw population of First Nations, Inuit and Metis people in the East and
Central region. It is important to note that Aboriginal populations tend to be underrepresented
in data for a number of reasons. First, this is a population that is growing quickly; therefore
given that the most accurate data available is from 2006, there may be underrepresentation.
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There are also lower response rates to census data by First Nations groups, with reserves having
the ability to opt out.
Nevertheless, this map identifies several places with high numbers of Aboriginal people. We can
see that these tend to be close to reserves, such as in Penetanguishene (north of Barrie), Quinte
(south of Belleville) and east of Lindsay. This map also shows us, however, that there are high
numbers of Aboriginal peoples living off-reserve in the catchments served by community legal
clinics, especially in cities like Barrie, Oshawa and Kingston but also in lower density areas like
Frontenac (north of Kingston) and Pembroke. This tells us that there might be two distinct
populations with need for legal services; on and off-reserve Aboriginal populations, which
should be taken into consideration with future outreach and service delivery planning.
FIGURE 5
*The cities and regions marked in pink are those that are mandated to provide French Language Services
by the Government of Ontario through the French Language Services Act.
This map displays the raw number of individuals that speak French most often in the home in
the catchment areas that the East and Central community legal clinics serve. Although mostly
concentrated in the furthest East region of the studied area, there are still significant
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populations in some other regions, in cities, such as Kingston, Oshawa and Barrie, but also on
other areas that have smaller populations such as north of Pembroke, west of Belleville and
southwest of Barrie. This informs the notion that, although Francophone populations might
represent a small percentage of those in their catchments, there is still a need in some areas to
provide services in French.
FIGURE 6
This map shows the population of seniors as a percentage of total population. Some areas, such
as the centre of the region as well as the Eastern region in the county of Stormont, Dundas and
Glengarry, have a high density of seniors in the community. This might mean that community
legal clinics employ strategies that target outreach and services to the senior population, such as
partnerships with long-term care facilities or satellite offices in locations that seniors access.
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FIGURE 7
This map displays the population of children and youth aged 0 to 17 as a percentage of the total
population. Some areas have higher proportions of youth such as the areas north of Belleville
and north of Kingston, as well as the county of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry in the East.
Around Barrie, Oshawa and Pembroke also shows higher levels of youth. Those regions that
have a higher density of youth might be interested in using strategies that outreach to this
population, such as partnerships with secondary and post-secondary schools, or increase their
web and social media content.
*Please note that the percentage of seniors and youth is strongly affected by the percentage of
adults aged 18-64 in those regions. If there is a low level of adults in a region, it will make the
adult and youth population seem much larger.
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FIGURE 8
This map displays the raw numbers of immigrants and newcomers in the targeted catchment
areas. The trend of immigrant populations that can be drawn from this map are twofold: areas
that are close to urban centres have higher immigrant populations, like south of Barrie and the
areas around Ottawa, and areas that have higher populations, like Oshawa, Kingston and Barrie.
There are some areas that are more rural that do see higher levels of immigration, like the area
around Lindsay and west of Belleville.
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FIGURE 9
This map shows the density of families receiving social assistance, either through the Ontario
Works (OW) or Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). It is important to note that this
map shows the density of individuals on social assistance, rather than raw number. Therefore
there will be areas, such as Kingston, Peterborough, Cornwall and Oshawa, which have higher
populations and also high density of people on social assistance, meaning great numbers of
people who might need legal help for income maintenance. There are other areas, such as
Renfrew, Hawkesbury and Brockville that have low total population, but high density of low
income populations, which also mean high numbers of people potentially needing legal help for
income maintenance.
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FIGURE 10
This map shows the density of individuals receiving workers compensation. This map shows
that there is a higher density in very rural areas like Haliburton county, Peterborough county
and the Bancroft region. Based on feedback from Oversight Committee members and
community partners, it is suspected that this high density is related to the economic market in
those areas, with the nature of jobs available being more reliant on manual labour. This could
inform potential decisions on what types of law would be a priority to provide in certain areas of
East and Central region.
Demographics were also mapped for English speakers, individuals who speak a language other
than English or French in the home, sex, household composition, and newcomers. These maps
are included in Appendix III. These demographics were not seen as having a large impact on the
analysis of the service needs and the delivery models required and were not included in the main
text of the report.
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FIGURE 11
This map shows an overlay of the density of low-income families with the number of files
participating community legal clinics opened for the years of 2013 and 2014. The areas that
show up as a purple colour are those areas that have a high need for services and a high number
of services provided. Those areas that appear bluer are areas that have higher density lowincome populations, but lower numbers of clients served. It should be noted that case files are
acquired through the participating community legal clinics data gathering systems, and the
methods of gathering and tracking data is different at each clinic. Therefore there may be a large
discrepancy in the number of files opened in some regions.
MEASUREMENTS USED
There are many ways of measuring low-income of a population. The Low Income Measure (LIM)
was chosen in this project to best represent those living in poverty in the region. Using LIM,
individuals and families defined as low-income are those with an adjusted family income under
half of the income median of Canada. This measure was chosen because it is currently the more
commonly used measure by the Province and by LAO, though it is not sensitive to local costs
and may not accurately represent differing levels of poverty in urban and rural communities.
LIM is also the measure that research throughout Ontario, Canada and abroad is moving
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towards, and therefore to be able to better connect, compare and learn from other research
using the same measurements is helpful.
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A community resource analysis was conducted to gain a better understanding of the current
capacities and areas for growth in the communities serviced by the participating community
legal clinics. 211 Ontario, an online resource for connecting individuals to community agencies
and social services, was used to access datasets of resources by type of resource. Some of the
types of resources mapped were; Aboriginal resources, food resources, Francophone resources,
and many more. This list was then augmented by the participating community legal clinics,
which often have lists of community agencies and other partners.1
FIGURE 12
*Points indicated in blue represent the locations of First Nations reserves in the region.
This map displays Aboriginal resources in the East and Central region. It can be seen by this
map that there are not many agencies that serve Aboriginal populations, and that those that are
Only a selection of maps are discussed in this report. To view all community resource maps please
contact the research team or visit www.ecrtp.ca.
1
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PAGE | 29

available are generally located in urban centres or on reserves. This knowledge will be useful if
community legal clinics hope to partner with these agencies to conduct outreach to Aboriginal
populations. There are large areas in the region not serviced by these agencies, which could
mean that if the community legal clinics are hoping to conduct outreach in these areas,
partnerships will not be an available.
FIGURE 13
The map shown above displays resources for individuals facing homelessness, including services
like shelters and drop-ins. It can be seen from this map that there are few services for this
population in most of the region, even in urban centres. Since housing is one of the main areas
of law that participating community legal clinics practice, this data will be important not only to
understand what type of resources are available for clients, but also to identify places to reach
out to for potential partnerships, and to facilitate ease of referrals.
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FIGURE 14
This map displays health resources in the East and Central region. This is one of the most
accessible resources in the region, with many services available both in urban centres and rural
areas. This might be an indicator of an effective partnership for community legal clinics to
establish, given the coverage that health services have throughout the region. Mental health
resources show a similar coverage in this area.
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FIGURE 15
This map shows resources and supports available to newcomers in the East and Central Region.
There tend to be more resources targeting this population in cities, such as Barrie and Kingston,
with few available in other areas, especially small towns and rural areas. In Oshawa however,
although there is a high number of newcomers, there seems to be a low amount of resources
supporting this population.
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FIGURE 16
The resources available for seniors are displayed in the map above. This map indicates that
although not many resources in each area, there can be found one seniors resource in many of
the cities and towns in the region. There are still gaps however, in the number of resources
which is few, and some areas with no resources, such as far Eastern Ontario and some rural
regions in the central region of the map. This might affect the types of partnerships that
community legal clinics can make and the length that they can rely on seniors support agencies
to be able to outreach to this population.
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FIGURE 17
This map shows resources geared toward supporting youth in the region of East and Central
Ontario. There tend to be more resources for youth in areas that there are post-secondary
institutions, such as Kingston, Peterborough, Oshawa and Belleville. There tend to be little to no
agencies in regions that do not have post-secondary institutions. This might provide guidance to
community legal clinics in reaching youth populations, and that partnerships might be
beneficial to reaching youth in post-secondary institutions but other strategies will need to be
employed to reach youth outside of these institutions.
ADDITIONAL DEMOGRAPHIC AND COMMUNITY RESOURCE MAPPING
There were many more maps developed displaying both demographic data and locations of
community resources. These maps were not included in this final report because they did not
reveal information for areas of development for the community legal clinics.
The complete set of maps is available at:
http://www.ecrtp.ca/uploads/2/0/7/8/20780132/ecrtp_demographic_maps_150424.pdf
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PAGE | 34
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
A literature review of promising practices in other jurisdictions and learnings from innovative
programs in delivering legal services in Canada and around the world showed some clear
patterns that drive success and failure. Given East and Central Ontarios unique characteristics
of having a large rural population, bilingual populations, and both on and off-reserve First
Nations, Inuit and Mtis populations, literature specific to delivering services to those
populations was also studied. This literature was found to provide insights on not only the
barriers and strengths of these populations, but also on innovative practices to improve service
delivery.
METHODOLOGY
Both Academic and gray literature was drawn upon to ensure access to the most relevant
information, including peer-reviewed articles, agency reports, backgrounders and
bibliographies.
Articles were accessed through suggestions from the ECRTP Oversight Committee as well as
from a general call for literature in the ECRTP newsletter. They were also accessed by using key
search terms in literature databases, accessing published reports from community agencies, and
bibliographies from seminal articles.
GENERAL SERVICE DELIVERY

BARRIERS
Beyond the specific barriers faced by Aboriginal people, Francophones, or people who live in
rural and remote areas, there are broader-reaching barriers that impact the ability of people
living on low incomes and/or in poverty to access justice.
FINANCIAL BARRIERS
People living on low incomes face a number of financial barriers to accessing legal services. One
key barrier that came up in the literature and in the qualitative data collected was the financial
eligibility requirements for Legal Aid Ontarios services (Canadian Bar Association Access to
Justice Committee, 2013; Ontario Bar Association, 2008; Middle Income Access to Civil Justice
Initiative Steering Committee, 2011). Where assistance is only available to those living on social
assistance at a subsistence level, the working poor are often excluded from receiving legal
services; they do not qualify for public legal services, and cannot afford to access private market
legal services on their own. Furthermore, eligibility requirements tend not to keep up with
inflation rates and the increasing costs of living (Canadian Bar Association Access to Justice
Committee, 2013). In a report on discussions held at the Ontario Bar Associations Justice
Stakeholder Summit in 2007, one recommendation for increasing access to justice was
expanding the eligibility criteria for legal services so those services would become available to
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PAGE | 35

people who cannot afford legal representation and yet did not qualify for Legal Aid services. The
OBAs report also recommended that legal services be made tax deductible. (Ontario Bar
Association, 2008)
Another recommendation from the OBAs report was an expansion of the role of and funding for
community mediation services that can intervene in legal issues before clients are required to
navigate the more expensive court system. This was seen as an opportunity to alleviate stress on
justice services, which are more costly to provide, in favour of expanding the capacity for
intervening in legal issues before clients reach a crisis point.
THE INFLUENCE OF DISADVANTAGE ON GETTING LEGAL HELP
Much of the literature acknowledged that poverty is compounded by intersections with other
barriers and forms of discrimination; experiences of poverty and discrimination compound legal
needs, while legal issues compound experiences of poverty and discrimination, and impact
health and wellbeing. In fact, many areas where people living in poverty are likely to run into
legal trouble such as housing, employment or unemployment, and income and disability
supports are also identified as social determinants of health that have significant impacts on
the health and wellbeing of Canadians (Mikkonen & Raphael, 2010).
Research found that people who faced disadvantage, especially linguistic, employment and
education barriers, were less likely to actively seek advice. There have been many reasons
identified for this behaviour, including a lack of awareness of the services available, and
difficulties acknowledging personal struggles as legal issues. However, previous experiences
with government and service agencies were seen to have a particularly important impact on
help-seeking behaviour. People experiencing poverty and other disadvantages tend to have an
aversion to all things legal (Currie A. , 2015, p. 19); repeated refusals of service tend to build
hostility towards bureaucratic service agencies, and lead people to expect to be humiliated,
rejected, and otherwise unfairly treated. Additionally, newcomers and refugees from countries
where government systems may be minimal or corrupt are more likely to distrust bureaucratic
and government agencies. The word legal also brings up connotations that imply a problem is
especially serious or bad, which may discourage people from making that acknowledgement
(Currie A. , 2015). Furthermore, people are for more likely to seek help with their legal issues
from non-legal sources, such as friends or family, or even the disputing party (Noone M. A.,
2009; Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House Incorporated, 2013). Again, the pattern
of abstaining from seeking legal advice is compounded when other factors of disadvantage
intersect, such as experiencing domestic abuse (Biesenthal & Sproule, 2000), and lacking
awareness about legal systems and processes, and what services are available (Cohl & Thomson,
2008).
BARRIERS TO USING TECHNOLOGY
Though Canadians are well connected online, 48% of Canadians lack the literacy skills required
to make use of online tools. Furthermore, those who are most vulnerable and disenfranchised
require human help to ensure the services, tools, and other resources available to them are
appropriately tailored to their case. (Canadian Bar Association Access to Justice Committee,
2013). In Denvirs study testing high school and university aged students abilities to solve their
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PAGE | 36

legal issues online it was found that this population, sometimes considered the most webliterate, had difficulties solving their legal issues online (Denvir, 2014). In most cases the
participants were able to increase their knowledge on legal rights and next steps, but would
suggest seeking professional help as a next step (Denvir, 2014).
INTEGRATED, TEAM-ORIENTED MODELS OF SERVICE
Research points to the success of staffing models that are integrated and team-oriented.
Integrated models make effective use of a wide variety of skills, allowing staff to draw on a range
of skills and knowledge, and can provide support to other team members on an ongoing basis.
These teams can include lawyers, paralegals, pro bono lawyers, articling students, and
community organizers. It has been noted, however, that clinics that are too small to form teams
are prevented from using this model (Leask, 1985; Long and Beveridge, 2004; Martin, 2001).
OPPORTUNITIES AND PROMISING PRACTICES

CLINICS DO BETTER WHEN THEY DRAW ON WELL SUPPORTED RELATIONSHIPS
The advantage the community legal clinic model has over judicare models of service is the
relationships that staff develop from working consistently in delivering legal services (Buckley,
2000; Currie, 2000). Clinic staff persons build relationships with adjudicators and tribunal
staff that in turn help them negotiate better, timelier outcomes for their clients. Clinic staff
persons also build relationships with other service providers, and these relationships enable
them to connect clients to more holistic services. As importantly, clinic staff have relationships
with other organizations that can help identify people with legal needs and refer those people to
community legal clinics (Eagly, 1998; Forster & Glick, 2007; Leask, 1985; Long &
Beveridge, 2004; Moore, 2003; Newman, 2007; Trubek, 1998). These relationships make
clinics effective at identifying problems, obtaining non-legal supports when needed, and
resolving legal problems for clients (Buckley, 2000).
Research also showed that the integration of all aspects of service delivery was vital to
effective clinic work. From outreach, advice, law reform and casework, the various
interactions inform each other in a systematic way to access justice (Buckley, 2000; Currie,
2000).
Unfortunately, clinics are also often overwhelmed and, as a result, cannot commit the time and
energy needed to sustain consistent relationships, and their partners find this a challenge
(Ministry of the Attorney General, 1997).
UTILIZING THE CAPACITIES OF PRO-BONO LAWYERS, VOLUNTEERS, PEERS AND
STUDENTS
Many jurisdictions draw more extensively on pro bono lawyers, students and volunteers.
Australia, for example, has a 4:1 volunteer-to-staff ratio, Washington has pro bono
involvement at all 41 of their clinics, and New Mexico has a statewide Volunteer Attorney
Program (Long & Beveridge, 2004). In the United States, two thirds of lawyers offer pro
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PAGE | 37

bono service and most firms offer 3-5% of staff time for pro bono work (Houseman, 2007),
with similar findings in Victoria, B.C. (Giddings & Noone, 2004).
When pro-bono and volunteer staff are involved to enhance capacity, rather than displace core
services, these models are successful. However, clinics need the internal capacity to recruit, train
and support volunteers well if the standards of service in the unique context of poverty law are
going to be maintained (Brodie, 2006; Long & Beveridge, 2004). Furthermore, focusing on pro
bono resources as a means of improving access to justice may detract from acknowledging and
addressing inadequacies in the current justice system overall (Canadian Bar Association, 2013).
UTILIZING THE CAPACITIES OF PARALEGALS
In Jacinta Maloneys 2014 report, she argues that paralegals have a particularly important role
in community empowerment and improving access to justice. She describes community
paralegals in differentiation from conventional paralegals as paralegals whose primary focus
is educating their community about legal issues, but who also work in relationships with lawyers
at local clinics, have been trained to incorporate adult learning principles and cultural
competency in their education delivery, and tailor their education to meet various
communication needs. As legal support staff, they can provide clients with services that do not
require a lawyer, freeing up time for lawyers to do work specifically within their purview. With a
distinct community presence combined with knowledge about the law, they are well positioned
to assist in alternative dispute resolution processes, making connections with other service
providers and avoiding litigation. Maloney points out that these community paralegals are able
to use their knowledge of the law to think critically about systemic issues affecting their clients
and the communities they serve. As community actors, they can form relationships with local
non-government organizations that may have the skills and capacity to support broader
campaigns that address systemic issues specifically. (Maloney, 2014)
A DIVERSITY OF COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP IS NECESSARY FOR RESPONSIVE SERVICE
Community governance brings many different voices to the leadership the clinic system, helping
clinics respond to the changing needs of clients in sensitive and appropriate ways (Abramowitz,
et al., 2010; Brodie, 2006; Leask, 1985; Newman; 2007; Mossman, 2014; Mosher, 1997).
However, while board members bring knowledge and awareness of their constituencies, they
also need to draw on more than their personal experience to fully reflect the needs of the
community. No board can be so representative that all aspects of the community, large or small
are reflected. This makes outreach, and staff-supported efforts at inclusion and learning from
the community a key to success (Alfieri, 2005; Alvarez, 2007; Cook, 2006; Eagly, 1998; Wexler,
1970; Mossman, 2014; Mosher, 1997). Unfortunately, the pressures of casework frequently
override the commitment to do community work. Consequently, clinics with little outreach
capacity can find themselves less connected to the community than those that sustain systematic
engagement (Ministry of the Attorney General, 1997; Trubek, 1998).
CLIENT-CENTRED SERVICE MAXIMIZES CAPACITY AND RESULTS
Literature showed that tailoring services to clients based on their needs and capabilities was an
effective way of maximizing available resources to avoid crises, and of ensuring clients needs
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are effectively met (Greene, Tuzzio, & Cherkin, 2012; Pleasence, Coumarelos, Forell, &
McDonald, 2014; McCamus, 1997; Mosher, 1997). In the health-care sector, evidence shows that
patient-centred care results in better health outcomes and reduces the demand for tests and
procedures (Greene, Tuzzio, & Cherkin, 2012). A discussion paper exploring how to build upon
the findings of legal needs assessments in Australia and overseas identified client-focused
practice as essential to meeting health needs (Pleasence, Coumarelos, Forell, & McDonald, 2014;
Mossman, 2015). Namatis Innovations in Legal Empowerment is an international agency that
aims to deliver services from a client-centred lens. They achieve this by activating paralegals in
communities around the world to work with clients with civil justice issues and other
community members using conflict resolution skills and court diversion tactics. This method
has been shown to foster legal empowerment through inclusion in the legal process (Namati,
2013).
There was also evidence to suggest that investing in building peoples legal literacy and
capabilities through public legal education is key to avoiding escalating legal issues by enabling
early recognition of legal issues, and increasing awareness about what resources are available
and when and how to access them so to settle disputes sooner and more effectively (Prevention,
Triage and Referral Working Group, 2013).
Some of the literature explored the impacts of various levels of legal service provision on case
outcomes and client success. In a randomized study of case outcomes in a Massachusetts district
court, two thirds of clients who were represented by lawyers in housing cases retained their
units after their trial, versus only one third of a control group of clients who were not offered
representation (Greiner, Wolos Pattanayak, & Hennessy, 2012). The study noted that a number
of unbundled services were available to unrepresented clients, in a context where measures for
promoting access to justice were also in place; in spite of this, whether or not clients were
represented by a lawyer still had a profound impact on the success of their case. A comparison of
three other studies also found this to be true (Pollock, 2012). However, some of the literature
implied that there is room to explore more effective screening tools for identifying which clients
need representation, and which clients could see successful outcomes to their cases if they
represent themselves with access to appropriate supports.
The timeliness of their access to self-representing services (SRS), it is important to note, is vital.
A study of the efficacy of self-representation services in Queensland revealed that, although all
respondents to their survey, including judges, their support staff, and registry staff, agreed that
SRS referrals need to happen at the onset of the proceedings or when responding to
proceedings, only registry staff followed that pattern of referrals. Overall, respondents reported
positive experiences referring self-representing litigants to SRS, and benefits to the outcomes of
their cases (Giddings, McKimmie, Banks, & Butler, 2014). This suggests that, with early
intervention and proper screening, clients who can self-represent can get the support they need
to do so effectively, freeing up resources for providing representation to clients whose outcomes
would suffer without that support.
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THERE IS DEMAND FOR MORE AREAS OF LAW
Research showed consistent demand for services in more areas of law. It also showed that
certificates for legal aid in these areas are decreasingly effective as a tool to deliver services
(Buckley, 2000). Similarly, Duty Counsels who do not connect to a clinic provide less
consistency of service for long-term cases lawyers (Buckley, 2000; Currie, 2000; Ministry of
the Attorney General, 1997). Diversification of areas for law in clinics is a growing need
(Buckley, 2000).
EVALUATING EFFICACY
A number of sources acknowledged a general lack in tools and systems for monitoring and
evaluating the efficacy of the delivery of legal services, specifically in response to changing
demographics, patterns of need, and socio-political landscapes (Baxter & Yoon, 2014; Cain,
Macourt, & Mulheirn, 2014; Gyorki, 2013; Kearn, 2009; Curran, 2012). Gyorki (2013)
acknowledged that any attempts to integrate legal services in health-care settings, for example,
would need the support of robust evaluation tools that examine longitudinal data in evaluating
the efficacy of legal service delivery in such a setting. Current data tools provided by LAO do not
have this capacity. One source suggested better evaluative research, used to constantly and
consistently monitor needs and service delivery patterns, would allow for adaption and quick
adjustments to strategies for meeting legal needs.
SHARING KNOWLEDGE
The KnowledgeNOW Project, undertaken by the Provincial Learning Community on Knowledge
Management and Transfer, recognized the impact that better knowledge sharing across
community legal clinics and other agencies could have in improving services and the capacity to
innovate and adapt. Strategies to develop and encourage knowledge management tools and a
culture of knowledge sharing among community legal clinics over the long-term should strive to
foster a shared vision and understanding of the importance of knowledge sharing. Investing in a
centralized information technology system, broad staff facility, and comfort with the use of that
system is also critical (Leering, Bornmann, Wyndels, Hayes, & Pereira, 2010).
RURAL SERVICE DELIVERY

The literature on the delivery of legal and non-legal services in rural areas looked at applications
and findings from rural Ontario, elsewhere in rural Canada, and rural areas outside of Canada.
Examples from the healthcare sector feature significantly, as recent innovations in health service
delivery to rural areas is having an impact on the way services are delivered in other sectors as
well.
FACTORS AFFECTING RURAL SERVICE

SPACE
Geography influences the resources available within rural and remote communities and the
channels through which they become available to individuals, on both a social/interpersonal
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level and also at the level of government, for-profit, and non-profit organizations operating
within rural areas. This impacts the following areas in particular:
Distance to resources/transportation barriers;

The size and variability of social networks;
Regional and local availability of public and private resources;
Geographic isolation, and an isolation from pertinent information which impacts overall
legal literacy.
Building collaborative relationships within both formal and informal networks expands the
capacity for outreach, service delivery, and advocacy. A noteworthy example is the use of multidisciplinary teams to provide holistic services and maintain inter-agency relationships.
RURAL ECONOMIES OF SCALE
All literature acknowledged a consistent shortage of services and programs, and an overall lack
of resources in rural areas, whether in Canada, the United States, or Australia. Dispersed
populations and weaker economies of scale mean that, per capita, services and programs cost
more to provide. A trend towards regionalizing services has been one response to this (Cohl &
Thomson, 2008; Cain, Macourt, & Mulheirn, 2014; Reid & Malcolmson, 2008). This trend
applies to the distribution of both legal and non-legal services. For example, court facilities are
often centralized in urban areas, and increasingly, rural court facilities are being closed; this
adds to the distance, transportation, and financial barriers to accessing justice for people living
in smaller urban or rural communities (Ontario Bar Association, 2008; Centre for Rural
Regional Law and Justice, 2014).
The Ontario Bar Associations report on the recommendations from their Justice Stakeholder
Summit in 2007 recommended increasing the capacity for first appearances in rural areas as a
means of bettering access to justice and allowing for early intervention in legal matters. The
Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice (CRRLJ) in Australia suggested increasing the
capacity for alternative dispute resolutions in order to keep the number of litigations down,
curtailing the financial costs faced by clients and by the justice system in delivering relatively
expensive court services (Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice, 2014).
SHORTAGES OF NON-LEGAL PROGRAMS
A shortage of regional and local resources was also found to impact the operations of community
legal clinics. Because of significant need in their communities, a general lack of resources, and
the added burden of traveling great distances to cover large catchment areas with little to no
public transportation infrastructure, legal workers in rural and remote areas are often overworked, and burn-out and turnover rates are significant. Furthermore, a study of youth justice
in rural and remote Canada referenced a similar study in the United Kingdom, which found that
a lack of non-legal services that would otherwise contribute to addressing the legal needs of
young offenders compromised the ability of agencies to effectively respond to those legal needs
(Nuffield, 2003).
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An overall lack of resources was found to intersect with other factors to produce barriers unique
to living in rural and remote areas. In particular, shortages in services and programs have been
found to impact the health and wellbeing of the people living in those communities. A study on
rural and remote communities in Northern Ontario found that people living in those
communities faced significant health challenges, such as shorter life expectancies, higher rates
of mortality, and greater numbers of people who are overweight. When local agencies, services,
and programs are defunded or amalgamated at a regional level, residents tend to develop a
mistrust of government services and programs, as well as service delivery agencies. This also
means that other barriers such as a lack of affordable transportation, a lack of awareness of
the services and programs available, or poor overall health (Ministry of Health and Long-term
Care, 2008) are especially difficult to overcome without the existence of an easily accessible,
formal, integrated network of service providers. Furthermore, individuals facing multiple
challenges, from getting mental health care to resolving legal issues, are likely to be lacking
support in all the areas where they need it, and so each issue is compounded by the next (Cain,
Macourt, & Mulheirn, 2014). This also means that people are more likely to run into legal
trouble (Coverdale, 2011), and makes it more difficult for service providers to intervene early on
in addressing peoples legal needs (Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice, 2014).
OTHER FACTORS
Few employment opportunities due to the seasonal nature of many rural jobs, and the recent
decline of many of the resource and manufacturing industries that rural economies have
historically depended on several factors. First, higher rates of functional illiteracy, which can be
difficult to identify in dispersed populations dependant on labour-markets; second, a lack of
affordable housing and significant disrepair in available housing; and poorer overall health due
to a lack of accessible health services and supports.
Poverty impacts entire communities when people lack secure incomes and cannot participate in
social activities or use and support local infrastructures, such as transit (Cohl & Thomson, 2008;
Graham & Underwood, 2012; The Ontario Rural Council, 2008; South Ottawa Community Legal
Services, 2014).
Childcare was also identified as a barrier to rural service access, since most rural jobs operate
outside of standard office hours. It is difficult to make childcare arrangements outside of work
hours, especially when accessible childcare resources are sparse (Cohl & Thomson, 2008;
Graham & Underwood, 2012; Panazzola & Leipert, 2013; Pruitt & Showman, 2014).
ATTRACTING PROFESSIONALS
Another consequence of rural economies of scale is that it is difficult to attract and keep service
providers in rural areas; as services, resources, and other infrastructure increasingly
concentrates away from rural areas and towards urban centres, those with the resources and
employability to follow, usually do (Baxter & Yoon, 2014; Cohl & Thomson, 2008; Dyck,
Cornock, Gibson, & Carlson, 2008; Ontario Bar Association, 2008; Cain, Macourt, & Mulheirn,
2014; Nuffield, 2003). In the health sector specifically, health professionals tend to be general
practitioners, whereas specialized providers are uncommon, leaving it up to general
practitioners to acquire specialized knowledge and provide relevant supports to their patients
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(Hall, Weaver, Handfield-Jones, & Bouvette, 2008). This reflects a regionalization of specialized
services, or concentration of specialized services in urban areas, a situation that is not unique to
the health care sector.
In the context of delivering poverty law services, the scarcity of lawyers is a particularly
noteworthy problem (Baxter & Yoon, 2014; Cain, Macourt, & Mulheirn, 2014; Cohl & Thomson,
2008; Coverdale, 2011; Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice, 2014; Dyck, Cornock,
Gibson, & Carlson, 2008; Rich, 2009). Fewer lawyers mean greater barriers to accessing legal
services when human resources cannot meet the demand for legal services. Additionally, a
shortage of lawyers in rural and remote areas presents other unique challenges, such as more
frequent incidences of conflicts of interest, largely because the involved parties are more likely to
know each other, and lawyers in under-resourced areas are more likely to be practicing in
multiple areas of law to meet demands (Cohl & Thomson, 2008; Coverdale, 2011; Centre for
Rural Regional Law and Justice, 2014). Other consequences of a shortage of legal aid lawyers
are professional isolation (Dyck, Cornock, Gibson, & Carlson, 2008; Centre for Rural Regional
Law and Justice, 2014) and an increased strain on the availability of private market legal
services (Canadian Bar Association Access to Justice Committee, 2013). Implementing
incentive-based strategies designed to attract professionals to employment in rural and remote
areas, and to encourage long-term investments of their services would be an effective way to
combat this issue.
BARRIERS TO EFFICACY
A report on the efficacy of community legal clinics in providing direct client services, public legal
education, and doing policy and law reform work found that rural areas also lack networks of
volunteers, and that rural Australian community legal clinics have struggled to incorporate
volunteers into their service delivery models (Rich, 2009).
Some authors acknowledged a gap in research about access to justice in rural and remote
communities, specifically whether or not those communities are best served by community legal
clinics or regionalized services (Baxter & Yoon, 2014; Rich, 2009). Rich (2009) found that
community legal clinics may be cheaper to establish in rural areas, but they may not be as
effective as they could be in serving rural and remote populations. Rural economies of scale
mean that rural and remote regions lack other resources that make community legal clinics
effective (i.e. volunteers and private legal workers); a lack of regional resources restricts
community legal clinics to providing direct client services and undermines their capacity as
valuable instruments for doing policy work and advocating for systemic change. A needs
assessment of Lennox and Addington County in Ontario found that when localities cannot carry
out advocacy work, this contributes to feelings of isolation and alienation within the community
(Leering, Examining the need for access to justice for low-income residents of Lennox &
Addington county, 2001).
In a report on the results of a 2012 survey of 1,800 lawyers in Ontario, Baxter and Yoon (2014)
explored the spatial aspects of the delivery of legal services, addressing the common assumption
that the proximity of lawyers to their clients has an inverse impact on the availability and
efficacy of those services (Baxter & Yoon, 2014). The results indicated that for certain areas of
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civil law, such as family law, low- and mid-income clients tend to receive services on a smaller
geographic scale in proximity to the lawyer serving them. However, for other areas of law,
lawyer proximity seemed to have less of an influence. They identified that how the demand for
services influences the pattern of lawyers (largely providing private service) serving low- to midincome clients on a small geographic scale is largely assumed but not yet confirmed through
thorough research.
LACKING THE RURAL PERSPECTIVE IN LEGISLATIVE CHANGES AND REGIONAL
PLANNING
Much of the literature, specifically in Canada and Australia, noted a general lack of a rural and
remote perspective in the development of legislation and policy at higher levels of government
and/or regional organizations (Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice, 2014; Forbes & Edge,
2009). This lack of a rural perspective impacts the flexibility and efficacy of regionalized health
and legal services in addressing and adapting to the unique needs of rural and remote
communities, and the unique approaches that would benefit service delivery in those
communities.
A CULTURE OF RESILIENCY AND SELF-RELIANCE
A number of sources mentioned a culture of resiliency as persistent in rural areas (Cohl &
Thomson, 2008; Kelly, Sellick, & Linkewich, 2003; Nelson, 1993; Panazzola & Leipert, 2013;
Kulig, Edge, Townshend, Lightfoot, & Reimer, 2013), specifically amongst seniors (Panazzola &
Leipert, 2013). In the rural context, resiliency can be beneficial to the self-image of an individual
and of the community at large (Panazzola & Leipert, 2013), acting as a safety net (Cohl &
Thomson, 2008). For individual people, the valuing of resiliency can reinforce an
independent/dependent, or strong/weak binary, providing the context for stigmas associated
with acknowledging when one has an issue (legal or otherwise), and addressing that issue by
seeking resources and assistance from an external source (i.e. a social service agency or public
service) (Nelson, 1993; Panazzola & Leipert, 2013).
A tendency to conceive of resiliency as a particularly rural quality also reinforces the
rural/urban binary, qualifying the acknowledgement of ones need(s) and the act of addressing
need(s) as a decidedly urban or outsider thing to do (Nelson, 1993). This poses a unique
challenge to making rural communities aware of the services available to them, and it
compounds other barriers to service delivery. In post-amalgamation Ottawa, the rural/urban
divide is particularly relevant; confusion about how municipal programs and services are
funded, distributed, and run has led to some resentment toward the Citys urban centre by rural
residents (City of Ottawa, 2010).
CLOSE-KNIT COMMUNITIES
According to some of the literature, the close-knit networks of rural communities are
particularly valuable in the context of local and regional shortages in services and programs; as
formal networks are defunded and regionalized, local informal networks become the primary
sources of social supports (Nelson, 1993; Panazzola & Leipert, 2013). For rural communities,
resiliency works in tandem with the typically close-knit quality of rural communities to create a
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sort of safety net. However, this safety net can also mask some of the challenges faced by the
community at large, and the individuals within it (Cohl & Thomson, 2008). Conformity is highly
valued, and so people are more likely to resist acknowledging issues that might mean they
stand out, or to resist embracing alternative ways of coping (Nelson, 1993).
The concerns related to privacy and confidentiality were identified across the literature as
another consequence of close-knit community networks, compounded by a lack of trust in
government and non-government agencies alike. A study on access to services for rural residents
living with AIDS noted that, even when local agencies and services are available, patients would
mistrust their ability to provide private, confidential services and would go out of town to get
services, further compounding barriers related to distance and a lack of affordable
transportation (Nelson, 1993). This was echoed in the responses of participants of a roundtable
of service providers, local law enforcement, agencies, advocacy networks, Legal Aid Ontario
staff, and others, convened by the Ontario Rural Council in 2008; they had observed the same
behaviour in their communities, and suggested the practice of going further for services
perceived to be more confidential is also true for communities defined not by rurality, but by
other identities regarding ethnicity, age, gender, et cetera (The Ontario Rural Council, 2008).
Conversely, a 2009 report on homecare services in rural and remote communities in Canada
referenced Statistics Canada data that suggested that the informal networks of rural and remote
communities are, in fact, not significantly different from the informal networks found in urban
settings (Forbes & Edge, 2009). It cautioned against assuming that informal networks in rural
and remote areas are strong enough or have the capacity to fill in where lack of supports and
services create gaps. Though informal networks may be highly valued and visible in rural
settings, it is important to note that they alone cannot overcome gaps in service delivery.
VALUES
According to Pruitt and Showman, the high level of integration of close-knit rural communities
can foster greater consensus around shared values and morals, and lead to an attachment to
tradition (2014). Traditional gender roles tend to be adhered to, which can mean women in
rural areas are at particular risk of financial dependency and isolation, and can be
disproportionately impacted by transportation barriers (Cohl & Thomson, 2008; Cristancho,
Garces, Peters, & Mueller, 2008; Panazzola & Leipert, 2013; Biesenthal & Sproule,
2000).However, they also note that this attachment to tradition is shifting as rural
communities shift and diversify along with general populations.
TRANSPORTATION BARRIERS
Related to weaker economies of scale in rural areas is the lack of affordable transportation
options for rural residents. This was identified as a major barrier to accessing services in all
sources of literature on rural service delivery. Transportation is a barrier because when services
are few and far between, travel times are longer and the distances clients have to travel exceed
any local transit systems, if they exist. This means that, for many people, the only travel option
available is driving, so rural residents who cannot afford to drive, do not have a license, or
otherwise cannot drive, are isolated from many of the regional resources available to them.
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Transportation barriers impact service delivery from the initial point of contact between a client
and a service provider, and throughout the continuum of service provision. A lack of accessible
and affordable transportation options is a barrier to making initial contact with a service
provider, and can make it difficult to continue receiving their support after contact is made. For
example, doctors appointments, meetings with caseworkers, or hearings may be missed,
compounding the problem(s) that lead clients to seek help in the first place.
LACK OF AWARENESS OF AVAILABLE RESOURCES
As rural economies of scale generally result in a de-localization of formal social networks,
services, and infrastructures, the visibility and strength of those networks decrease, resulting in
a general unawareness among rural and remote communities about the services available to
low-income people. Add to this a mistrust of government and social service agencies (explained
above and elsewhere in this literature review), and a culture of resiliency, patterns of inaction,
and an inability to self-advocate emerge.
A study of how people who live on low incomes and are otherwise disadvantaged in rural
Australia respond to their legal issues found significant behavioural variations across urban,
rural, and remote regions (Iriana, Pleasence, & Coumarelos, 2013). Examining four strategies
for responding to legal issues (seeking advice from a legal advisor, seeking advice from a nonlegal advisor, handling without professional advice, and inaction) across five categories of
remoteness (major city, inner regional, outer regional, remote, and very remote), the study
found that residents of rural and remote regions are far more likely to take action without the
advice of a legal professional, and are also more likely to take no action at all. This pattern was
more pronounced among Indigenous people who also lived in rural and remote areas.
A similar study in British Columbia acknowledged that people who lack social resources are far
less likely to know what services or self-help tools exist to support them (Reid & Malcolmson,
2008). They found that even where the scope of legal issues may not vary significantly between
urban and rural locales, people living in urban areas were far more likely to know about the
services available to them than people living in rural and remote regions.
A lack of awareness regarding available services and supports is further problematized by a
significant intimidation factor, which can prevent potential clients from seeking legal help at
earlier stages of their experiences with a legal issue, or at any stage at all. Clients may be
intimidated because of previous experiences with the legal system where they were victimized or
otherwise had negative experiences. They may also find the legal language, as well as navigating
the legal system, intimidating, especially if they have had to do so without the support of a legal
professional. (The Ontario Rural Council, 2008; Cross & Leering, 2011)
The literature explored how clients are not the only ones faced with inadequate knowledge about
the services and supports available for people living on low incomes who are experiencing legal
issues. Community stakeholders in rural Ontario participated in a roundtable discussion where
they identified a need for more training for front-line workers at non-legal agencies about legal
supports available, and how and when to make referrals (The Ontario Rural Council, 2008).
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LARGE CATCHMENT AREAS
Large catchment areas can prove to be inhibitive for small and often under-resourced
community legal clinics. The financial costs associated with traversing wide areas with little to
no public transit are compounded by the difficulties of dealing with laws, institutions, social
service networks, and procedures that may differ or conflict over county lines (Coverdale, 2011).
PROMISING PRACTICES
BUILDING AND RETAINING RURAL RESOURCES
Suggestions for addressing a lack of legal professionals in rural and remote areas, and the
challenges to retaining their services, are focused on identifying different regional needs,
adopting creative and flexible approaches to service delivery, and collaborating with local
education institutions (Baxter & Yoon, 2014; Cain, Macourt, & Mulheirn, 2014; Centre for Rural
Regional Law and Justice, 2014; Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, 2008; Forbes & Edge,
2009). Baxter and Yoons (2014) suggestions focus on a need to tailor approaches to regional
needs, and what the professional requirements are for meeting those needs: specifically, that
incentive programs focus on areas of law that are generally needed in smaller geographic areas,
such as family law, or wills and estates. They also suggest that these incentive programs be
designed to encourage long-term investments to avoid a revolving-door of lawyers. A report on
the access to justice in rural and remote regions in New South Wales noted that strategies that
fail to address remoteness and local amenities risk making larger population centres that are
currently drawing resources away from rural and remote areas even more attractive to lawyers
and other professionals seeking employment (Cain, Macourt, & Mulheirn, 2014).
A number of sources discussed the benefits of collaborating with local and regional education
institutions in rural areas to attract and retain local professionals. In the context of healthcare in
Northern Ontario, Dorothy Forbes and Dana Edge (2009) suggest targeting providers who grew
up in local or similar rural and remote areas, and working with current employees to build a
sense of belonging and community with newly recruited staff. They also suggested that limited
resources and capacity could be optimized through training programs that leverage
relationships with local community agencies. (Forbes & Edge, 2009)
CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE SERVICE DELIVERY
Acknowledging rural communities as unique, with distinctly rural realities and experiences, was
identified as crucial in successfully providing services to rural residents (City of Ottawa, 2010).
Not only is it an effective approach to dealing with rural groups overall, but it is especially
important when serving marginalized groups within rural communities. People who experience
discrimination based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or in other ways do not conform,
are likely to have those experiences compounded by rural barriers such as social isolation,
heightened visibility, and appearing as an outsider. For these rural residents, culturally
appropriate service delivery is particularly important. (Nelson, 1993; Panazzola & Leipert, 2013)
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UTILIZING RURAL NETWORKS AND TRUSTED INTERMEDIARIES
The informal networks that permeate much of the social structure of rural communities are
essential for doing outreach and providing services. Utilizing these networks could improve the
capacity to provide services in rural areas, as access points for the informal social network (such
as churches, social clubs, physicians, or local businesses like grocery stores) are avenues for
conducting outreach and providing referrals. Tapping into informal networks also helps build
trust and community buy-in when faced with a resistance to outsider or urban ways of doing
things, and addresses barriers due to literacy and intimidation (The Ontario Rural Council,
2008). In some literatures, the nature of these trusted intermediaries are divided into four
types; voluntary or informal, such as friends, neighbours, faith leaders, or well-known
community members; people in the helping professions, such as teachers, social workers, or
nurses; people connected to the justice system, like court staff, private lawyers and police
officers and; professional advocates, like union stewards, shelter support workers or court
diversion staff (International Legal Aid Group, 2013). The role of trusted intermediaries can
range from having an awareness and ability to recognize legal issues, to having knowledge about
legal rights to be able to give basic legal advice, to having the ability of connecting community
members to services (The Boldness Project, 2015).
When engaging with local informal networks, it is important to involve local community
members as trusted intermediaries, as this also builds trust and strengthens communication
between rural communities and the agencies that may be providing access points for service
(Cohl & Thomson, 2008; Nelson, 1993; Panazzola & Leipert, 2013; The Ontario Rural Council,
2008; Cross & Leering, 2011). Medical Legal partnerships have proven to be a successful
example of connecting to rural residents in need of access to justice through other
intermediaries (Teufel, Goffinet, Land, & Thorne, 2014).
The trusted intermediary model involves identifying key community contacts people who
may work at local service agencies, or who are otherwise active and visible in the community,
such as pastors, local business owners, or employees. These trusted intermediaries are then
trained to recognize legal issues and make the appropriate referrals. They need to be able to use
their discretion in identifying the capabilities of potential clients, and offering the appropriate
referral. In some cases, this may mean simply directing someone to a website or phone number.
In other cases, trusted intermediaries may physically accompany people to the agencies they are
making referrals to. Trusted intermediaries may also provide a non-legal resource for
addressing legal issues. Through the Legal Health Check-Up Project in Halton, Ontario, it was
found that trusted intermediaries had capacities beyond referral-making that could and should
be supported and utilized with the supervision of legal clinic staff:
[T]rusted intermediaries are capable of going well beyond the gateway roles of
problem spotting and making legal referrals to assisting with problem solving
within their own mandates and capacities and resource capabilities, in a mutually
supporting partnership with the legal clinic. (Currie A. , 2015, p. 7)
The Homeless Persons Legal Clinic in Queensland used community workers in a trusted
intermediary model and found them to be invaluable to the process of identifying and
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addressing legal issues, and asserted the value of building a service delivery model based on
their involvement. Their model also saw community workers going beyond referrals and
conducting case management. The added value of having trusted intermediaries perform this
role, particularly those who are staff at other service agencies, is that clients can access early and
holistic intervention that addresses multiple legal and non-legal issues all at once or over time.
These intermediaries also tend to build lasting relationships with their clients, strengthening
their trust of the service agencies they interact with. (Currie A. , 2015; Queensland Public
Interest Law Clearing House Incorporated, 2013)
Engaging local members of the community as trusted intermediaries is not only critical in
making effective referrals and helping clients problem-solve their legal issues; it also helps
dispel any concerns about being taken advantage of by agencies rural clients may be inclined to
distrust. (The Ontario Rural Council, 2008; Gyorki, 2013; Prevention, Triage and Referral
Working Group, 2013)
Additionally, the Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice (CRRLJ) in Australia suggested that
utilizing a formal referral system that records and monitors referrals made between trusted
intermediaries and clinics could help address the issue of conflict of interest incidences in closeknit communities with few lawyers serving overlapping pools of clients. Such a system could also
help develop and formalize reciprocal referral practices, and monitor and address any
mismatches in local legal expertise and legal needs (Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice,
2014).
LEGAL HEALTH CHECKLISTS
Legal health checklists are increasingly being used as tools for assisting with intake and referrals
done by trusted intermediaries and at legal clinics across the globe. They are especially useful
when integrated with a trusted intermediary model.
Legal health checklists help address the barrier that clients face in accessing justice when they
struggle with identifying their own multiple and multi-faceted issues as legal issues, and when
trusted intermediaries face similar struggles identifying the legal issues faced by the people they
serve (Currie A. , 2015; Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House Incorporated, 2013).
The pilot Legal Health Check-up Project in Halton, Ontario, a collaboration between the local
legal clinic, local health agencies, and other local service organizations and community members
identified and trained as trusted intermediaries, saw some particularly positive results after the
implementation of the check-up form online and on paper. Intermediaries were given training
on how to use the form, and some were given tablets loaded with an online version, where others
used pen and paper. Intake at the local clinic increased by about a third, and unacknowledged
legal problems were easier to identify when lawyers reviewed completed check-up forms and
revisited them with their clients. (Currie A. , 2015; Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing
House Incorporated, 2013)
The Homeless Persons Legal Clinic in Queensland, Australia used a Legal Health Check
interview tool at their clinic and at satellite locations at partner agencies. The legal issues they
addressed in this tool were identified based on four primary considerations: issues that were
representative of recent patterns in areas of demand; issues that were endemic to their clients
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experiences but that they rarely sought help for; specific issues that posed barriers to accessing
and keeping housing, especially when left unaddressed; and issues that were solvable within the
legal clinics capacities and mandate, either through case work or referrals. Their legal health
check helped lawyers identify multiple and endemic issues that they could then address.
(Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House Incorporated, 2013)
UTILIZING PARALEGALS AND NON-LEGAL SUPPORTS TO INCREASE LAWYER
CAPACITY AND AVOID LITIGATION
In addressing the findings of research into access to justice in rural and remote Australia, the
CRRLJ suggested a number of alternative approaches to meeting legal needs in a service
delivery context where resources are scarce, especially in rural and remote areas. These
approaches included a broad unbundling of legal services, with the specific goal of utilizing more
paralegals and non-legal staff in delivering services that did not require the purview of a lawyer.
Paralegals and non-legal staff were seen as key resources for intervening early on in the process
of addressing legal needs, for administering intake and support tools such as a legal health
check-list, and facilitating alternative dispute resolutions (Centre for Rural Regional Law and
Justice, 2014).
Alternative dispute resolutions were identified by the CRRLJ (2014) as particularly effective in
addressing legal needs and gaps in services in rural and remote areas. In the close-knit
communities commonly found in rural and remote regions (Cohl & Thomson, 2008; Nelson,
1993; The Ontario Rural Council, 2008; Panazzola & Leipert, 2013), people tend to form multifaceted and complex relationships (Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice, 2014). Fractures
within these relationships are often deeply felt within the community and tend to have ripple
effects, so avoiding litigation is important. Resolving disputes outside of the court also has the
benefit of avoiding conflict of interest incidences, which are more frequent in communities with
these multi-faceted relationships, and where people are more likely to be seeing the same
lawyers (Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice, 2014).
COLLABORATIVE, INTER- AND MULTI- DISCIPLINARY TEAMS AND APPROACHES
In the delivery of health and in particular mental health services in rural areas, the literature
showed a trend towards using multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary team models to provide
holistic care to patients requiring specialized health, specifically for the elderly and those
presenting complex mental health needs. The rural context presents a unique demographic of
clients exhibiting complex and multifaceted issues, since they lack access to many of the
specialized supports they need, and face stigma in acknowledging their needs and seeking help.
Since each issue can compound the next, a collaborative team of service providers from multiple
disciplines is effective in supporting clients with complex, compounded needs. The team
approach is also helpful in addressing transportation barriers specific to rural clients, by
providing clients with more options and flexibility, and simplifying access to multiple follow up
appointments. Collaborative lawyering with multi-disciplinary teams could also provide
comprehensive and creative means for assisting clients through alternative dispute resolution
processes and thus avoiding litigation altogether. (Graham & Underwood, 2012; Hall, Weaver,
Handfield-Jones, & Bouvette, 2008; Morgan, et al., 2009; Nelson, 1993; Sullivan, Parenteau,
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Dolansky, Leon, & Le Clair, 2007; Gyorki, 2013; Centre for Rural Regional Law and Justice,
2014)
A report that explored innovations in integrating legal assistance into health-care settings in
Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States acknowledged legal needs as a social
determinant of health and wellbeing, and recognized that legal advice is often sought from nonlegal sources (Gyorki, 2013). It was observed that an integration of legal services in health-care
settings could make the most of tendencies to seek legal support from non-legal resources, and
could ensure and improve the health of patients experiencing legal needs. However, the report
also acknowledged the reality of practical and ethical barriers to integrating legal services with
health services, such as:
Ensuring health professionals have the capacity to identify legal needs and have the
ability and necessary pathways to make appropriate referrals;
Ensuring that client confidentiality is safeguarded.
Recommendations for overcoming practical barriers included (but were not limited to):
Training health service providers in acknowledging legal needs;
Developing adequate referral pathways;
Providing on-site secondary consultations to health-care providers;
Facilitating regular reciprocal trainings;
Engaging students and pro bono supports.
These practices had the potential to increase the capacity to follow a preventative model of legal
service delivery, and provide holistic care that would improve clients health and legal outcomes,
and to build working relationships that could create unique opportunities to identify patterns
symptomatic of systemic issues and then actively address those issues. One recommendation for
addressing confidentiality concerns was developing appropriate releases of information
between the medical and legal teams and establishing clear protocols for all forms of
communication (Gyorki, 2013, p. 77).
Providing legal services in partnership with health care providers can significantly impact the
health of disadvantaged people, thus reducing overall public health costs (Coumarelos,
Pleasance, & Wei, 2013; Noble, 2012). Medical Legal Partnerships are also an effective gateway
to legal services (Noone & Digney, 2010) and other programs (Colvin, Nelson, & Cronin, 2012)
for the many poor people who may not seek out the justice system but do seek health care.
Given the strong connection between medical problems and legal ones, (Beeson, McAllister, &
Regenstein, 2013; Beck, Klein, Schaffzin, Tallent, Gillam, & Kahn, 2012; Paul, Fullerton, Cohen,
Lawton, Ryan, & Sandel, 2009; Regenstein, Teitelbaum, Sharac, & Phyu, 2015; Zuckerman,
2012) this connection is valuable and this service area should be included in poverty law
planning.
These partnerships can include training health care workers to identify and refer patients with
legal problems (Cohen, et al., 2010).
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Using collaborative teams to build connections with specialty providers in urban centres also
helps to build local knowledge and capacity to provide specialized services (Hall, Weaver,
Handfield-Jones, & Bouvette, 2008). It improves awareness in urban centres of rural resources,
which could help increase referrals to local rural services. Connecting urban and rural agencies
means each are more aware of each other and the services they provide, improving their ability
to make effective referrals. This is particularly useful under a trusted intermediary model,
where staff at partner agencies might receive training to recognize legal issues and make
appropriate referrals. This also helps to build trust in the community and dispel concerns about
confidentiality and privacy (Nelson, 1993).
USE OF TECHNOLOGY
The literature explored how technology is being used more and more to bridge divides in service
delivery in rural and remote communities. Studies of legal and non-legal services, especially
health services, found that technology could bridge geographical distances, connect people with
specialists in regional and urban centres, and build professional networks and development.
(Baxter & Yoon, 2014; Cohl & Thomson, 2008; Currie A. , 2015; Dyck, Cornock, Gibson, &
Carlson, 2008; Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, 2008; Morgan, et al., 2009; Pruitt &
Showman, 2014)
However, the use of technology does present its own set of problems in providing services to
people living in poverty in rural and remote regions. The literature found that technology,
though a useful tool in bridging the geographical distances that poses such significant barriers to
access for rural communities, comes with its own barriers specific to the rural context (City of
Ottawa, 2010; Cohl & Thomson, 2008; Dyck, Cornock, Gibson, & Carlson, 2008; Kelly, Sellick,
& Linkewich, 2003; Morgan, et al., 2009; Pruitt & Showman, 2014; Reid & Malcolmson, 2008;
Queensland Association of Independent Legal Services Inc., 2014; Centre for Rural Regional
Law and Justice, 2014). Broadband internet is still largely unavailable in rural areas, and where
it is available, connections are often poor. Regardless, rural residents experiencing poverty are
likely unable to afford a computer or to buy services from an internet provider in the first place.
Though these resources may be available at a local service agency or community organization,
such as a library, rural residents still face barriers to learning about these resources and
physically getting to them.
A study on rural and remote access to justice in British Columbia found that, despite 91% of
British Columbians living in communities with internet access, and despite increasing rates of
internet usage nation-wide, people living in poverty face significant barriers to accessing online
services and tools (Reid & Malcolmson, 2008). A low income was seen to be the biggest barrier
according to one study they referenced; additional barriers included lack of access to the
internet, a lack of the technical and social literacy required to use the tools, of social capacity
and of application, and a lack of Indigenous social and cultural content. The study referenced a
Statistics Canada 2005 report that noted certain trends to internet usage which are particularly
relevant to the provision of anti-poverty services in rural areas: people who have lower incomes,
are older, or have lower education levels tend to use the internet less. Gender also seems to have
an effect, as women are more likely to use the internet than men.
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With this digital divide (Cohl & Thomson, 2008, p. 34), technological tools for accessing
services cannot replace in-person supports, especially for people who are marginalized or
vulnerable (Queensland Association of Independent Legal Services Inc., 2014). However,
technology is still useful for serving rural residents in disperse populations who have the
resources to use it. In the health sector, video- and teleconferencing with inter- and transdisciplinary teams and the clients they serve has been on the rise, and has yielded improvements
to the effectiveness of care (Dyck, Cornock, Gibson, & Carlson, 2008; Hall, Weaver, HandfieldJones, & Bouvette, 2008; Morgan, et al., 2009).
Cohl and Thompson (2008) explored technological tools for providing legal services,
specifically. Legal hotlines were found to be effective for vulnerable people when there was
follow-up and ongoing support, and referrals were made to the appropriate resources. However,
a lack of knowledge specific to local-contexts among hotline staff was seen as a potential draw
back. Additionally, Statistics Canada did not collect reliable data about how many Canadians do
not subscribe to residential phone services because they cannot afford them, according to a
2008 report (Reid & Malcolmson, 2008). Enhanced websites could provide general information,
and could be particularly helpful for staff at other agencies, as well as for connecting
professionals across distances. Other online systems, such as web-portals and forums, have been
used to connect professionals and allow them to offer each other advice. However, vulnerable
clients or would-be clients with functional illiteracy or other challenges to navigating an online
system like a website would still face barriers to accessing this information, even where internet
access is available. Videoconferencing, like the models used in the health sector, could offer a
more personal, full-service approach (p. 39) to providing services across vast distances than
teleconferencing or websites or web portals.
Videoconferencing was also mentioned in other literature as a valuable tool when in-person
services are impractical but a face-to-face interaction is ideal (Reid & Malcolmson, 2008).
However, it would require access to a confidential space with the required hardware at a service
access point. This is being offered more and more in service agencies across the province. Reid
and Malcolmsons (2008) report also referenced the Legal Aid Queenslands rural and remote
strategy, where videoconferencing is provided at access points in local community organizations
in order to connect rural clients with lawyers in regional community law offices.
Videoconferencing is also a useful tool in connecting rural and urban professionals who need
access to specialized knowledge across distances, and is used in the health sector where rural
communities are being served (Dyck, Cornock, Gibson, & Carlson, 2008). Videoconferencing
can be used for group meetings, and is also used to provide and training and access to
specialized knowledge from specialists in urban centres.
Using advanced online tools, like legal forms online, or online intake systems, were also
mentioned in the literature as a useful strategy for supporting self-help approaches to resolving
legal problems, but only when appropriate for the client (Cohl & Thomson, 2008; Queensland
Association of Independent Legal Services Inc., 2014; Reid & Malcolmson, 2008). A review of
strategies in the United Kingdom and California noted that these tools were effective in
collaboration with advice services, and when facilitated through diverse approaches to doing
outreach in response to clusters of need and targeting services at specific client groups. (Reid &
Malcolmson, 2008)
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SERVING ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
All of the articles we reviewed attempt in some way to contextualize the existing relationship
between Aboriginal communities and the Government, the legal system, and general service
providers. Historically, it is important to acknowledge that this has been a difficult and often
hostile relationship (Legal Aid Ontario, 2008; Zalik, 2006). Parliament sanctioned laws and
policies as well as government sponsored social programs are at the root of many of the social
and legal issues faced by Aboriginal peoples today (Nielsen, 2006). One community member
working in the prison system in Toronto estimates 80% of the Aboriginal men and children they
encounter are children of residential school survivors, and the other 20% are children adopted
or fostered into non-aboriginal families (Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto, 2002). Residual
effects of the residential school era and the 60s scoop persist within the community, and the
various Indian Acts implemented by colonial and federal governments over the years have
profoundly altered relationships between governments and First Nations, but also within
Aboriginal communities themselves (Coulthard, 2014; Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto,
2002).
CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT
Racism and discrimination continue to impact the everyday life, livelihood, and identity of
Aboriginal people today (Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto, 2002; Coulthard, 2014; Legal Aid
Ontario, 2008; Zalik, 2006). This is felt particularly in relation to the legal system in which
Aboriginal men, women, and children are overrepresented and for whom incarceration rates
remain disproportionately high (Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto, 2002; Legal Aid Ontario,
2008; Walkem, 2007). In the 1999 R v. Gladue decision, the Supreme Court of Canada
acknowledged an over-reliance on incarceration within the criminal justice system. The court
directed that s. 718.2 of the criminal code, which instructs judges to consider all available
sanctions other than imprisonment before sentencing, be interpreted in a purposive manner,
particularly among Aboriginal peoples (Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto, 2002). This principle
has since been adopted as a mandate by a handful of Gladue First Nations Courts, and yet
incarceration rates in Ontario continue to climb (Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto, 2002; Legal
Aid Ontario, 2008).
Some other challenges identified in the literature include lower rates of literacy and education
and higher levels of homelessness, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disease (FASD), unemployment,
inadequate housing, and poverty than the general population (Spence & White, 2013; Nielsen,
2006; Standing Committee on Access to Justice, 2013; Legal Aid Ontario, 2008; Walkem, 2007;
Nielsen, 2006). While these challenges are very real, it is important to acknowledge that they are
not characteristics of the communities themselves, which have remained resilient in the face of
many of these growing demographic challenges. Understanding and appreciating this point is
essential for service providers operating in these communities (Laenui, 2013; Spence & White,
2013).
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While some First Nations are independent entities, many of the roughly 127 First Nations within
Ontario are affiliated with one of four Political Treaty Organizations: Grand Council Treaty No.
3, Nishnawbe-Aski Nation, Anishinabek Nation, and the Association of Iroquois and Allied
Indians (Zalik, 2006). Beyond First Nations themselves many Aboriginals in Canada up to
54% in 2006 report living in an urban centre. This number has certainly increased over the
last decade and is much higher in Ontario which is home to more Aboriginals living in nonreserve areas than any other province, although there is some question regarding Statistics
Canadas ability to adequately innumerate Aboriginals living on the streets and on reserves
(Zalik, 2006). This population has been described as rapidly growing, young, and diverse
(Spence & White, 2013). They are by-and-large First Nations and Mtis rather than Inuit people,
and they face different legal challenges than those that live on reserve (Aboriginal Legal Services
Toronto, 2002).
LEGAL NEEDS
As noted above, Aboriginal legal needs are as varied as the communities and regions in which
they live, but there are nonetheless some common themes in the literature. Zalik (2006)
identifies 5 priority topics that reoccurred in consultations with agency representatives involved
in the delivery of legal services to Aboriginal people across Canada. This list included Indian
status, family law, criminal law, harvesting rights, and residential schools. Family law and
criminal law were reoccurring themes, often raised in the context of perpetually high and
increasing rates of incarceration and of children in foster care (Reid & Malcolmson, 2008;
Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto, 2002; Legal Aid Ontario, 2008; Walkem, 2007).
While criminal and family law fall outside the mandate of community legal clinics, and
harvesting rights, status, and residential school issues are relatively niche areas of law, it is clear
from the literature that Aboriginal legal problems run much deeper than these few particular
areas. The need for increased information and knowledge about the legal system generally was
perhaps the single most consistent theme identified in the literature, after criminal
representation and child and family support (Nielsen, 2006; Walkem, 2007; Aboriginal Legal
Services Toronto, 2002; Legal Aid Ontario, 2008). Other areas of need mentioned included civil
and administrative legal support, small claims, consumer law, wills and estates, poverty law,
housing, ODSP, OAS, and CPP (Reid & Malcolmson, 2008; Nielsen, 2006; Legal Aid Ontario,
2008). Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto (ALST) operate a community legal clinic which
provides support and representation for housing problems and tenants rights issues, social
assistance, Indian Act matters, Canada pension matters, employment insurance, criminal
injuries compensation, and police complaints (Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto, 2002).
Over the past 40 years, there has been a rapid evolution in the law (Zalik, 2006). Where once
the justice system stood squarely in the way of attempts to promote Aboriginal selfdetermination, section 35 of the Constitution Act as well as decisions like Guerrin in 1983 and
Gladue in 1999 have helped contribute to a resurgence in Aboriginal governance and justice
systems (Reid & Malcolmson, 2008) and legal clinics like ALST have contributed directly to this
resurgence as interveners in Gladue as well as at least four other Supreme Court cases
(Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto, 2002). In many ways these advancements have outpaced
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legislative activity in this area, making legal advocacy a key tool in the fight for selfdetermination within Aboriginal communities.
BARRIERS
Barriers such as geographical distance from courts and from legal services are common
challenges faced by remote communities in general. Lack of access to vehicles and public transit
were cited as significant barriers for some rural Aboriginal communities (Reid & Malcolmson,
2008), and the same is true of access to telephones and computers (Legal Aid Ontario, 2008;
Walkem, 2007). These geographical and technological barriers that impact communication can
compound what is already a deep divide stemming from what the Royal Commission on
Aboriginal People (RCAP) describes as the fundamentally different world views of Aboriginal
and non-Aboriginal people with respect to such elemental issues as the substantive content of
justice and the process of achieving justice (quoted in LAO, 2008; Walkem, 2007; Aboriginal
Legal Services Toronto, 2002).
For many aboriginal people, the Canadian court process is strange and bewildering and with
rare exceptions, [Aboriginal peoples] simply dont trust those who operate in it and administer
it (Walkem, 2007, p. 2). The literature indicates that this can be the result of two reinforcing
phenomena. On the one hand there is the systemic reality of negative rather than positive
representation of Aboriginal people within the justice system. Structural discrimination, both
real and perceived, is the product of a legal system in which Aboriginal people are vastly overrepresented as clients and defendants and dramatically under-represented as practitioners and
litigators. Legal Aid Ontario acknowledges the fact that Aboriginal people in Ontario are illserved by a system that is both culturally foreign and saddled by historical and systemic
injustice and ignorance (Legal Aid Ontario, 2008, p. 2). This resonates with associate Chief
Judge Murray Sinclairs observation in 1997 that:
[W]hen the justice system can be fallible where Aboriginal people are
concerned, it is fallible. It fails at virtually every point in the system in the
process. This is understandable because, quite frankly, Aboriginal people and
the Euro-Canadian justice system they come into contact with are inherently
in conflict. (Quoted in Zalik, 2006, p. 11)
Aboriginal clients are also more likely to avoid programs and supports available to them for fear
of disproportionate and intensely negative local reaction (Human Rights Legal Support Centre
Annual Report, 2013, p. 9). Aboriginal communities are often judging the person providing the
information, rather than the material itself (Zalik, 2006), and the perception that the court
system is a white-privileged system can make Aboriginal clients more inclined to plead guilty
and get it over with rather than attempt to adequately present their case (Reid & Malcolmson,
2008, p. 56). This reoccurring theme in the literature makes it all the more important that
service providers, note, understand, and then acknowledge in a direct way that the history of
our country since first contact has created mistrust, unease, and even hostility. This means that
many Aboriginal people will not seek services from non-Aboriginal providers (Spence &
White, 2013, p. 93).
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PROMISING PRACTICES
As a result of this uneasy relationship, many jurisdictions have established Aboriginal run legal
services, which are generally perceived by scholars and Indigenous peoples as positive actors in
the process of regaining sovereignty for Aboriginal peoples (Lancaster, 1994; Mitchell & Bruhn,
2009; Nielsen, 2006). Some jurisdictions have not, however, and there remains some question
as to whether, in the absence of a genuine and meaningful right to self-governance, the
devolution of self-administered program delivery is more of a burden than a boon to the cause of
self-determination (Rae, 2009).
Spence and White confront this question head on, asking are there services that must be
delivered by Aboriginal-specific providers? Our answer is no (Spence & White, 2013, p. 93).
While general service providers are in theory available to Aboriginal peoples and many do access
them alongside the general population, a lack of expertise in delivering culturally appropriate
services is a common organizational deficit that deters many potential clients. A variety of
remedies are proposed to address this deficit, including incorporating more visible Aboriginal
art, language, and cultural symbols into clinic offices (Nielsen, 2006), expanding PLE in
Aboriginal communities (Rahman, 2011; Walkem, 2007), and hosting talking circles and
community feasts (Rahman, 2011; Zalik, 2006), but it is important to recognize that there is no
one-size-fits-all solution (Spence & White, 2013).
One recommendation that was consistent across the literature was to increase Aboriginal
representation within clinics and their boards (Rahman, 2011; Spence & White, 2013; Mitchell &
Bruhn, 2009; Reid & Malcolmson, 2008; Walkem, 2007; Nielsen, 2006). There is increasing
recognition that non-Aboriginal agencies staffed by Aboriginal people are more likely to attract
Aboriginal populations, particularly youth (Spence & White, 2013). Ideas to facilitate this range
from mentorship programs (Walkem, 2007) to incentive programs for Aboriginal law students
to work within the community after law school (Rahman, 2011), as well as taking a life course
approach to services provision (Spence & White, 2013). A similar recommendation that received
some agreement was the need for cultural sensitivity or cultural-spiritual-experience awareness
training (Legal Aid Ontario, 2008; Spence & White, 2013). This should ideally be done with local
Aboriginal community members that understand the local cultural traditions, protocols, and
issues (Mitchell & Bruhn, 2009).
Collaboration with Aboriginal organizations was also considered an important step in building
relationships within Aboriginal populations (Spence & White, 2013; Walkem, 2007; Zalik,
2006). These partnerships can come in a variety of forms, both formal and informal, and can
incorporate numerous activities that share physical resources, human capital, and cultural
competencies. In any partnership a mutual relationship of respect with shared responsibilities is
critical, as is a substantial investment of time and patience (Spence & White, 2013; Zalik, 2006).
Friendship Centres were discussed in many articles as fitting organizations, with established
reputations for service delivery within Aboriginal communities, that would be obvious prospects
for partnership (Spence & White, 2013; Hall, Weaver, Handfield-Jones, & Bouvette, 2008; Zalik,
2006). Legal services offered out of a Friendship Centre in Edmonton, for instance, led directly
to the creation of Native Counselling Services of Alberta (NCSA), an Indigenous run legal service
which now provides council for many Alberta Aboriginals (Nielsen, 2006).
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To address a general lack of information, Zalik (2006) reviews some of the most popular
outreach methods within the Aboriginal community. The top methods are community feasts and
word of mouth. Beyond direct outreach, respondents indicated that printed text was more
effective than other forms of outreach and should be considered a priority. Simple pamphlets
and flyers with straightforward language are ideal (Rahman, 2011; Zalik, 2006) and could be
linked in some way to more detailed reference material (Reid & Malcolmson, 2008). Online and
print materials should make use of graphics wherever possible, such as flowcharts, pictures, and
Aboriginal symbols such as the eagle feather (Zalik, 2006). Organizations should also develop
institutional awareness of programs and services that exist in the region as well as details about
how clients can access them (Spence & White, 2013).
Following the lead of the Legal Services Society in British Columbia, there were
recommendations to expand technological outreach by developing an Aboriginal LawLINE and
Aboriginal specific legal websites that can help leverage existing expertise by connecting clients
with a roster of Aboriginal lawyers (Reid & Malcolmson, 2008; Walkem, 2007). These are
recommended with the understanding that a large portion of the population will not have ready
access to computers and telephones, and are therefore accompanied by the recommendation
that in person service be enhanced and supported (Rahman, 2011; Reid & Malcolmson, 2008;
Walkem, 2007).
LINGUISTIC SERVICE DELIVERY

LACK OF SERVICES PROVIDED IN FRENCH
Most of the literature reviewed indicated a lack of French language legal services and suggested
that French language services are more difficult to access (Dufresne & Makropoulos, 2008;
Gong-Guy, Patterson, & Cravens, 1991; Drolet, et al., 2014; Younes, 2004; George & Mwarigha,
1999). The literature also suggested that there is a lack of understanding about how many
Francophones live in Ontario, that there are fewer services available in French than in English,
and that Francophones experience longer wait times for services in French. These limitations
more pressure on French-speaking staff, who frequently experience extended workloads because
they see both French and English speaking clients, and are often asked to translate documents
(Dufresne & Makropoulos, 2008; Gong-Guy, Patterson, & Cravens, 1991; Drolet, et al., 2014;
Graham, Maslove, & Phillips, 2001; Ngwakongnwi, Hemmelgarn, Musto, Quan, & King-Shier,
2012; Younes, 2004; George & Mwarigha, 1999). The literature also discussed how colloquial
French can be stigmatized, whereas formal French is used in most professional environments.
This leads to clients feeling uncomfortable speaking both English, since it is their second
language, and speaking French, because of the formal linguistic atmosphere of bilingual service
agencies. Dufresne & Makropoulos (2008) note that clients are often encouraged by their legal
workers to use English in courts, since it is perceived that clients will receive better and faster
service in English than in French (Younes, 2004).
FRENCH-SPEAKING REFUGEES AND NEWCOMERS

French-speaking refugees and newcomers face additional barriers to native Ontarian
Francophones when navigating a primarily Anglophone system and society. Barriers such as
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accessing a new system with little to no contacts and resources are common, as well as
discrimination and xenophobia. Misdiagnosis is common in the healthcare context, and there
were indications of some challenges with translators, such as trusting them with personal
affairs, and uneasiness that they were translating correctly.
The eligibility rules for accessing services through legal clinics were considered a barrier by
refugees and newcomers. Although off-putting to all those accessing services, this can be a
greater barrier for those who are unfamiliar with service agency processes in Canada, and whose
first language is not English (Dufresne & Makropoulos, 2008).
Other barriers that were presented in the literature included a mistrust of government
organizations and social services, dissatisfaction with services, and the lack of Francophone
contact points within the community.
PROMISING PRACTICES
CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE DELIVERY
The literature emphasized the importance of offering culturally appropriate services. This
includes providing services in a clients first language (whether in French or another language),
with a focus on communicating in a colloquial, accessible fashion (i.e. along the formal-informal
spectrum), and ensuring that services are provided by a member of the community (Gong-Guy,
Cravens & Patterson, 1991). Some of the benefits of providing culturally appropriate services
include being able to spend more time discussing issues in depth, avoiding misunderstandings,
and building trust between clients and service providers (Gong-Guy, Cravens & Patterson, 1991).
AGENCY COLLABORATION
The idea that agencies offering services in French should have greater collaboration was
consistent in the literature (Younes, 2004; Drolet, et al., 2014). Since it is perceived as more
difficult for Francophones to access services, and because Francophone services are less
widespread, the literature suggested that those agencies that do provide these services should
develop a formalized network. These networks were seen to assist French-speaking staff in
providing a welcoming atmosphere across the spectrum of francophone services, and warm
referrals and making better use of Francophone resources (Drolet, et al., 2014).
OUTREACH TO FRANCOPHONE COMMUNITIES
As mentioned previously, the literature pointed to a lack of resources provided in French, but
also identified that the French-language services that are available are not well known to
Francophone communities (Ngwakongwi, et al., 2012). As a strategy to address the mistrust
Francophone clients may have of service agencies, and thus increase Francophones willingness
to seek help from those organizations, agencies should conduct outreach to Francophone
communities (Gong-Guy, Cravens & Patterson, 1991). One method of outreach is making it
known that services are provided in French by offering flyers and other documents in French
(Ngwakongnwi, et al., 2012).
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MEDICAL LEGAL PARTNERSHIPS

OVERVIEW
There is a growing body of literature that discusses collaborative models of service delivery
between healthcare agencies and legal services, known as Medical Legal Partnerships (MLPs), as
a strategy for addressing the impacts of social and legal issues on health and wellbeing.
Pioneered at the Boston Medical Centre in the 1980s, MLPs are increasingly prevalent in the
North American context, and are being adopted by a wide array of healthcare and legal agencies,
from hospitals and mobile health teams to law schools and community legal clinics (Noble,
2012). Although the models for MLPs are diverse and often tailored to the needs of the
communities they serve (Cohen et al., 2010; Colvin, Nelson & Cronin, 2012; Paul et al., 2009),
Cohen et al. suggest that the principal goal of MLPs is to ensure that laws impacting health are
implemented and enforced, particularly among vulnerable populations (p. 136). Stemming
from this notion, this section of the literature review will seek to identify the strengths and
challenges of MLPs, as well as exploring different models and factors for successful
implementation.
BENEFITS
CAPACITY TO ADDRESS THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH (SDH)
Throughout the literature, MLPs are reported to frame legal issues as a significant social
determinant of health (SDH), given that legal issues put significant stress on individuals,
particularly in vulnerable populations, which can often have direct impacts on health and
wellbeing (Noble, 2012; Paul et al., 2009; Regenstein, 2015, Noone & Digney, 2010). As result,
the literature suggests legal support can be understood as a central facet of comprehensive
healthcare delivery (Marple, 2015, Gyorki, 2013). Further, Beck et al. (2012) note that
interventions that focus on just 1 of the SDH may lead to improvements of other social,
economic, or environmental risks (p. 836).
IMPROVED ACCESS TO LEGAL SERVICES FOR VULNERABLE AND RURAL
POPULATIONS
MLPs can also improve access to justice for vulnerable populations, as the literature suggests
that many vulnerable populations are not able to access the legal system but are much more
likely to access the healthcare system (Noble, 2012; Cohen et al., 2010; Noone & Digney, 2010).
Further, Paul et al. (2009) note MLPs are uniquely equipped to advocate both for better services
and for legislation designed to improve the SDH for vulnerable populations. The research also
suggests that MLPs are particularly important in rural areas (Beeson, McAllister & Regenstein,
2013), where, according to Teufel (2012) poverty rates as well as morbidity and mortality rates
for many preventable or controllable diseases are usually higher and access to services is more
limited (p. 706).
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EFFICIENCY OF SERVICE
The literature also suggests that MLPs can generate significant savings for both healthcare and
legal institutions. By focusing on the SDH, MLP take a preventative approach to healthcare that
can reduce the burden on healthcare in the long run (Gyorki, 2013), and can encourage
investment by demonstrating a reduced impact on the healthcare system in specific cases where
legal issues are addressed (Marple, 2015). Further, because there is a high likelihood that
individuals and families living in poverty will experience several legal needs at once, referrals for
one legal issue can often lead to the assistance with multiple issues simultaneously (Beck et al.,
2012; Cohen et al., 2010)
CHALLENGES
BARRIERS TO FORMING SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIPS
The literature suggests several barriers that must be overcome in the formation of MLPs. Gyorki
(2013) notes although MLPs deliver collaborative services in unorthodox settings, legal services
must retain the ethical obligations of the legal profession, while medical professionals must
maintain the confidentiality of health information. This creates challenges in the transmission of
information between the two professions, and necessitates the development of a well-coordinated information sharing system.
Further, Gyorki (2013) suggests that because medical care teams often work very closely
together, and form robust client-patient relationships, it can often be difficult to integrate
lawyers into this dynamic without compromising client relationships, confidentiality, and trust.
Trust can also be an issue between medical and legal professionals (Gyorki, 2013; Noone &
Digney, 2010). Gyorki suggests that there is often concern amongst the medical community that
the presence of legal professionals on the care team will make the pathway to bringing a
medical negligence claim more seamless for patients (p. 76, 2013). As a result, it is crucial to
establish parameters of a working relationship from the outset and reassure medical staff that
MLPs do not exist to address cases of medical negligence or malpractice (Gyorki, 2013). Tension
can also arise as a result of the disparity between the professional cultures of medical and legal
workers, which in turn poses challenges in aligning an MLPs scope of work and defining its
successes and failures (Regenstein, 2015).
FUNDING
Several authors identified funding as a significant challenge in the implementation of effective
and sustainable MLPs. Regenstein (2015) noted that funding for legal staff must often be
sourced from outside of the healthcare system, and that MLPs often rely on local community
legal clinics, law schools, and pro-bono services in order to fund and staff their initiatives. The
literature also suggests that in order to secure more sustainable funding, MLPs need to explore
joint sources of funding and work to solidify the perception of legal services as a fundamental
element of holistic health care (Gyorki, 2013; Sandel et al., 2009). Further, Noone and Digney
(2010) find that MLPs are less likely to be effective if they are under pressure to meet service
targets or reduce wait times, or are funded per service.
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MODELS OF MEDICAL-LEGAL PARTNERSHIPS

Paul et al. (2009) suggest that the medical-legal partnership model has 3 core components:
direct service for patients and families, training for health care staff, and joint medical-legal
systems advocacy (305). Broadly, authors find MLPs to be highly effective at increasing medical
staffs awareness of legal issues as social determinants of health, with the capacity to address a
variety of medical and legal issues (Cohen et al., 2012; Colvin, Nelson & Cronin, 2012; Paul et
al., 2009).
PARTNERSHIP COLOCATION
Throughout the literature, in various ways, MLP models embody these components. Beck et al.
(2012) discuss a Cincinnati based MLP that is permanently co-located with a mobile paediatric
unit, which they find to be a highly effective model for protecting child wellbeing and increasing
the efficiency and efficacy of risk assessment. Noone and Digney (2010), however, note that
colocation does not guarantee service integration, which requires a careful and deliberate effort
to nurture the partnership. Cohen et al. (2010) detail a New York program that conducts
rotating legal clinics at multiple teaching and community hospitals, and also provides training
for both physicians and social workers.
TRUSTED INTERMEDIARIES/PROBLEM NOTICERS
Across the literature, authors note the importance of training healthcare professionals to notice
legal problems (Marple, 2015; Gyorki, 2013; Colvin, Nelson & Cronin, 2012; Paul et al., 2009).
These authors identify I-HELP indicator (income, housing and utilities, employment and
education, legal status, and personal stability) as a highly effective tool to help medical
professionals identify legal issues with the potential to negatively impact the social determinants
of health (Marple, 2015; Cohen et al., 2010; Sandel et al., 2010). Several authors also note the
effectiveness of integrating social/legal risk screening into medical intake forms, which can help
for medical personnel to identify legal problems that might impact a clients health. This would
also facilitate medical personnel in making accurate and early referrals to appropriate legal help
(Beck et al., 2012; Gyorki, 2013; Sandel et al., 2010).
ADVOCACY TRAINING AND MLP CURRICULA
Gyorki (2013) notes the importance of engaging law and medical students in order to ensure
that they have fundamental understanding of the role of legal assistance within the social model
of health from the outset. Several authors cite the Boston I MLP in Massachusetts as a leading
program in advocacy training and related education. Authors detail a variety of advocacy
training programs as well as a poverty simulation that provide participants with an immediate
understanding of the way legal issues can impact health, as well as indispensable tools to
address these issues (Gyorki, 2013; Cohen et al., 2010).
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SUCCESS FACTORS FOR MEDICAL-LEGAL PARTNERSHIPS

VISIBILITY
Visibility is crucial to MLP success legal services should be a highly visible part of the healthcare team (Gyorki, 2013). Gyorki (2013) suggests that visibility can be maximized by attending
unit meetings, participating and presenting at grand rounds, presenting at professional
development days, developing newsletters, engaging in social media, etc. (p. 9). For Marple
(2015), the visibility of legal services in the community is also crucial, and can only be achieved
by ensuring that it is described in a way that resonates with the values and worldview of that
community.
SUSTAINABLE PARTNERSHIPS
At the outset of an MLP, it is critical demonstrate that collaboration can significantly expand the
capacity of a medical institution to serve its clientele, and generate real improvements in their
health (Cohen et al., 2010). Further, it is important to work with existing community agencies,
integrate with care teams, and enforce existing laws rather than building new organizations and
trying to incorporate advocacy into the scope of MLPs (Beck et al., 2012; Gyorki 2013); this
approach has been exemplified by the MLP I Boston MLP (Cohen et al, 2010). Further, a strong
commitment to building the strength of partnerships, with an emphasis on clear reporting
guidelines and transparency is crucial to success (Gyorki, 2013).
EVALUATION
Gyorki (2013) notes that conducting needs assessments are critical to ensuring legal services
match community needs. This may entail expanding areas of practice or engaging pro-bono
services. Continued evaluation of the effectives of an MLP is also central to its long-term
success. Gyorki identifies that effective evaluation should entail studying both the health
impacts that legal intervention has on patients and also the financial return on investing in
medical-legal partnerships.
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QUALITATIVE RESEARCH SUMMARIES

STAFF FOCUS GROUP SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
This summary is based on 10 focus groups that Public Interest held with staff from the
participating community legal clinics, including: Renfrew County Legal Clinic (RCLC), Clinique
Juridique de Prescott et Russell (CJPR), Clinique Juridique Stormont, Dundas et Glengarry
(CJSDG), Community Advocacy & Legal Centre (CALC), Community Legal Clinic-Simcoe,
Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes (SHK), Durham Community Legal Clinic (DCLC), Kingston
Community Legal Clinic (KING), The Legal Clinic (TLC), Northumberland Community Legal
Centre (NCLC), and Peterborough Community Legal Centre (PETE). Discussions were carried
out in English and in French. They lasted 2 hours and were based on a consistent set of
questions designed to draw out the experiences of staff in delivering services at community legal
clinics, the needs and priorities of clients and their community, emerging trends in the field and
ideas for their clinic and the clinic system to better deliver services to their communities.
Each staff group offered unique perspectives on the needs and strengths of their communities
and the needs and strengths of their community legal clinics. This report will discuss the
similarities that arose from discussions with staff groups, and also the divergences that arose,
including ideas that were suggested and experiences that might be valuable to other clinics.
DEMOGRAPHICS
In such a large and diverse region, it is no surprise that staff reported working with a diverse
range of demographics. Staff working in regions that have urban centres said that immigration
has been on the rise in recent years, and that newcomers are a growing demographic that
require legal services. However, the majority of clinics that serve rural populations, while
acknowledging a distinct lack of services available to immigrant populations, did not feel that
the growth in immigrant populations was a pressing concern. There was divergence, however, in
whether staff were seeing this population coming into the community legal clinic for services.
The staff of one clinic reported that there has been an increase in the language needs and
cultural diversity of clients at their clinic, and staff of another clinic said that these clients are
not making their way into the clinic. Those that said newcomers were not accessing services
suggested that they are often referred to Legal Aid Ontario instead of the clinic.
Similarly, seniors and aging populations were identified in some of the rural areas as a growing
demographic in both the client and community population, while other clinics mentioned
seniors as a relatively stable client demographic. Some felt the mix was pretty even between
older and younger clients, but they expected to see an increase in seniors as the general
population ages. Younger clients were also identified only once as a significant or increasing
demographic in Peterborough, but it was noted that it is often harder for younger clients to
make connections, get referrals, and make it into the clinic. One staff member observed that we
are likely only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to younger clients.
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Despite the diversity of clients accessing legal services, across the board clinic staff seem to be
seeing an increase in cases involving clients with mental health challenges. They regularly
described those that come in the door as in crisis. Though staff experience varied from clinic to
clinic and two did not feel there had been a great deal of change, staff commonly felt that the
need for service has been steadily increasing.
TYPES OF LAW
The most significant areas of law identified by staff were income assistance including Ontario
Disability Support Program (ODSP) and Canada Pension Plan (CPP), housing issues including
landlord and tenant issues and eviction, and employment issues including EI and Workers
Compensation.
Staff reported several areas of law in which they wanted to expand their practice, including
human rights, criminal injuries, credit counselling/debtor law, consumer law, duty counsel and
wills and power of attorney. There was some disagreement around whether it was in the best
interest of clients to broaden service to more types of law or to focus on only some but in great
depth.
Clinic staff in areas of increased immigration reported a need for clinic to offer immigration law
services. There was concern that staff did not have the expertise to provide services in this area,
and it was suggested that additional training or specialized staff would be required.
Staff in most clinics noted that clients often have family legal issues and criminal legal issues.
Staff suggested that these issues would be best addressed by forming partnerships with agencies
that provide these services, since as things are now, community legal clinic staff do not have the
expertise to practice family and criminal law. Several staff identified the lack of services in their
community as one of the challenges of meeting those needs. This was especially true with
criminal legal issues, with staff saying that sometimes there are not a lot of options for referring
clients to criminal legal service for people with low income. It was mentioned that Family Legal
Information Centre (FLIC) and LAO were common points of referral for family law issues.
FRENCH SERVICES
Although most legal clinic staff indicated that there was not a large Francophone population in
their community, some identified challenges in providing services to this population. It was
noted that even though services are provided in French, much of the documentation still needs
to be translated, since most of it is only available in English. This can lead to delays for clients
that need these services. It was also noted that clients need to be able to provide testimony in
their native language in order for them to adequately convey their experiences and perspectives.
Community legal clinics that often work in French stressed the importance of language-specific
and culturally specific services for their clients.
CLIENTS PRESENT MULTIPLE AND COMPLEX ISSUES

Nearly all staff agreed that few of the clients they see in the clinic present only a single legal
problem. For example, clients may be facing eviction, but it is due to loss of benefits, or loss of
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income and they often need to appeal a benefits rejection and find a power of attorney all at
once. All staff said that in order to identify additional and intersecting legal problems they use
an intake questionnaire that probes for common legal issues. It was very common for staff to
encounter clients with multiple intersecting legal problems, but it was noted that there is a limit
to capacity and, as one clinic observed, issues must still be dealt with one at a time. One clinic
explained that they have a system for flagging issues to be addressed at a later date.
Beyond legal problems, staff observed that many people come in with non-legal problems as
well. They may need access to a mental health worker, a social worker, or a food program. Staff
were somewhat split on the idea of having social workers or other non-legal professions in the
office. Some felt they would be very useful conduits to help clients with mental health and
literacy problems, while others felt the resources would be better used elsewhere. Two clinics
agreed that the impact on clients would likely depend on their past experiences with social
workers. Staff noted that clients are often forthcoming with their problems, but they also noted
that it varies based on the client. Some clients need time to build trust and understanding before
opening up further, particularly those with mental health issues. Client interviewing was
identified as a distinct, ongoing, and valuable skill. After identifying issues, some staff in the
more rural clinics expressed concern that there are no local resources to refer people to that
come into the clinic with legal problems that do not align with areas of law offered by the clinic.
USE OF TECHNOLOGY
The use of technology was greeted with mixed reaction by clinic staff. As a means of improving
communication, outreach, and intake, various technological approaches were suggested but in
nearly every case these suggestions were accompanied by concerns that not all clients have
access to these technologies. Clinics that declared a preferred method of intake favoured inperson walk-ins and appointments to other forms of intake. Where email was used to
communicate with clients there were conflicting experiences of the frequency of use, ranging
from very rare to daily contact from clients seeking help. One concern that was raised was that
increased connectivity may break down the screen between the home and work life for staff.
Some staff were also sceptical about client literacy and capacity to use technology even when
they could access it, observing that it can be more of a barrier than a benefit for some clients.
Most agreed that technology could be used to supplement rather than replace existing systems,
helping to create more avenues for access to service.
Further, there seemed to be some uncertainty when it came to the capacity of data management
and tracking systems like CMT and CIMS to effectively create efficiencies without complicating
the process. Staff that reported prior negative experiences with such platforms were particularly
concerned about this. Clinics using CMT described it as slow and felt that it was out-dated. In
some cases staff had replaced it or supplemented it with a patchwork of different programs,
databases, and alternative intake management strategies. Despite these shortcomings, staff did
suggest that improving digital intake management was preferable to hand written forms and
hard copies, which are slow to complete and easily misplaced.
Phones and phone systems were identified by staff at most clinics as important aspects of their
work in the office. Those that indicated a degree of prevalence for intake methods said phones
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accounted for at least half of intake, up to as high as 90%. Staff repeated in several groups that
contacting real people by phone is important for clients and expressed some frustration about
clinics not answering their phones. One clinic wanted more phones in the office, while another
wanted to upgrade their phones and suggested this as a possible area of collaboration that would
avoid clinics independently wasting resources researching and implementing new phone
systems. Staff at one clinic said clients were frustrated with their voicemail system. While
phones were identified as important points of access, a few clinics mentioned that clients often
dont want to talk on the phone for extended periods of time and that they had limited potential
as an intake tool.
Nearly every clinic, even those that expressed some concern about the efficacy and accessibility
of digital intake systems, agreed that the existing out-dated systems were in need of
improvement. Staff at various clinics wondered whether technological solutions could be found
to help with institutional memory, knowledge sharing, and evidence collection. They also offered
some suggestions about other potential uses of technology including: tablets for outreach that
can store a variety of documents; video-conferencing for specializing services in other clinics or
for rural access; texting to contact clients as a cost effective means of communication; and
making use of networks of fax machines, emailing or texting for the exchange of documents. One
office is making use of video conferencing on a regular basis while many have expressed interest
in adopting this practice. A few clinics noted a decrease in landlines and an increase in
smartphones, which changed the character of communication between clinics and clients.
Texting was raised as cost effective and accessible means of communication for clients, but there
were some concerns. Texts tend to be short, with less detail than a phone call or an email. It is
also more difficult to keep a detailed record of text messages with clients and there is often an
expectation that responses be prompt, placing unnecessary risk and pressure on staff. There
may also be implications with respect to the Law Society if such practices were adopted.
BARRIERS TO CLINIC ACESS

Staff at three clinics felt eligibility criteria were too strict or that they presented a barrier for
some clients in need of service. A few clinics indicated that they view themselves as a resource
for legal information accessible to the community at large, and were willing to provide referrals
and advice to clients that could not afford a lawyer.
Not surprisingly, transportation was the most significant barrier identified by staff for clients
accessing legal services, as both municipal and county-wide transit systems are often poor or
nonexistent. These concerns were most commonly raised with regard to clients with disabilities,
anxiety, mental health issues, and physical mobility issues, who frequently find accessing the
clinic challenging. Sometimes staff identified other community transport services that were
available including private shuttles, handi-vans and Community Care partners, but these
options are costly and at times difficult to access. Staff at multiple clinics said they were aware of
clients that hitchhike or even walk for hours to get to the nearest clinic.
Staff at every clinic acknowledged that reaching the office can often be difficult and that many
avenues are needed for people to access the clinic. The phone can often be an effective tool for
those who face transportation barriers, though it was mentioned by nearly every group that
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some clients are either uncomfortable discussing their personal issues over the phone, afraid to
leave the home, or are generally not trusting of the clinic. In these situations several staff said
they may need to travel to access points, satellites, food banks, or homes in order to meet with
clients. Some staff suggested that protocols, such as bans on home-visits, can limit their ability
to respond to particular circumstances in the best interest of the client, with some staff
mentioning that if protocols allowed for more staff discretion to decide how to deliver services to
clients, these services would become even more accessible. Some staff also suggested that a
general lack of awareness about community legal clinic services precludes some potential clients
from accessing the services they need.
Some groups also mentioned awareness of clinic services as a barrier for potential clients that
are not aware of the services available to them. Either that they do not know the services exist,
or that they assume they are not eligible. Clients were described as having varying expectations,
from high expectations, at times being frustrated and impatient to see a lawyer, to very low
expectations of just another government office.
PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATION

Most clinics reported having developed a good relationship with the local Ontario Works (OW)
offices, or noted that the relationship has improved in recent years. Some partnerships exist
with social housing agencies and with the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), but it
was acknowledged that many of these agencies are also local landlords and are often, along with
OW, on the opposite side of cases. Landlord/Tenant Duty Counsel and public libraries were also
examples raised by several staff teams as existing and potential organizations for partnerships.
New Canadian Centres were mentioned several times as partners, as were specialty clinics in
Toronto and Ottawa. Several clinics have attempted to develop partnerships with Aboriginal
band councils and agencies, and one formal partnership currently exists with an Aboriginal
agency. Two clinics mentioned that navigating these partnerships can at times be challenging.
Many staff members said that partnerships were a key to providing services in rural areas. Staff
advised that partnerships that were the result of proactive and persistent efforts were more
likely to work in the long run. They noted that time constraints can make it difficult to pursue
these partnerships, but that successful ones pay off by saving time in the long run. Several
clinics also emphasized the value of their connections to local service networks, roundtables,
and councils, again noting that proactivity and persistence were factors in the sustainable
success of these connections. Staff also broadly agreed that it is important to retain the
community governance of the clinic.
Inter-clinic collaborations, though less prevalent than other service delivery agency
partnerships, were thought of positively and staff expressed satisfaction with past
collaborations. The clinic resource office was mentioned many times as an important resource.
Regional training efforts such as spring and fall training, study groups for housing law, WSIB,
support staff, and criminal injuries were identified as useful opportunities both for knowledge
sharing and for building relationships with staff from other community legal clinics. Staff
expressed a willingness to pursue further collaboration; however it was mentioned that attempts
at collaboration have at times been met with reticence.
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SUCCESS IN OUTREACH AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Many staff groups identified outreach as a major strength of their community legal clinic and
discussed some of the outreach strategies that their clinics have facilitated. Currently a number
of community development, outreach and Public Legal Education (PLE) initiatives are being
undertaken. Many staff noted that agencies with existing partnerships were critical resources for
hosting and promoting PLE sessions, presentations, and workshops. One recurring theme for
successful outreach was conducting sessions in combination with other events, classes, or
programs in order to reach existing gatherings of target audiences. Several clinics mentioned
ensuring that elected officials particularly MPPs are aware of the clinic and its services. Two
clinics discussed reaching out to the private bar to attract new staff as being an ongoing activity.
Staff were generally proud of the outreach work they were doing, and felt that, although they do
well in this area, they would like to be doing more.
URBAN VERSUS RURAL SERVICE DELIVERY

Staff frequently discussed the distinction between urban and rural service delivery based on the
differing needs, strengths, and barriers of clients living in a rural setting compared to clients
living in an urban setting. Some characteristics of rural clients mentioned by staff included the
fact that people with housing issues often own their own homes, but face somewhat different
problems like home maintenance, water issues, hydro bills and wells. Staff also felt that rural
clients had less access to services such as transit and internet and therefore methods of
communication were slightly different. A couple of clinics also felt that there was no significant
difference in service delivery or that it was not as significant as other factors such as income.
STAFF TRAINING
Most staff expressed an interest in more opportunities for training or to attend conferences. This
included training for particular areas of law as well as non-legal training for things like
information technology and training to be better prepared for work with clients with mental
health issues. In some cases where the skill level needed is very high, such as immigration law,
there was concern that training would not be adequate and that only partnering with agencies or
hiring staff that specialize in such areas could really address this issue. Another common
concern was creating the time for staff to have further training opportunities, given that staff
workloads are frequently high.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING
A common theme raised by clinic staff was an interest in exploring new approaches to
knowledge sharing with other community legal clinics in Ontario, and those participating in the
ECRTP. Ideas mentioned include sharing online forms, intake manuals, and other tools they use
in their day-to-day work. Several groups mentioned that the relationships developed at regional
training sessions were useful resources to develop connections with staff from other clinics, but
it should be noted that this has changed in recent years since staff are now trained separately.
Staff suggested that technological tools such as the clinic list-serve and online training
directories are useful ways of sharing information. With respect to specialized staff skills, several
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clinics expressed a willingness to share expertise with other community legal clinics and to
accept help from other clinics that excel in different areas of law.
CLINIC CULTURE
Most staff felt that their relationships with their colleagues were invaluable and central to the
clinic culture. All clinics mentioned either collaboration or communication, or both, as
important elements of the clinic culture; it was often raised as necessary for maintaining the
work of the office. All clinics also identified compassion and empathy for clients or a client
focused approach as being a clinic strength or an element of clinic culture. Experienced
colleagues were highly valued in clinics with staff that had worked in the system for many years.
Non-legal staff working in administration, reception, or intake were also highly valued at every
clinic, described as a god-send and as indispensable to the work of several clinics. A few clinics
mentioned that changing clinic culture is very difficult and two clinics expressed reservations
about the hierarchical nature of the clinic system being the best way to organize the office.
SATELLITE SERVICES
Many of the participating community legal clinics offer satellite services, and most have tried
offering satellite services at some point in the past. Staff who were familiar with satellites were
generally pleased with them and saw value in being physically located in several communities.
Several staff also expressed interest in developing new satellite locations, and one staff member
suggested LAO staff that practice in different areas of law might be able to share space with
community legal clinic staff as a means of expanding service delivery.
While responses to the notion of satellite services were generally positive, one clinic observed
that the efficacy of a satellite depends on many factors. In some cases satellites that served very
few clients or suffered from staffing pressures ended up closing. Staff identified resourcing and
lack of communication as potential pitfalls of the satellite model. They also noted that travel
times for clients accessing services at a satellite are reduced but they are not eliminated, and
several staff members felt their satellites were still not accessible to some clients.
Many community legal clinics maintain policies requiring at least two staff to open a satellite
location. Satellites are both run by appointment and operated as walk-ins. While some staff
noted that walk-in satellites had not worked in the past, one walk-in continues to operate
effectively.
CLIENT FOCUS GROUP SUMMARIES

METHODOLOGY
Focus groups were conducted with clients from nine of the ten participating community legal
clinics. Focus groups lasted about two hours and were conducted in English and French. As
often as possible, focus groups were held in spaces familiar to the clients but external to the legal
clinics to ensure participants were comfortable having candid conversations about their
experiences. Clients were asked a series of questions about their legal needs, their expectations
about the legal services they receive, their experiences accessing legal services, the barriers they
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face in accessing legal and non-legal services, their suggestions and solutions, and more. The
consultant designed this list of questions with the Oversight Committee, with final approval
from the Oversight Committee. A complete list of the questions clients were asked during these
focus groups is available in Appendix VI.
Clients were recruited by clinic staff, with the goal of reaching at least six to eight participants
for each focus group, in order to ensure a well-rounded discussion. In one case, where
attendance was too low, a small focus group was conducted and an additional focus group was
scheduled; results from both are included in the following summary. In total, ten focus groups
were conducted. Out of those ten focus groups, six of them included six to eight participants,
three had fewer than 6 participants, and one had more than eight participants.
The following summary reports the broad themes that emerged from these discussions, but also
notes some smaller themes or less frequent comments from the findings.
LEGAL NEEDS
LEGAL CONCERNS REPORTED BY PARTICIPANTS
When asked which legal issues participants and their families, friends, and communities were
concerned about, participants reported a wide range of legal needs. However, six areas of legal
need featured prominently in the discussions: income maintenance (including ODSP and OW),
housing/landlord issues, workers compensation (WSIB), the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP),
employment, and family law.
Participants reported having extensive experience with legal issues regarding income
maintenance, specifically the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), which was
mentioned in all focus groups. Although many participants also identified legal needs
concerning the Ontario Works (OW) program (mentioned in half of the focus groups), ODSP
was identified as an overwhelming issue. Another prominent area of need identified by
participants in all but one focus group was the issue of housing and dealings with the Landlord
and Tenant Board (LTB). Legal issues with workers compensation (or WSIB), the Canadian
Pension Plan (CPP), and employment also came up in over half the focus groups. Services in
these areas of law are generally available from community legal clinics in the East-Central
region of Ontario, and are encompassed in their mandate.
Another area where participants reported significant need was in family law, mentioned in half
of the focus groups. Immigration law was mentioned as an area of law where people experience
need by a participant in one focus group. Human rights issues were mentioned twice; in one
focus group, they were linked with issues concerning housing and income maintenance (ODSP);
in another focus group, they were linked with employment. Participants in one focus group
identified an overall gap in services for Aboriginal and First Nations people, including legal
supports.
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AREAS OF LAW WHERE PARTICIPANTS WERE ABLE TO GET SUPPORT FROM THEIR
CLINIC
Most participants said they had been able to get the legal help they required from their local
community legal clinic in the areas of law they needed assistance in. In three of the focus groups,
at least one participant felt that their local community legal clinic had helped them with all of
their legal needs.
AREAS OF LAW WHERE PARTICIPANTS WERE NOT ABLE TO GET SUPPORT FROM
THEIR CLINIC
Participants identified an inability to get support from their legal clinic in four areas of law,
either directly or anecdotally: immigration law, family law, criminal injuries compensation, and
criminal law. Being unable to get support with criminal law came up in four focus groups. Being
unable to get support in family law came up in three focus groups.
It should be noted that these experiences were not necessarily universal, and some participants
did report being able to get some help from their clinics in these areas of law, specifically family
and criminal law. For some clients, help meant someone answering the phone, listening to
them, and referring them to another resource, or giving them some guidance around what to do
and where to go next, regardless of whether or not the clinic would take on their case.
OTHER COMMUNITY RESOURCES FOR LEGAL NEEDS
When asked about other resources participants know about or have accessed that could help
them with the legal needs they identified, some mentioned a broad range of services and
agencies that were resources for addressing their legal and/or non-legal needs: community
health centres, community counselling centres, duty counsel, newcomer agencies, and womens
shelters were among them. Some also mentioned having accessed private lawyers with varying
degrees of success. However, many participants responded to this question by identifying overall
gaps in services and programs that address both the legal and non-legal aspects of broader areas
of need. Some of these service gaps reflected a lack of programs and/or agencies to provide
services and programs in specific areas of need. Other gaps that participants identified reflected
a lack of information among both service providers and those in need of services.
LACKS OF PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
Although discussions about the needs of Aboriginal and First Nations people were infrequent,
clients did acknowledge a significant gap in services for these communities.
Clients acknowledged that people generally lack formal supports, and tend to rely on family,
friends and other informal supports, because they feel there is nowhere else to go.
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CLIENT EXPECTATIONS AND EXPERIENCES

WHAT CLIENTS EXPECT FROM THEIR COMMUNITY LEGAL CLINICS
When asked what they expected when they first accessed their community legal clinic, client
responses did not vary significantly. Most clients did not know what to expect, other than that
they hoped for a resolution to their problem. Some clients expected to experience the same
frustration and dismissiveness they experienced with other government and non-government
agencies; in other words, they did not expect that they would be heard or treated with respect. A
few clients did say unequivocally that they expected help, though they may not have had any
expectations as to what that would look like.
Overwhelmingly, clients felt that their community legal clinics exceeded their expectations
significantly. Many clients expressed that they were pleasantly surprised with the support they
received and the way they were treated by clinic staff. In this way, many clients felt that their
community legal clinic stood out from other service and government agencies in the willingness
of clinic staff to listen to and advocate for them.
TYPES OF SERVICES CLIENTS REPORTED RECEIVING
Clients reported receiving services from their local community legal clinic in the following ways:
Setting up appointments over the phone

Receiving advice over the phone
Getting help filling out forms and submitting documents
Meeting with a lawyer in person
Getting representation
Receiving preparatory support for self-representation
Accessing drop-in networks
Getting referrals to other agencies and services
Liaising with other agencies, offices, or specialists to collect documents, follow-up, or
resolve issues
This list generally mirrors the full breadth of services available at community legal clinics. In
addition to these, clients reported other services that do not fall under the category of formal
legal services. A significant number of participants reported that their experiences with the
community legal clinic brought them a sense of relief, empowerment, and hope. This was a
major theme in most of the focus group discussions. One participant stated that they felt their
case-worker carried the stress for them, relieving them of the burden.
Participants often contrasted their experiences at their community legal clinics with their
experiences with other agencies, namely government agencies.2 Participants often felt that the
government programs and services they interacted with namely ODSP, OW, WSIB, and CPP
A conflation between community legal clinics and Legal Aid Ontario was commonly made amongst focus
group participants. Thus, many participants seemed to consider their community legal clinics to be
government agencies, and not non-profit clinics operating with government funding.
2
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offices looked down on and harassed people living on low-incomes, disregarding and
disrespecting them, and failing to listen to and address their needs. By contrast, many
participants reported feeling like they were finally listened to at their community legal clinic,
some clients going so far as to say they felt that they were being treated as a human beings for
the first time [by a] government agency.
Though the breadth of services provided by all the participating clinics combined was
represented in the findings of the client focus groups, responses indicate that clients are not
receiving consistent services across the East and Central region of Ontario. For example, the
proportion of clients who had been represented by a lawyer from their community legal clinic
varied among focus groups. There was also a mix of experiences and sentiments regarding the
frequency of contact participants had with legal clinic staff. For example, some participants
expressed being very happy with legal clinic staff, who kept the lines of communication open
and contacted them regularly, even if new information was not available. Other participants
reported that they were content with hearing from legal clinic staff only when new information
was available, even if that meant waiting months or even over a year. These respondents
reported feeling that if they did not hear from their caseworkers in the meantime, it was either
because they were busy or because of delays from other agencies and offices involved in the case.
However, other clients reported feeling left in the dark, and were displeased about not hearing
from their legal clinic staff. These clients wanted to be kept in the loop and reassured that their
case was moving along, whether new information was available or not. The extent to which this
concern was expressed varied.
CLIENTS THOUGHTS ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CLINIC SERVICES
The majority of clients reported that the services they received at their local community legal
clinic were effective. However, what effective meant to different clients varied: for some, it
simply meant their case was resolved; for others, it meant they felt supported and that they got
the help they needed. For the latter group of clients especially, any unfavourable outcomes were
generally attributed to systems external to the legal clinic.
Some of the specific ways in which clinic services were effective were described as follows:
Clinic staff have access to information and expertise that the general public and other
service agencies do not have access to.
Clinic staff were prompt in faxing documents.
Caseworkers liaised effectively with other parties (such as ODSP or OW workers, doctors,
etc.) and kept the file organized and on track.
Caseworkers effectively explained the systems clients were interacting with in ways that
were thorough and easy to understand, making sense of systems and processes many
clients found frustrating and confounding.
Clinic staff were generally good at ensuring clients were well prepared.
Clinic staff treated clients with compassion and understanding, and gave them the
support they reported being unable to get at other agencies.
Clinic staff kept their clients updated and contacted them regularly.
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In response to being asked about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the services they
received, a significant number of clients were quick to point out that they felt their legal clinics
are doing the best they can with what little time and resources they have. Some clients did call
for increased funding for legal clinics, which often came up in response to this question,
specifically.
A smaller number of clients also mentioned issues and concerns they had with the services they
received from their community legal clinic. These included:
Some clients reported having difficulties getting through to in-take over the phone or
during drop-ins, or having to wait in long lines for in-person follow-ups, such as
dropping off or signing documents.
Some clients from a few clinics reported privacy issues, specifically where intake might
be conducted in an audible range of waiting areas.
Some respondents from some focus groups reported having had to leave their clinic after
arriving during a drop-in, even early on in the day, because of limited capacity.
Some clients reported feeling unprepared for navigating external systems (such as ODSP,
OW, or the LTB) or self-representation. One client felt that clinic staff skipped over
providing an adequate explanation of these systems because they expected clients to
know what they needed to know.
Clients from one focus group did suggest a more robust triage system for in-person
intake. For example, clients reported having to wait in long lines just to drop off
documents. These clients suggested using drop-in windows for intake, and scheduling
in-person appointments over the phone for any follow-up visits.
Some clients felt that lawyers were doing work that could and should be done by
dedicated administrative staff, such as photocopying and sending forms.
HOW CLIENTS ACCESS CLINIC SERVICES

Most clients reported accessing clinic services over the phone or in-person, predominantly
through appointments, but also during walk-ins. Other methods included: communicating with
caseworkers via email or text message; mailing in documents; and public legal education events
such as workshops. Most clients reported a preference for communicating in-person or over the
phone.
Clients who expressed satisfaction with accessing clinic staff and services over the phone
generally felt it may have been all that they required at the time. One participant felt this was a
way of accessing services without taking up staff time and resources, which they believed to be
in short supply. Another participant living with anxiety explained that talking over the phone
was the only option for them, as they would be unable to sit in front of a person and
communicate effectively, especially away from home.
Clients who preferred accessing community legal clinic services in-person generally felt that this
was a more effective way for them to communicate. These clients tended to feel that
communicating over the phone or with written materials left room for misunderstanding and
miscommunication. Some clients expressed their preference in ways that implied some stress or
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anxiety associated with talking over the phone, explaining that they were prone to forgetting
things when communicating over the phone rather than in-person, or that they struggled with
understanding the other person on the phone, or being understood themselves. Another client
said that going into the clinic in-person made them feel like a person, rather than just a file.
HOW CLIENTS KNOW THEY HAVE A LEGAL ISSUE IN THE FIRST PLACE
Responses generally indicated that clients found out they had a legal issue at the same time they
found out about the legal clinic. A few clients did report having a general sense or gut-feeling
that their rights were being violated or that they should get a lawyer. However, many clients who
required assistance with ODSP reported that they felt they had no recourse until they found out
about the legal nature of their issue and the support available from their legal clinic, through
word of mouth or a referral from another agency.
HOW CLIENTS FIND OUT ABOUT THE CLINIC
An overwhelming majority of clients reported finding out about their local community legal
clinic through word of mouth, or through a referral from another agency. A few clients already
knew about the clinic from having noticed their storefront. A few clients reported having
searched for legal services online if they knew they had a legal issue before finding out about the
community legal clinic.
BARRIERS CLIENTS FACE IN ACCESSING JUSTICE

Though the barriers identified in client focus group participants varied, some common themes
emerged. Generally speaking, the barriers described by clients were complex and compounding,
and intersected in a variety of ways to negatively impact their access to justice.
POVERTY
Though not expressly mentioned by most clients, it was apparent that poverty underpinned and
compounded many of the other barriers they reported. Some of the more specific barriers
related to poverty and living on very low incomes included difficulty paying for utilities,
including phone, internet, and electricity bills. Poverty also compounded other barriers, such as
access to transportation. Not having access to a phone or the internet came up somewhat
frequently in relation to experiences of poverty.
TRANSPORTATION
Although transportation and distance were identified as major barriers here and in other
sources of qualitative data, as well as in the literature review, the ways clients experienced this
barrier were diverse. The distances clients had to travel varied from a one-minute walk to drives
that took over an hour. Generally, clients living in rural areas had to travel greater distances to
get to their legal clinics and other services, often relying on limited or essentially nonexistent
transportation systems to get them there. For clients who did not have access to their own car or
could not drive, this meant depending on friends, families, and even their social workers to help
them pay for their transportation or drive them to their appointments. One strategy rural clients
reported using to address this transportation barrier was stacking appointments in areas where
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different services are concentrated, such as nearby urban centres. Many rural clients did
express, however, that having to travel significant distances is just a part of rural life.
For some clients, transportation was more than just a financial barrier. One client pointed out
that for those with injuries such as back injuries, sitting in a car for any significant length of time
can be so painful that driving is not an option. In the winter months, transportation is an even
greater barrier as commutes take longer and become less accessible to those with injuries or who
are otherwise experiencing pain, to those who use wheelchairs or other mobility aids, and to
those relying on public transportation or other modes of transportation, such as cycling.
Some clients reported that they were reimbursed for some or all of the costs associated with
their travel to the clinic. However, the extent to which reimbursement was offered or how clients
could get reimbursed was unclear: sometimes within the same focus groups clients would report
being reimbursed, and others would state they did not know this was available to them.
Clients had a number of suggestions about how legal clinics can help tackle the transportation
barrier:
Giving more clients the option to mail, fax, or scan and email documents.
Communicating more frequently over email.
Providing the option of having appointments over the phone rather than in-person.
Providing more mobile services so people can access supports closer to where they live.
Examples included visiting clients at their homes or scheduling appointments at other
local agencies, such as a library.
Giving clients the option to videoconference with staff at legal clinics from their homes
when possible, or from nearby agencies with computers, internet access, and a private
space to ensure confidentiality.
ACCESSIBILITY
Clients also identified accessible clinic locations as a barrier, though many did so anecdotally.
They suggested renovating office locations to make them more accessible where accessibility
was identified as an issue for clients using wheelchairs or other mobility aids.
NAVIGATING COMPLICATED AND CONFOUNDING SYSTEMS
Many clients detailed the confusing and often frustrating experiences they had navigating
income maintenance programs such as ODSP and OW, and other bodies such as the landlord
and tenant board. Although this came up frequently, it was not identified as a barrier to
accessing the clinic per se, but rather as a barrier to getting their cases resolved quickly and
efficiently, and as a barrier in other aspects of their lives. Clients felt that clinics should provide
more information and support about how to fill out forms and other documentation.
LACK OF AWARENESS
The predominant barrier mentioned by clients was a lack of information about the services
available to them. This came up as a barrier to accessing legal clinic services, but also to
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accessing other services and programs that may or may not be related to clients expressed legal
needs. Many clients mentioned that they would have accessed their legal clinics much sooner if
they had known about them and about all the services they provided.
Clients also identified a lack of awareness amongst other agencies and service providers as a
barrier. For example, many clients dealing with ODSP reported frustrating experiences and
delays due to a lack of knowledge among doctors about how to fill out ODSP forms
appropriately. Clients also identified other agencies that referred clients to community legal
clinics for services the clinics do not provide, especially concerning matters of family law.
Many clients felt that government agencies and programs, such as ODSP, OW, and CPP seem set
up to discourage and deny applicants. One participant said it seemed they were set up to
contradict each other. As a result, they see that people in their community are resigned to their
denials, without realizing that they have legal recourse.
Generally, clients acknowledged that people do not know about their employment rights,
specifically when industries or companies shut down. They also acknowledged a general lack of
information about tenant rights and landlord responsibilities.
Clients had many suggestions about how to increase general awareness about the legal services
available to people living on low incomes. Some of the more popular suggestions included:
Advertising in public spaces and service agencies. These could include billboards, signs,
advertisements in local papers, fliers, or pamphlets handed out with documentation
from other agencies.
o A common suggestion was that letters from ODSP, OW, or other agencies include
a small pamphlet or booklet with information about the local community legal
clinic.
o Other locations that were suggested as good places to advertise included food
banks, shelters, housing services, private lawyers offices, doctors offices, grocery
stores, libraries, and pharmacies.
Television and radio advertisements. Suggestions included advertisements providing
brief information about local community legal clinics, and guest spots on television or
radio programs where someone from the local clinic could go into more depth about the
services they offer or a specific legal topic.
Communicating on social media. Social media was suggested as a way to raise general
awareness about the local legal clinic without providing specific information on any
particular topic.
OTHER BARRIERS
Clients discussed other barriers to accessing services at the community legal clinic, which
included:
Stigma. Some clients reported feelings of embarrassment, or worrying that others would
know they were accessing legal services.
Costs associated with obtaining letters from doctors.
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When asked about ways legal clinics can help overcome some of these barriers, many clients
were again quick to mention that clinics are operating with very limited resources, and that
many of the solutions suggested by clients may not be feasible given current shortages in funds
and staff capacity.
CLINIC LOCATIONS
Many clients were happy with the current locations of their community legal clinics, although
some identified accessibility issues, and clients at one focus group were disappointed that the
clinic had changed locations. Where clinics were closely located to other services and to bus
routes or other transportation networks, clients were generally happy with the current location
of their clinic. Clients from rural areas tended to bring up parking issues more frequently.
Where clients had access to satellite services, they were generally satisfied with the location of
clinic satellites.
Opinions about the proximity of community legal clinics to other services, or the prospect of colocating clinics with other programs or services, were mixed. Most clients who were in favour of
close proximity or co-location with other services were already going to clinics that were close to
other services and programs or shared spaces with them. The opposite was also true: clients who
felt clinics should not co-locate with other programs or services, or who were ambivalent about
their proximity to other services, generally went to clinics that were not close to or co-located
with other programs and services.
When the topic of co-location came up, clients consistently mentioned ODSP offices, mental
health agencies, and LAO as potential agencies and services clinics might co-locate with.
However, opinions about these possible arrangements were not consistent. Though some clients
felt these co-locations would make referrals and collaboration easier, other were concerned
about confusion and confidentiality.
IMPACT OF NON-LEGAL STAFF

Client opinions on expanding the number and roles of non-legal staff at community legal clinics
were mixed. Mental health, housing, and social workers were frequently mentioned, but there
was no broad agreement within or across focus groups about how non-legal staff in these
specific roles might impact clinic services.
Some clients focused their comments on the administrative staff already working in their clinics,
rather than new services that are not currently integrated with legal services. These clients found
the non-legal staff they had encountered in the clinics to be courteous, professional,
knowledgeable, and very helpful (especially receptionists). Most clients felt that clinics need
more lawyers or that non-legal staff should be used to free up legal staffs time to serve clients
one-on-one, by helping with paperwork and photocopying, for example.
As for mental health, housing, social, and social services workers, some clients felt it would be
helpful to incorporate these roles in a community legal clinic, citing examples of successful
collaborations between doctors and social workers as examples. Some clients in support of this
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idea saw this as a way of improving poor communication between existing service agencies, and
offering holistic services to clients.
Other people felt these non-legal supports were distinctly separate from legal supports, and that
incorporating them into a clinic environment would be unnecessary as these supports are
available elsewhere. Some people were strongly opposed to incorporating social workers at the
legal clinic because of previous negative experiences. One client felt that keeping these services
separate was a way of making sure people do not fall through the cracks; in a way, legal staff can
act as a hub for service needs, and might shoulder more of that responsibility if they cannot
just as easily send clients down the hall.
CLINICS AND COMMUNITY

When clients were asked whether they felt their local community legal clinic served the
community they identified with, most clients found this question confusing. Most clients had a
variety of possible definitions of community and struggled to envision and articulate their
clinics relationship to whatever community they did define. Participant responses suggest that
the term community did not resonate with clients in clear and consistent ways.
MIXED DEFINITIONS ABOUT COMMUNITY
Many clients defined their community by city and/or county lines, or by shared experiences, but
generally with little commitment to those definitions.
Some people felt they were a part of a community with other people experiencing similar legal
problems, such as those struggling with ODSP, OW, WSIB, CPP, and other forms of income
maintenance and compensation.
Many people, especially rural clients, felt they were not a part of the community the clinic is
physically located in. These clients may have assumed that the clinic was a part of the
community of the town or county it was located in, but the clients saw these communities as
distinct and disconnected from the regions where they live. Clients tended to define their
communities on scales smaller than clinic catchment areas; some clients clarified that different
counties tend to have distinct identities, and are not necessarily congruous or a part of one
community.
MIXED OPINIONS ABOUT CLINICS INVOLVEMENT WITH THE COMMUNITY
Most people did not seem to feel the clinic was a part of the community they identified with
(although they generally did not clearly identify a community they identified with). One client
mentioned that they felt the clinic was a part of their community or that they felt a part of the
community the clinic was a part of when they started accessing services at the clinic.
Some felt that clinic served poor people as a community. Others felt the clinic only serves people
who know about it.
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USE OF TECHNOLOGY
When asked about the use of technology, clients were generally quick to assert that it cannot
replace front-line services.
The options for using technology to provide services that were discussed included videoconferencing, an enhanced website, completing more work on-line, and an increased social
media presence. Opinions were quite mixed for all options discussed.
VIDEO-CONFERENCING
Some clients saw video-conferencing as a good way of addressing transportation, time, and
anxiety barriers, and of connecting with experts and services in urban centres. In fact, some
clients brought this up as a suggestion for bridging distance and transportation barriers without
being prompted. However, some clients also expressed concerns: they saw video-conferencing
as awkward, confusing, inaccessible, and unreliable. Issues about the inaccessibility and
unreliability of video-conferencing were related to other barriers, such as a lack of affordable,
stable, and reliable internet connectivity, and a lack of access to computers and videoconferencing software. Clients discussed providing video-conferencing sites at local agencies as
a strategy for addressing these specific barriers, along with ensuring that video-conferencing is
fully accessible. To address concerns about awkward and confusing communication via videoconferencing, it was stressed that this be offered as an alternative to but not a replacement for
in-person appointments.
Both proponents and opponents were mixed between people who had used video-conferencing
with other service providers and had had either positive or negative experiences, and among
those who had never used it before. There were no significant correlations between support for
this technology and previous positive experiences with it, as there were no significant
correlations between opposition and unfamiliarity with the technology or previous negative
experiences.
ENHANCED WEBSITE, MORE WORK ONLINE
Opinions were also mixed on the topic of enhancing clinic websites and doing more casework
online. Some clients reported never using their clinics website and were ambivalent about any
potential improvements to it. Others felt the website would be a great resource for information,
especially for people who have trouble accessing clinics in-person.
Some clients felt an enhanced website would detract from core services. Both supporters and
detractors mentioned accessibility issues, especially for rural clients who had limited access to
internet infrastructure and personal computers.
SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
Some clients considered an increased social media presence to be a good way of getting the word
out about community legal clinics and the services they provide. Some considered this to be a
good alternative for people who are uncomfortable phoning or walking in, if they were able to
contact staff at the legal clinic through direct messaging, provided staff responded regularly.
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Other clients found social media to be unprofessional and to detract from the seriousness of
legal issues and legal work.
Some clients reported that they rarely used social media and were ambivalent about any changes
to their clinics social media presence.
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS

INCREASING AWARENESS
As mentioned above, a general lack of awareness about the legal services available to people
living on low incomes came up as the biggest barrier to accessing justice from community legal
clinics. Suggestions for addressing this included broad public advertisement across a variety of
different media and in as many spaces as possible, but specifically at other service agencies
people use or local resources they commonly visit, such as doctors offices or local businesses
such as grocery stores. Clients suggested using local television and radio programs as potential
resources for disseminating general information about legal clinics, or more detailed
information and advice about certain legal topics. Clients also suggested that clinics engage in
more consistent and far-reaching outreach and PLE initiatives and events.
A common suggestion was that, while getting the word out, clinic successes should be
celebrated. This was seen as a good way of increasing awareness but also of encouraging people
to seek services from community legal clinics by giving them a sense of hope.
REGULARLY UPDATING CLIENTS
Clients also suggested that clinic staff make an effort to provide more regular updates to their
clients, even when new information might not be available. This could ease client concerns
during long wait times, so they are assured that their case is still in progress and they are still
getting the support they need.
IMPROVING COORDINATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES
Using other agencies as access points came up frequently, specifically in addressing transit
barriers and providing spaces for video-conferencing. Clients also frequent expressed frustration
at the lack of coordination between other agencies, services and programs, and their legal clinic,
often seeing this as a root cause of the frustration and delays they experience. Clients felt that
better coordination would improve referrals and mean that people get the help they need
sooner.
INCREASE CLINIC RESOURCES AND CAPACITY
Clients frequently mentioned that clinics are over-burdened and underfunded, and that they
need more money so they can expand their capacity to serve their clients, for example by hiring
more staff.
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ADDRESSING TRANSPORTATION AND DISTANCE BARRIERS
Clients suggested that clinics provide subsidies for travel expenses. They also suggested that
more satellite locations and mobile services be made available.
ADDRESSING LONG WAIT-TIMES
Clients stressed that the long wait-times they experience when navigating ODSP, OW, WSIB,
and other government agencies and systems pose significant barriers to the resolution of their
legal issues specifically, and to their qualities of lives more generally. They called for an
improvement to these wait-times, though there was some disagreement on whether or not
clinics have a role to play addressing this.
OTHER SUGGESTIONS
Some other, less frequent suggestions included:
Clearer maps/instructions for getting to the clinic

Help finding employment
Bringing a social worker into the clinic
Incorporating clinics in a multidisciplinary system of care
Advocates who arent lawyers, and who can speak in laymans terms
Bigger, more accessible offices
Clinics should at least offer advice and info on next steps for areas of law they do not
practice
CLIENT SURVEY OUTPUT

Two of the central characteristics of the East and Central region are its large size and the
diversity of its population. Taking this into consideration, it was agreed that a client survey, in
addition to the 9 client focus groups, should be made available. By using a client survey,
individuals who were not able to attend an in person focus group could still submit feedback to
their community legal clinic. The participating community legal clinics administered the survey,
both in an online format and also in hard copy, provided in person at community legal clinics.
Understanding that the communities that the legal clinics serve are difficult to reach using a
survey, there were no targets established for the amount of responses. The survey was open for
two months with almost 90 responses to the online survey, 5% of which were completed in
French and 95% completed in English. The survey asked questions pertaining to the clients
experiences at their local community legal clinic, some of the general legal needs that they have
and also tested some new ideas that the community legal clinic could implement, such as
increased web content. The full client survey can be seen in Appendix VII.
Given the population of the catchments of the participating legal clinics and also the high
number of low-income people living in those catchments who would be eligible to receive help
from the legal clinics, a very high number of surveys would need to be completed to be truly
representative of this population. As a result, the feedback from the 88 surveys completed is not
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necessarily representative of the diverse experiences and needs of the 15 counties in which the
legal clinics serve, though results were weighted by catchment areas to give them a greater
degree of balance. However, some of the most interesting themes from the client survey are the
following:
The two most common barriers in accessing the legal clinic were difficulty in traveling to
the clinic for support (14%), or not wanting to ask for help due to stigma or
embarrassment (13%). These results reflect other research on this issue, though 41%
indicated that they encountered other barriers not identified in the survey.
20% of respondents indicated that they did not know about the clinic or where to get
legal help. This suggests that there is an uneven awareness of legal clinic services, and
represents a potential area for growth in the future.
Word of mouth (47%) and referral (26%) were the most common methods through
which people found out about the legal clinic, while online resources (7%), storefront
signage (2%), and Yellow pages (1%) were the least common. This echoes what client
reported in focus groups and could direct how legal clinics want to spread awareness
about their services.
Income maintenance, employment, and housing are the areas of law that are of greatest
concern to clients, as well as areas where clients have the most trouble accessing support.
Though clients did indicate significant trouble accessing support for areas of law not
specified by the survey (25%), these areas were not of significant concern to clients (9%).
90% of clients felt the help they received was the help they needed. 81% were satisfied or
very satisfied with the support they received from staff and 59% were satisfied or very
satisfied with the outcome of their cases.
Though more information over the phone (24%) was the most common area identified
by clients for improvement and more appointments with legal workers (14%) was a midlevel priority, it should be noted that 73% of clients preferred in-person meetings while
only 33% indicated a preference for services delivered over the phone (with some, of
course, preferring either).
66% of clients currently attend in-person meetings while 42% communicate over the
phone.
45% of respondents felt they would receive somewhat or much better service if video
conferencing were offered by the clinic, while only 10% thought it would result in
somewhat or much worse service.
Clients were more divided about increased use of social media, with 48% believing it
would result in somewhat or much better service and 32% believing service would be
somewhat or much worse service.
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While 96% of people felt that the current location of their clinic or satellite office was
good, a slim majority (52%) of respondents felt the clinic would benefit from sharing
space with other agencies.
63% of respondents felt advice provided via email would improve service, while 13% that
felt it would be a detriment.
44% of respondents felt that online intake would better clinic services, 22% said that it
would hinder clinic services and 34% said it would be neither better nor worse.
38% of respondents felt that enhancing clinic websites would improve service, while 3%
felt it would be a detriment. All remaining respondents were indifferent.
COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDER KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEWS

INTRODUCTION
In order to gain a better understanding of how participating community legal clinics interact
with their clients, as well as with neighbouring clinics and other community organizations, each
clinic was asked to identify several community stakeholders with extensive knowledge of their
local clinic and community. These discussions ran from an hour to an hour and a half and were
held with 26 community stakeholders that the participating community legal clinics identified.
These stakeholders held a variety of positions in their communities; many were social service
agency workers in fields such as disability, mental health, and social work, some were active
members of the justice system, while others were community legal clinic board members.
Because of the diversity of both the community stakeholders consulted and the catchments that
the community legal clinics serve, a broad range of feedback and perspectives was received.
Across these perspectives, however, a number of common themes emerged as representative of
the unique strengths and challenges of the communities and community legal clinics of Eastern
and Central Ontario. The following summary presents an overview of these themes, identifying
areas of commonality while highlighting key differences, in order to generate a balanced picture
of the perspectives of community stakeholders.
DEMOGRAPHICS AND COMMUNITY NEEDS

AGING POPULATION
A significant number of stakeholders reported a large elderly population in their community,
with several social service workers also noting both a lack of affordable supportive housing for
seniors (particularly those with mental health issues), and of outreach for seniors aging in place.
WIDESPREAD UNEMPLOYMENT AND POVERTY
Unemployment and underemployment was an issue commonly raised by community
stakeholders. Some ascribed this to the decline of the industrial, lumber and agricultural sectors,
while others cited low levels of education and the increasing prevalence of precarious jobs.
Stakeholders also linked the scarcity and precarity of jobs to a lack of youth employment, with
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some mentioning that youth are moving out of their community because of the lack of
employment opportunities. In connection with this, community stakeholders involved in social
services also frequently noted high rates of mental health issues in their communities, and an
increasing reliance on ODSP, which they suggested indicates a large unemployable population.
Related to this, several stakeholders identified a need for more mental health services in their
community. Also mentioned in connection to unemployment was an increasing lack of food
security, with several stakeholders noting an increased reliance on food banks and other
community food programs. Further, a stakeholder with expertise in mental health and
development issues noted a lack of services for the children of poor families, which they
suggested is critical to the cessation of cycles of poverty.
INCREASING DIVERSITY
Though a few community stakeholders in rural areas reported that there has been very low
immigration to their communities, several others noted a growing immigrant population and an
increase in cultural diversity. These stakeholders predicted that while the overall population of
newcomers is low it would be increasing in the coming years, and noted that this would likely be
accompanied by the need for service delivery in more languages.
YOUTH AND STUDENTS DEMOGRAPHICS
A few participants also noted a rising youth demographic, which they attributed to the growing
presence of universities or colleges in their area. One social services worker also emphasized the
importance of providing support for first generation college students, while identifying
education as a social determinant of health. By contrast, as noted above, some partners in rural
areas reported a shrinking youth population, which they attributed to a lack of employment
opportunities and good quality education.
BARRIERS TO ACCESS FOR RURAL POPULATIONS
Several stakeholders identified large rural populations in their communities, and suggested that
these populations are often isolated, cut off from social services as well as facing barriers to
telecommunications and internet connectivity. Further, most stakeholders noted that rural
populations face significant barriers to accessing services because of the geographical dispersion
of rural populations and poor state of transportation in many areas of Central and Eastern
Ontario. Stakeholders noted that rural populations often face long commutes to access services
in urban centres, generally at significant personal expense due to gas prices or inefficient public
transit systems. While some stakeholders identified outreach programs to help rural
populations get to and from services, they also noted the high costs and organizational resources
associated with these types of programs. Despite this, it was suggested that far-reaching service
provision and improved transportation are essential to increasing service access for rural
populations. One stakeholder familiar with the Ontario justice system noted that rural
populations often find it challenging to attend court hearings and submit documents because of
the lack of adequate transportation in their community.
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LACK OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Many stakeholders particularly those involved in front line social service delivery named
affordable housing as a significant need for their communities. Stakeholders noted a variety of
issues that compound the lack of access to affordable housing. Some said that waiting lists for
social housing are long, while others suggested that rents are often higher than ODSP
allowances or take up an unsustainable portion of peoples income. The disparity between high
and low-income populations was reported to be increasing, while several stakeholders noted
that poor quality housing in their communities often leads to high utility costs. A stakeholder
with significant knowledge of Aboriginal issues noted that affordable housing is scarce for
individuals living on reserves, because priority is often given to families. Several stakeholders
also noted a lack of homeless shelters in their communities, with one identifying a particular gap
in intermediate housing for young women.
LACK OF PHYSICIANS AND PSYCHIATRISTS
Several stakeholders reported a lack of available physicians and psychiatrists in their
communities. It was noted that while the quality of service is excellent, the professionals
currently working in these fields are aging, and it is often difficult to attract young healthcare
professionals to rural areas.
ACCESS BARRIERS AND LACK OF SERVICES FOR ILLITERATE POPULATIONS
Several stakeholders identified significant challenges with literacy in their communities, and
noted that illiteracy is often a barrier to accessing services.
STRENGTHS OF COMMUNITY LEGAL CLINICS

GENERAL EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMUNITY LEGAL CLINICS
There was a general sense amongst community stakeholders that the East and Central
community legal clinics are highly effective and important organizations. Stakeholders often
noted that any limitations of their community legal clinic were due to a lack of resources. Several
stakeholders also stressed that community legal clinics provide critical services for highly
vulnerable populations, and suggested that these populations would be significantly worse off in
their absence.
EFFECTIVE PUBLIC LEGAL EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Several stakeholders also said that their local clinic is highly effective at providing Public Legal
Education (PLE), and noted the strength of their clinics connection with its community.
Outreach and community visibility were cited as crucial elements to improving access to legal
services, with several stakeholders also suggesting that this is critical to community legal clinics
capacity to respond to changing community needs. One stakeholder familiar with multiple legal
clinics discussed how some community legal clinics face a great challenge in increasing their
PLE capacities because of resource strain.
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ADVOCACY
Several stakeholders involved in social services also noted their clinics role as an advocate for
low-income populations, while providing effective income maintenance and poverty law
services.
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT

EXPANSION OF PRACTICE AREAS
Stakeholders suggested that clinics could expand their capacities in a variety of areas of law.
Several noted the importance of family law services, highlighting the need for legal custody and
adoption issues. On this subject, one stakeholder said that it is difficult to access family law
because, although there is an agency that offers it, since those services are not located at the
same place as other legal services (at the clinic), it is difficult to access. Several participants also
identified a growing need for landlord/tenant law as low-income populations are forced to live
in precarious or exploitative housing situations due a lack of affordable housing in their
community. Similarly, several stakeholders noted the need for expanded employment law
services, in part due to the growth of the precarious job market as noted above. One stakeholder
with knowledge of Aboriginal legal issues pointed out the lack of a coherent strategy to address
Aboriginal legal issues. One stakeholder familiar with the Ontario justice system underscored
the importance of community legal clinics having the capacity to serve across all areas of law.
IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES
Many stakeholders said that rural communities are significantly underserved by community
legal clinics because of the transportation barriers these communities face (discussed above).
Several stakeholders suggested satellite offices as an effective way to reduce these barriers; a few
stakeholders also suggested that periodic casework and PLE in satellite locations could be an
effective model. Others identified the need for expanded outreach activities as a means of raising
public awareness about clinic services and increasing access to these services. There was a
general sense that community legal clinics need to be highly visible in their communities in
order to be effective. One social service stakeholder noted that their community legal clinic is
not located in the most populous area of their catchment, while another noted that their clinic is
geographically removed from related agencies such as health and mental health service
providers.
LEGAL CLINICS NEED MORE FUNDING TO BUILD CAPACITY
A significant theme that emerged during the community stakeholder consultations was that the
capacity of community legal clinics is often limited by a lack of staff and insufficient funding.
The general message was that the community legal clinics do the best with the resources they
have, though one stakeholder familiar with the operation of East and Central clinics suggested
that there was areas for growth for the clinics in fundraising. Several stakeholders also took
issue with the annual funding structure of their community legal clinic, noting that it is not
conducive to five year planning cycles. One stakeholder also added that consistent funding
streams are essential to allow for flexibility of service and to respond to shifting community
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needs. Further, stakeholders indicated that there was room for development in the current
relationship between funders and clinics. They identified the need for a coherent, holistic system
of service provision to be able to offer the best quality of services to clients.
OTHER AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
One stakeholder noted that lawyers in the region are aging, and it is becoming increasingly
difficult to attract young lawyers, particularly to the rural areas of the region. Several other
stakeholders identified a need for the East and Central community legal clinics to update their
administrative systems, and suggested that executive directors should be allowed more space to
shape the direction of their organization. Another stakeholder noted that the eligibility criteria
often prohibit the working poor from accessing community legal services if their income is
slightly above the poverty line. This stakeholder suggested that community legal clinics should
have more discretion in accepting clients who do not meet standard eligibility criteria, and
should strive to accept all clients in need of legal services. Finally, one stakeholder in the social
services sector suggested that community legal clinics be more sensitive to the needs of people
with developmental disabilities.
INTER-CLINIC INTERACTION
There was a general sense that there is not a great deal of collaboration between community
legal clinics. Several stakeholders pointed out that the ECRTP is a collaborative project, but
some also said that beyond this their clinic has little in common with other community legal
clinics. A few stakeholders noted collaboration between clinics with different expertise, while
others noted collaborative PLE initiatives and links between community legal clinic websites as
examples of inter-clinic collaboration.
RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER SERVICE PROVIDERS

STRONG WORKING RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER AGENCIES
Most stakeholders involved in social service agencies said they have a strong working
relationship with their community legal clinic. Many of these stakeholders reported that these
partnerships are based on robust personal relationships, which they named as crucial for
successful collaboration in small urban and rural areas. Many of these stakeholders also
reported making frequent referrals to their local clinic, which they said were dealt with
efficiently. Some of these stakeholders also reported that these referrals go both ways, with the
clinic making referrals to their agency, noting that the clinic was a critical source of legal
information to which they would otherwise not have. Several social service stakeholders also
reported effective PLE programs for their agencies and communities, which was often identified
as critical to improving service access and general legal rights awareness.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
By contrast, some stakeholders noted that the development of a more formal relationship would
improve inter-agency information exchange and referrals, with one stakeholder remarking of
the relationship between their agency and the community legal clinic that we often think of
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each other as an afterthought. Similarly, several stakeholders identified the need for better coordination between services, suggesting that community legal clinics could be better equipped to
deal with populations struggling with mental health and developmental issues.
FRENCH LANGUAGE SERVICES

SIGNIFICANT FRANCOPHONE POPULATION
Several stakeholders in established Francophone areas of East and Central Ontario noted that
Francophones are often unable to access services in their native language, due largely to the lack
of French-language service providers in their area and to the lack of an active offer for French
language services. One stakeholder who works primarily in French reported that poor
translations of documents and information are common, and acknowledged the lack of demand
for French-language services and information elsewhere in Ontario. Another stakeholder noted
significant tensions in the field of employment because of the need for bilingualism in the work
place, and also suggested that French-language service provision is made more challenging due
to the difficulty of attracting French-speaking professionals to rural areas.
SMALL FRANCOPHONE POPULATION
Many stakeholders reported that there were small French speaking populations in their area,
and suggested that there is no real need for French language services. Several stakeholders said
that most French-speaking people in their area are bilingual, or that they are able to access
services in English if necessary. Though some reported French language capacities at their
organizations, a few stakeholders noted that the need for services in other languages is growing
as immigration trends upwards. One stakeholder also noted efforts to accommodate Deaf clients
at their local community legal clinic.
FRENCH LANGUAGE STRATEGY
Some stakeholders reported that there is an existing French Language Service strategy, but that
there is a lack of resources with which to implement it. These stakeholders underlined that it is
strictly a language based program rather than a cultural program, but suggested that it could be
an effective strategy for addressing gaps in French-language service delivery.
ABORIGINAL RESIDENTS
LANGUAGE ISSUES
One stakeholder familiar with Aboriginal service delivery noted that it is not effective to
translate written materials for Aboriginal clients who dont speak English. Documents and legal
processes should be shared verbally because most Aboriginal languages are oral rather than
written languages.
LARGE RESERVE POPULATIONS
Several stakeholders reported the presence of large reserves in their areas, noting strong
collaboration between local service providers and local reserves, as well as reporting the
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presence of well-coordinated on-site services. These stakeholders were generally unsure about
the presence of community legal clinics on reserve. One stakeholder who works closely with
Aboriginal populations suggested that the key to developing these relationships is building trust,
noting that it is crucial to do what you say you are going to do, do it respectfully, and do it on
their terms. This stakeholder also suggested that the presence of a liaison between Aboriginal
communities and local service providers would be an effective way to build strong working
relationships. One stakeholder suggested that Aboriginal populations living on reserves often
have different legal needs than the general population, specifically in the areas of treaties and
harvesting/hunting rights.
OFF-RESERVE LEGAL NEEDS
Some stakeholders reported the presence of a large off-reserve Aboriginal population in their
community, with some suggesting that these populations generally have the same legal needs as
the general population. Despite this, several stakeholders reported a lack of contact between
community legal clinics and off-reserve Aboriginal populations. One stakeholder suggested that
there is considerable mistrust of the legal system amongst Aboriginal communities, which they
attributed to historically traumatic and exploitative experiences with government authorities
and non-Aboriginal justice systems. To address this, several stakeholders stressed the
importance of community legal clinics providing culturally sensitive services and materials.
Others identified opportunities for more collaboration with Aboriginal agencies through
partnerships and advocacy networks as a means of increasing accessibility for Aboriginal clients.
ITINERANT SERVICE MODEL

BENEFITS OF SATELLITES
Many stakeholders noted that satellite offices could be highly effective at improving access to
services for rural communities. Some also noted the importance of collaboration between
service providers in order to ensure that satellite spaces work efficiently and offer as many
services as possible. One stakeholder noted that satellites are both approachable and costeffective because they are not as formal as central offices. Public libraries were identified as
effective hosts for satellite offices because of their function as social hubs in rural areas, with a
few stakeholders also reporting that pop-up clinics located at other well-used services has been
an effective approach.
CHALLENGES WITH SATELLITES
Several participants noted challenges associated with the satellite model. Some suggested that it
could be difficult to raise awareness about satellite offices in rural locations, suggesting the use
of radio and television advertising and existing service networks as strategies to get the word
out. Others thought that it could be difficult to find locations for satellites in rural areas, arguing
that services need to be truly mobile in order to be effective. One stakeholder emphasized the
importance of striking a balance between core services and satellites, noting that this would
likely require more resources.
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TECHNOLOGY
COMPUTER ACCESSIBLITY A CHALLENGE FOR RURAL POPULATIONS
Many stakeholders reported that accessing computers can be difficult for rural populations, and
said that high-speed internet connectivity is often sparse. It was also suggested by several
stakeholders that computer literacy is a challenge for many rural populations, with one
stakeholder suggesting that such populations tend to have quite traditional values, and can often
be suspicious of computer technologies. One stakeholder suggested that libraries could be a
point of access for delivering online legal services, but it was noted that rural libraries also
frequently suffer from a lack of high speed internet, and pointed out that there might be privacy
issues associated with this kind of service delivery. A stakeholder familiar with the Ontario
justice system also noted that technology is also discouraged in the courts because of the
possibility that proceedings might be filmed.
VIDEO CONFERENCING
In spite of concerns about computer accessibility, many stakeholders suggested that video
conferencing might be an effective way to provide legal services for clients, provided that they
have sufficient access to the internet. Several suggested that video conferencing would also be an
effective way for professionals to communicate with each other, facilitating easy communication
with legal experts and other services in different parts of the province or country. Several
stakeholders stressed that video conferencing should not be used to replace in person legal
services but rather to supplement them, noting the importance of building meaningful
relationships with clients. One stakeholder suggested that video conferencing might be
particularly effective for youth, who tend to be more computer literate. Another stakeholder
with considerable knowledge of the Deaf community noted that their local community legal
clinic had experimented successfully with using video conferencing as a means of
communicating with Deaf clients.
On the other hand, some stakeholders noted that because of computer illiteracy, internet
connectivity, and poor bandwidth, video conferencing would not be effective at improving rural
clients access to community legal clinics.
SERVICES VIA TELEPHONE
A few stakeholders suggested that the telephone is an effective way to communicate with
community legal clinic clients. One stakeholder noted that toll-free calling is essential for lowincome clients, while another suggested that texting might be an effective strategy for younger
clients with mobile phones. One stakeholder said that the Ontario Telehealth Network (OTN)
has been an effective tool for addressing the health concerns of rural communities, and could
provide the basis for an over-the-phone legal service. By contrast, another stakeholder suggested
that OTN has been highly ineffective.
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SOCIAL MEDIA
A few stakeholders suggested community legal clinic websites and social media pages could be
effective tools for conducting PLE and public outreach, as long as the information provided is
accurate and well written. They suggested that these tools are more easily accessible for
communities facing bandwidth restrictions. It was also noted that email might be a good way to
communicate with some clients.
SELF-REPRESENTATION
SELF-REPRESENTATION LARGELY INEFFECTIVE
Most stakeholders suggested that self-representation does not work for clients of community
legal clinics. Stakeholders involved in social service provision noted that self-representation is
especially challenging for those struggling with mental health and developmental issues, and for
those with low levels of literacy and education. There was a prevailing sense that community
legal clinic clients dont have the legal knowledge to self-represent, and that legal representation
is essential in order to protect clients rights. One stakeholder noted that it is often difficult for
judges to reconcile the differences between clients with and without representation. Another
stakeholder advocated for increasing legal clinic representation and getting rid of the current
system of issuing certificates, noting that community legal clinics should have the capacity to do
more work in high priority areas of law.
SELF-REPRESENTATION CAN BE EFFECTIVE FOR SOME CLIENTS
A minority of stakeholders noted that in certain circumstances self-representation can be
effective, with one also noting that it is often more cost effective than providing clients with
representation. Stakeholders suggested that it is essential that community legal clinics identify
clients with the capacity to self-represent and provide them with the support and information
needed to succeed. One stakeholder added that self-representation is particularly effective in
settings such as tribunals, agencies, boards, and commissions rather than formal courts.
BOARD MEMBER QUESTIONNAIRE

INTRODUCTION
This summary is based on responses to a survey circulated to the board of directors for each of
the 10 legal clinics involved in the project. Four responses were received to this survey. Some of
these responses were written by board members on behalf of the board, while others were
written by the board collectively. Responses were supplemented key informant interviews
conducted with board members. Collectively, seven responses were used representing 6 clinics.
Major themes are summarized below and any recommendations proposed by board members
are included separately.
Low income and vulnerable were again the most common descriptions used to describe the
clinic client base. Newcomers were identified as a growing client group by board members at
four clinics. For two of these clinics, immigration had previously been identified as a key
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demographic factor in client and staff focus groups. Two other clinics commented that
immigration was on the rise, qualifying this observation by suggesting that it has not yet
translated into a significant increase in need for services. Most respondents also cited the senior
population as an important demographic, though several mentioned that there are substantial
retirement populations within their catchment that are often not low income and not in need of
clinic services.
CHALLENGES
Board members at every clinic indicated that housing is a major, if not the most pressing
priority. Two clinic boards indicated that housing issues within their catchment are getting
worse. One response indicated that average rentals have risen higher than ODSP benefits can
cover, meaning that securing housing can remain a challenge even for clients that have
succeeded in their ODSP appeals. Another indicated that dwindling numbers of shelter beds,
particularly for women, is placing increased significance on the clinics efforts toward eviction
prevention.
Francophone and Aboriginal or First Nations clients were identified as demographics that are
often under-serviced. Access to government services and documents in French was raised as a
significant problem by one of the clinic boards with extensive experience with these resources.
Two boards suggested that services to Aboriginal clients could be improved, while one did not
feel that there was a significant need within their catchment. Another clinic stated that
Aboriginal clients share the same legal problems as other clients and they have the capacity to
outreach to this population.
Three of the four board responses to the survey indicated that the distribution of services
around the catchment is a challenge that needs to be addressed. Two of these boards felt that
they could serve their catchments better with satellite locations that would help them access
rural populations. The third board response explained that the clinics service distribution
manages to align very closely to population distribution within the catchment, attributing their
success to satellite locations they operate. One clinic board indicated that its location in the
regions tertiary level health services centre means that the broader community benefited from
clinic resources more than regional offices.
The use of technology did not generate any significant agreement. While some clinics felt that
technology has the potential to expand services and improve access for clients, nearly as many
board responses suggested technology still remains as much of a barrier than a ready tool for
many clients. One clinic expressed optimism for the prospect of expanding the use of technology
between clinics. Two clinics were more reserved, suggesting that the clinic could benefit from
technology as long as face-to-face service is not jeopardized, and a third board was unequivocal
in their rejection of the idea, taking the loss of face-to-face services as unavoidable in such a
scenario.
STRENGTHS
Three clinic board responses cited their clinics ability to identify and react to the communitys
needs as an asset and a strength, with two of those boards referencing annual reviews that they
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conduct to ensure that the clinics goals and objectives align with community needs. Problems
identified in one catchment can also often impact other catchments in the region. Board
responses overlapped on issues such as major regional employers and post-secondary
institutions. One clinic suggested that it is also important for clinics to identify their strengths
and partner with other clinics in instances where they have a comparative advantage. Specialty
clinics were raised as an example of the potential value to be gained from sharing expertise
across clinics.
Another strength identified in all of the clinic board responses was outreach and community
engagement, and several expressed the need to expand this work. While many methods were
cited for communicating clinic services and conducting public legal education, two boards also
noted that fundraising was an area for potential growth. They noted that fundraising has a
Public Relations benefit, helps to raise the profile of the clinic in the community, but also that it
contributes to a funding structure that is unstable and difficult to plan for. One board noted that
the clinic intentionally recruited board members representative of various areas in the
catchment, which helped ensure that community partners and satellites felt connected to the
clinic. Another board responded with some reluctance about the board model, suggesting that it
is problematic to have board members with no legal experience making decisions for the
clinic.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Among the board responses were many valuable recommendations that merit consideration.
Individual recommendations are listed below as they were written or transcribed.
It is important that the clinics rely on each other for coaching in specialized areas. Use of
technology can assist in facilitating these relationships.
Renting our office space from other agencies throughout the community on a rotating
weekly or monthly schedule would allow more access to rural clients.
Clinics need to forget about the turf stuff. We need better tracking of referrals between
clinics. This would encourage more referrals to other clinics. What gets measured gets done.
The 1-800 service in Toronto could link local calls to local clinics.
FLIC offices could have a check list of questions to ask people they see, so they could identify
other legal problems that the clients may be experiencing and refer them to the clinic.
Board-to-Board collaboration might bring closer ties between clinics. We could work on
local get-togethers of just two or three clinics.
We could run a regionally managed social media account with people dedicated to keeping it
up to date. Twitter feeds could use frequent Did you know? facts that attract followers.
There is information that comes out from the ministry of health about moving to a service
delivery model with rural health hubs that might be an opportunity for clinics to look at how
they might relate to those health hubs.
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEWS

One key informant interview was conducted over the phone with each of the ten community
legal clinic executive directors, each ranging in length from an hour to an hour and a half. These
interviews were conducted to generate a better understanding the community and catchment
that the community legal clinics work in.
The ten participating community legal clinics are diverse in catchment size, density of
population served, rurality, languages spoken and in goals and strategic plans for their
organizational futures. This diversity means that some feedback that was received in the
interviews from executive directors is quite disparate. At the same time, at its core, many of the
community legal clinics are working towards achieving the same thing; as one legal clinic
director put it fighting for things for poor people. The following summary will discuss both the
similarities and divergences of feedback drawn from these interviews with the community legal
clinic executive directors.
DEMOGRAPHICS OF CATCHMENT
Many executive directors reported an increase in mental health issues in their community, or at
least said that more people with mental health issues were coming into the clinic. This was tied
to executive directors reporting a phenomenal increase in ODSP cases being addressed by their
clinics, and noting that clinics have used some different methods to expedite and create efficient
services in ODSP, like specified teams and intake processes.
Some executive directors, notably those in areas that have or are close to large urban centres,
discussed an increase in immigration in their catchment area, but most indicated that
immigration is still very low.
Executive directors also frequently discussed poverty. Some said that it is growing because of
growing unemployment, but others reported that poverty levels are staying the same and will
always be there at some level. Unemployment arose as an issue related to poverty, especially in
relation to loss of factory, lumber and mining jobs in rural areas.
SOCIAL SERVICES
Executive director responses in discussing the priority areas of their community varied greatly
but those mentioned more than once were: people with disabilities and seniors, but some other
priorities mentioned were immigration, physical health, mental health, employment and
poverty.
STRUCTURE AND CULTURE OF THE CLINIC

Most of the executive directors discussed how their community legal clinic provided a
welcoming environment for clients, and that staff see clients immediately. It was also named a
number of times by many executive directors that their community legal clinic has an opendoor policy that the staff environment is cooperative and that they work together as a team,
communicating openly asking for help when they need to.
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Executive directors also consistently noted that their clinics deliver high quality service in the
areas of law that practice and that their staff are highly skilled and knowledgeable.
A few executive directors also felt that their clinic did a good job with not allowing ODSP cases
to dominate their casework, and felt that this is what differentiated them from other clinics for
whom ODSP can become all-consuming. Some executive directors also felt that their clinics
differed from others in their commitment to serve everyone regardless of their eligibility.
AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT
Executive directors identified many areas in which their clinics could improve. Common themes
included reaching specific populations and working in more areas of law or offering more
services. Some populations named were: people who speak a language other than English,
newcomers and immigrants, Aboriginal populations and Deaf people. Some of the areas of law
that executive directors wanted to expand to were: workers compensation, immigration, small
claims and consumer law. They also suggested that a lack of knowledge about the service gaps in
their community and lack of resources were significant barriers to introducing new areas of law.
Executive directors also mentioned increasing services in current practice areas, such as
employment law, housing law, education law and disability insurance. Some services that
executive directors suggested could be expanded were PLE, satellites offices, engaging board
members, training for staff, and better systems for prioritizing cases.
STRUGGLES WITH RESOURCING
Most executive directors reported challenges with the annual funding model, with some
suggesting that this model is both repetitive and time-consuming. It was also suggested that
long-term planning for community legal clinics is difficult when funding is annual, especially
when some positions are only funded annually. Resourcing also arose frequently as a barrier to
delivering the services that executive directors hoped their clinic could deliver. Some of the
areas for development that executive directors named were increasing areas of law, doing more
outreach and PLE, opening more satellites and outreach to specific populations. Many executive
directors said that they created positions that were not funded to help meet demand but that
there were still unmet needs and unreached populations.
ROLES AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS
Many executive directors discussed how they had the dual role of directing the administration of
their community legal clinic, and acting as a front line service provider. Some of the executive
directors that discussed doing both of these tasks mentioned that they try to do as much
casework as possible. A minority of executive directors also felt that they must do some frontline
casework in order to be effective. The minority mentioned that they were being pushed towards
doing more administrative work in recent years, and that is hindering their ability to do
casework.
Some executive directors noted that one of their main roles at the clinic is choosing the best staff
to work at the clinic, and training them to do their jobs effectively. Those that mentioned this
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felt that they did a good job, in hiring staff that are both effective and fit in with the mandate and
culture of the clinic.
STUDENTS
Although not discussed at a great length, students and interns were mentioned as an important
presence in community legal clinics, adding to their capacity, creating efficiencies and doing
tasks that free up some of the other legal workers time. There was some concern, however, that
there is not enough physical space to accommodate students and interns, and that the oversight
and management they require can take up valuable staff resources. Many of the executive
directors discussed having an articling student. They frequently noted that they try very hard to
pay them and feel guilty when they are not able to, but said that that there are little or no
resources to pay articling students.
SERVICE DELIVERY AND ACCESS TO CLINICS

Executive directors said that clients mostly access the clinic by telephone, calling in to make
appointments, and frequently doing most of their case over the phone with their legal worker.
Most executive directors said that clients walk in infrequently without calling in first, but that
out of all their locations it is generally the main offices that get the most walk-ins. One executive
director said that their clinic receives about half of their clients by phone and half by walk-in.
Executive directors said that their clinic generally sees people immediately, and does not turn
people away, but is able to prioritize urgent cases.
Transportation was also identified as a huge barrier to clients accessing services, in some cases
nonexistent or poorly serviced. Even in areas where there is public transit, barriers exist,
especially for clients with anxiety or physical disabilities. This creates inaccessibility to clinics,
especially for those people who live in areas where there is no clinic and no satellite office.
COLLABORATION WITH OTHER CLINICS

CURRENT COLLABORATION
Most executive directors discussed different collaborative initiatives, whether formal or
informal, with other community legal clinics. Some of the initiatives discussed were: referrals to
one another, work sharing for specific legal specialties or areas of expertise, and participating in
collective advocacy and outreach. Some have also worked together on innovative intake models,
such as the Clinic IP program.
ROOM FOR GROWTH
Many executive directors were interested in greater collaboration and better communication
with other clinics in Eastern and Central Ontario. There was some concern about
misunderstanding between clinics, and about differing clinic cultures. Specifically, executive
directors were concerned about urban and rural clinics not understanding how one another
work. They also had similar concerns about Francophone and Anglophone clinics, and suggested
that different regions have different issues to address.
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Executive directors were especially interested in collaborating with other legal clinics to make
better use of specialized expertise and to reduce administrative time and costs.
OUTREACH/COLLABORATION
Executive directors noted that their community legal clinics have many partnerships with
community agencies, with some of the most common being community health centres and
hospitals, newcomer agencies, schools with paralegal programs, community resource centres,
Ontario Works, mental health agencies, LAO, CMHA and local MPPs.
The types of partnerships that executive directors named most frequently were:
Formal partnerships developed with agencies in which their satellite locations are
combined
Partnerships with post-secondary institutions that provide paralegal students, interns
and/or volunteers
A warm referral system between partners
Delivering PLE to partners and training trusted intermediaries
Partnerships with organizations that do types of law or work that legal clinics do not do.
In most of these partnerships, executive directors said that informal partnerships were the most
common. Another collaborative area that executive directors discussed was working in networks
or on community projects for community causes, like housing, poverty, and seniors, among
others. Executive directors noted that through these networks of service agencies they are able
to advocate for positive change in their community on a larger scale.
A few directors mentioned that partnerships can be difficult in rural areas because there are a
lack of agencies. Some mentioned that although there are agencies in their catchment that
provide services for many issues, like housing, mental health, disabilities, etc., these agencies
tend to be few and located in bigger cities or towns. One ED mentioned that strong relationships
between agencies are very important for service delivery, especially in rural communities. Some
executive directors emphasized the importance of outreach, especially in raising awareness
about the community legal clinic but also about legal rights and access to justice.
LINGUISTIC BARRIERS
MEETING FRANCOPHONE NEEDS
There was significant divergence in executive directors experiences in both understanding the
needs of Francophones in their catchment and meeting those needs. Many executive directors
said that there was a very small Francophone population in their catchment. Some of those that
discussed this small population said that those Francophones that do come into the office are
also fluent in English. However, one executive director of a clinic with a higher Francophone
population stated that although Francophones may be fluent in English, they would still be more
comfortable speaking in their mother tongue, especially in stressful situations like when they are
in legal trouble.
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For delivering services in French and in other languages, some executive directors said that they
have staff members that can deliver services in French, and others say that they use MCIS
language services effectively.
Executive directors reported that in general there is only limited capacity for providing legal
services in French. There is limited access to resources such as legal documents and IT support
in French among other things, which often leaves the executive director or other staff to
translate documents. Executive directors of clinics that deliver services in French said that often
their clinic is isolated because of the difference in language.
There was frustration amongst some executive directors at the level 0f French Language
Services available. It was brought up that it is the duty of community legal clinics to serve their
Francophone populations, with equity of access being identified as crucial. Further, there was
frustration that the larger legal system also does not provide equitable services in French, with
courts and tribunals rarely having the capacity to hold proceedings in French. When this was
brought up, it was discussed as not only a suggestion but also a necessity and obligation that
courts ensure that they can provide service in French and that community legal clinics need to
ensure that they have the ability to provide service in French.
OTHER LINGUISTIC NEEDS
Many executive directors said that there was very low need for services in languages other than
English or French. When asked about the largest barriers that clients face in accessing the clinic,
directors frequently named communication issues, including communicating with people who
do not speak English, people who are illiterate or have low literacy and people who are Deaf. Of
those that discussed individuals who came into the clinic with linguistic needs, they discussed
MCIS as a tool for meeting those needs.
ABORIGINAL OUTREACH
Many executive directors said that they do have Aboriginal reserves in their catchment area, and
one that does not said that there is still a large Aboriginal population living off reserve in their
catchment. Many executive directors said that in the past they have tried to partner with
Aboriginal agencies or reach out to this population, with little success. Despite this, a few
community legal clinics have had success in this area, with one having a satellite on a reserve,
and some having Aboriginal board members or staff. Further, some executive directors said that
they are still working on reaching out to this population, especially through Aboriginal
Friendship Centres.
One executive director was concerned that the types of law that Aboriginal populations need are
not the types of law that legal clinics provide (i.e. criminal and family). In contrast, another said
that there are still areas of law that this population do need, such as ODSP, and that Aboriginal
populations living off reserve with low income would have very similar problems to the general
community, such income maintenance, housing, etc.
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TECHNOLOGY
There was a general sense that the technology used at community legal clinics is out-dated, and
directors reported that it is difficult to get updates. In some cases it was mentioned that
accessing the Internet will be a challenge, especially when working from satellite locations or
visiting rural or remote areas. One executive director felt that the clinics should not rely on any
more on technology because of the barriers to access that clients face, while those that
encouraged increased use of web access emphasized that clients should be able to access these
services at partner agencies. As far as current structures for supporting IT and website
management, executive directors mentioned that one of their staff, students or volunteers often
help out, not necessarily because they have specific IT training, but because they are the most
knowledgeable of the staff on hand. There was some interest in either IT training to be able to
better manage clinic websites or having a centralized website. Executive directors who
mentioned this as an interest expressed that they felt it was important to develop and maintain
an enhanced web presence to increase access to justice.
Many executive directors were interested in using videoconferencing, and saw this as a way to
communicate with more clients, as well as to access the expertise of other community legal
clinics around the province.
Some executive directors discussed using online intake forms, with mixed reactions about them.
Those that used them primarily with trusted intermediaries or workers at other agencies said
that they created efficiencies within the clinic and worked well, whereas those that did not have
a system of trusted intermediaries set up to use the online intake were more neutral about it.
FACILITATING RURAL ACCESS

Many executive directors said that increasing over-the-phone services use is one method they
use to facilitate access to services for rural populations. A few executive directors mentioned
only seeing the clients in person once or twice before a hearing, and sometimes not at all,
because so much of the work is done over the phone. A few executive directors also mentioned
other ways of getting documents to and from clients from longer distances including faxing,
mailing and emailing.
Some executive directors also discussed different ways of bringing clinic services closer to rural
populations, with many saying their clinic has satellite services, and many also saying that if
clients cannot get to either satellite services or the main office sometimes legal workers drive to
their homes. Some executive directors also said that their satellite services are located at other
agencies, so that they are easier to access and easier to hear about. One executive director said
that satellite services themselves do not raise awareness about legal clinics, and that additional
work needs to be done to get clients in the door. A small number of executive directors discussed
needing to close satellite offices because of lack of use and lack of resources.
The most common barrier that executive directors identified was that of travel in rural areas,
especially those without access to the internet, transportation or a telephone.
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Some executive directors that did not have an extensive outreach plan for rural populations
cited resources as the main barrier, and argued that doing extensive outreach to reach a small
proportion of clients may not be the best use of resources.
PROCESS
Executive directors had many concerns with the process of the current needs assessment, but
also showed optimism. Many of them were worried that the process will create conflict between
clinics, resulting in more turf wars, especially since the clinics are frequently measured against
one another by funders.
Some were also concerned that there has recently been a lot of change within clinics, and that
forcing more mergers or more changes at this point would have a significant negative impact on
service delivery.
Executive directors were most enthusiastic about the potential of the transformation project to
create efficiencies within their systems, increase collaboration and knowledge sharing between
clinics, and ultimately improve access to justice and service delivery for the clients in their
communities.
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ISSUES & OPTIONS

The following list details issues that were most commonly raised through the different research
activities that were conducted, such as the community consultations with staff, clients,
community stakeholders, board members and executive directors, the literature review, the
community legal clinic review and demographic and community resource mapping. The issues
raised throughout the needs assessment are grouped in four general areas; reaching not the
usual suspects, clinic services, collaborative structures, and clinic information technology.
Options listed below are strategies that were named in the literature review, community
consultations, by community stakeholders or in Oversight Committee meetings. It is important
to note that the options listed are not recommendations; rather, they are laying out
opportunities for the participating community legal clinics to consider in the next phases of the
transformation project.
REACHING NOT THE USUAL SUSPECTS:

URBAN/OFF-RESERVE ABORIGINAL OUTREACH
There are off-reserve Aboriginal populations living in every catchment area of the East and
Central community legal clinics, and this is a group that is growing in numbers. In fact, clinics
see more off-reserve Aboriginal people accessing their services than on-reserve. This is a
vulnerable population that faces many barriers to accessing services, most significantly a lack of
trust in government agencies, which results in low rates of service access in most of the
participating legal clinics. However, as the literature review suggests, in spite of this low rate of
access, this is a group with considerable legal needs.
Community legal clinics noted that there is a limited understanding in their communities of the
particular needs of off-reserve Aboriginal populations, and there was interest in gaining a
greater understanding of those needs. It was also noted that other clinics, such as Keewaytinok
Native Legal Services in Moosonee, the Kinna-aweya Legal Clinic in Thunder Bay, and the
Akwesasne Justice Department in Cornwall have been successful in developing a better
understanding of the needs of off-reserve Aboriginal populations.
Several community legal clinics have attempted to form partnerships with Aboriginal
organizations to increase access for off-reserve populations. For the most part, however, where
there have been attempts at partnerships they have been largely unsuccessful.
Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) has developed a well-researched Aboriginal Justice Strategy to better
meet the needs of this population. However, there has been a delay in implementing many of the
strategies laid out, one of the challenges being resourcing and another being low incentive for
legal services to incorporate the strategies into their agencies.
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OPTIONS
Satellites
One option to improve access for and service delivery to off-reserve Aboriginal populations is
the formation of satellites, co-satellites, or colocations at friendship centres or Family Legal
Interpretations Centres (FLICs) in underserved urban areas. This would allow Aboriginal clients
to access services in their own comfort zone, rather than at community legal clinic offices, which
might be perceived as too strongly linked to government structures to be comfortable. The
Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres (OFIF) would be a good resource in the
formation of such partnerships.
Partnerships
To address the access barriers, there are also opportunities for partnerships with existing
Aboriginal services providers and legal clinics, such as the Akwesane Justice Department in
Cornwall. This approach is exemplified by the Baamsedaa program, which supports Aboriginal
populations in accessing the services of Community Legal Assistance Sarnia (CLAS), as well as
other agencies and elements of the Ontario justice system. The Accompaniment Model,
employed by Connecting Ottawa, as well as CLAS and the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic,
which utilizes social service agency staff to accompany vulnerable or marginalized individuals to
legal and health related appointments, could also be useful in this context.
Aboriginal representation
Including Aboriginal representatives on community legal clinic boards is another strategy to
increase access for and knowledge of off-reserve populations. Aboriginal board members would
likely be able to offer increased insight into access barriers and suggest tactics to reduce them.
Similarly, the hiring of aboriginal staff members or of Aboriginal liaisons to the off-reserve
community could also help facilitate service access.
Advocacy
There are also opportunities for advocacy for off-reserve Aboriginal populations, with the
potential to develop an Eastern Task Force to work on improving access to justice. Such an
initiative could include measured targets set out over the next two years, with a goal of reducing
access barriers and implementing core services for off-reserve Aboriginal populations.
Furthermore, cross-cultural training for community legal clinic staff, including anti-oppression
curricula, could also improve accessibility. LAO has existing training models that could
potentially be applied in this context.
Aboriginal Justice Strategy
Greater implementation and targets with the Aboriginal Justice Strategy developed by LAO is
being considered as an opportunity. There are many tools from the Aboriginal Justice Strategy
that ECRTP research findings show should be considered for implementation such as increasing
Aboriginal representation on community legal clinic boards and legal staff, reducing barriers to
accessing justice and training current staff on cultural competency.
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OUTREACH TO FIRST NATIONS RESERVES

Many participating community legal clinics have First Nations reserves located in their
catchments. Most of the participating community legal clinics have tried to establish
partnerships with these reserves, with limited success. In some cases, reserves offer legal
services, such as the Akwesasne Community Justice Program. Often, these are alternative justice
programs, and tend to focus on services such as family legal issues or criminal legal issues, but
there still may be room to provide income maintenance legal support.
OPTIONS
Advocacy
In the past, community legal clinics have collaborated with First Nations communities to
advocate for policy reform, such as the Gladue decision that reserves the right for First Nations
to manage some aspects of legal proceedings. In addition to achieving reforms, advocacy is seen
by many as an effective tool for building relationships with aboriginal communities.
Partnerships with services provided on reserves
In many communities there is a breadth of services offered on-reserve, such as family services,
alternative legal programs, libraries, community centres and more. An option to increase access
for this population could be to develop partnerships with these agencies, including warm
referrals and potentially delivering satellite services at these locations. This would reduce travel
barriers, but also some of the cultural barriers and lack of familiarity this community faces in
accessing legal clinic services.
Strategic partnerships to meet legal needs
The idea of partnering with Family Law Information Centres (FLICs) was raised as a possible
approach to better meeting the legal needs of First Nations populations living on-reserve. This
might be an option for reserves that do not have agencies that provide family and criminal law
services. Such partnerships could include co-satellites, meaning a family legal worker from a
FLIC and a community legal clinic worker could host satellites at the same scheduled times at
other agencies on-reserve. This would provide easier access to the most common forms of legal
help that are needed.
FRANCOPHONE OUTREACH
There are Francophone populations across East and Central Ontario, although they vary in
density from under 5% to about 75%. Most of these populations are located in either the far East
of Ontario, in the counties of Prescott-Russell and Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, or in urban
centres, such as Oshawa, Kingston, and Barrie, which tend to have higher populations of many
ethno-cultural communities. Some of the participating legal clinics cover geographical areas
where services are mandated by the province of Ontario to provide services in French. These
areas include:
Townships of Essa, Tiny and Penetanguishene in Simcoe County
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City of Kingston in Frontenac County

Townships of Pembroke, Stafford, and Westmeath in Renfrew County
Counties of Prescott-Russell
Township of Winchester, Stormont County, Glengarry County in United Counties of
Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry
This is a vulnerable population across East and Central Ontario, especially in areas where
French is not the predominant language. There are real and perceived barriers to Francophones
accessing services at community legal clinics. Real barriers include a lack of legal services
provided in French, poorly translated documents and difficulty in attending legal hearings in
French. Some of the perceived barriers include the anticipated lack of cultural competency and
understanding from Anglophone service deliverers, and the perception that the client will be
considered difficult if they ask for service in French.
Legal Aid Ontario has developed a French Language Strategy for community legal clinics, which
discusses both the obligations and promising practices of providing appropriate legal services to
Ontarios Francophone population. However, issues have been raised with this strategy that
although the methods are well-researched there has not been a lot of implementation of the
methods outlined in the strategy. There have also been criticisms that there are no assurances of
equitable levels of service delivery incorporated in the French Language Strategy.
OPTIONS
Advocacy
As ten community agencies working together, the participating legal clinics could be a
significant advocate for improving the availability of French Language Service across the
province. In terms of ensuring equitable access, there is a significant development needed to
increase availability of hearings conducted in French, and assuring that there is no delay in
hearings conducted in French. Advocacy on this issue could affect policy and FLS in the longterm and could also increase the perception of the community legal clinics as welcoming spaces
for Francophones to seek help, if they are seen to be on their side.
Partnerships and networks
Developing a network of agencies that deliver services in French in Ontario, or a network of
French-speaking staff of Anglophone agencies could be a method of increasing the linguistic
capacity in the province. Some methods of this networks could be an online platform for sharing
translated tools and forms, workshops or training, regional meetings, or online chats. This
could include building upon existing networks, like the Franco-list developed by the Clinic
Resource Office (CRO). The goal of this tool would be to create a more seamless service for
Francophone clients through ease of referrals to other agencies that provide FLS, and to
increase knowledge sharing between Francophone service deliverers. This could also mean
developing strategic partnerships for building advocacy capacity, such as Colour of Poverty, who
advocate for people of colour, including racialized Francophones.
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Developing a network amongst community legal clinics that deliver services in French is also an
opportunity to building French language capacity. This would mean linking clinics such as the
Vanier community legal clinic, Clinique juridique populaire de Prescott-Russell, the three
general service legal clinics in Ottawa, Community Legal Clinic of Stormont, Dundas and
Glengarry and any others that provide French Language Services.
Finally, developing a network of French supports could involve connecting with the
Francophone Bar Association and French paralegal schools, again, to increase capacity to serve
this currently underserved population.
Linguistic competence
One major step in delivering better service to Francophones is assuring active offers of French
Language Service to every client who seeks service. This includes all services from intake to a
clients hearing being able to be conducted in French. It is also important to signify that the
agency is a bilingual atmosphere for clients, through quality translation of all documentation
and the provision of a bilingual website, a bilingual greeting at the door, signage outside of the
agency, and bilingual pins for French-speaking staff to wear. Translated documents and
websites, bilingual greetings at the door, outdoor signage, or bilingual pins for those staff that
are able to provide services in French can significantly increase the visibility that agencies are
bilingual.
Cultural competency/welcoming space for francophones
Delivering services to Francophones does not only mean providing linguistically appropriate
services but also culturally appropriate services. Cultural competency training for staff can
increase the understanding and respect of Francophones wishes and needs. This competency is
felt by Francophones accessing services and can increase access by making clinics a more
welcoming and safe space to access. Another way for a clinic to better manifest cultural
competency is to recruit a Francophone board member as a representative of this community.
Part of developing this welcoming space is providing translated documents as listed above in
linguistic competence.
NEWCOMERS/MIGRANT WORKERS/IMMIGRANTS
Newcomers, migrant workers and immigrants experience intersecting inequities, including
those that many community legal clinic clients face such as low-incomes and unstable
employment and housing, but they also face additional challenges through the immigrant
experience such as linguistic barriers, cultural barriers, and navigating a system unfamiliar to
them. Immigration is increasing in some larger urban centres in the East and Central region,
like Barrie and Oshawa, and also in areas experiencing urban sprawl around Ottawa and
Toronto. In areas where the local economy is reliant on manufacturing and farming, migrant
workers are a vulnerable population that tends to have unstable employment and whom
employers often exploit. Migrant workers therefore often face unique intersecting issues of
employment, immigration and workers compensation. There are still many areas in East and
Central region that have low immigration, but it is expected that these numbers will increase in
the future.
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The legal clinics currently do not have a high capacity for immigration law; most of the clinics
that do have some capacity meet those needs through referrals to other agencies. One legal clinic
has recruited a volunteer immigration lawyer who provides services on an as-needed basis.
OPTIONS
Immigration law provision
Increasing community legal clinics capacity to deliver immigration law would be an effective
way to meet the needs of newcomers. This could be achieved through hiring an immigration
lawyer either at one clinic, or collectively for multiple clinics, who would travel between clinics
and offer satellite-type services. There is also a possibility of tapping into specialty legal clinics
for additional support for immigration law. This might include referrals to specialty legal clinics
that provide immigration law or providing clients with the opportunity to videoconference with
an immigration lawyer at a specialty clinic from their local community legal clinic. One issue
raised with this option was that specialty clinics based in Toronto tend to not deliver a lot of
services to regions outside of Toronto. One option for overcoming this could be to set targets for
a certain percentage of their clients to be located in East and Central Ontario.
Partnerships
Another strategy to better meet immigration law needs is to develop formalized networks for
effective referrals. In this way, there could be mutual referrals to agencies that provide services
for newcomers, or are access points for newcomers, like newcomer centres. Some community
legal clinics have fostered such partnerships, but developing more formalized networks can
facilitate this referral system to make it smoother. Community legal clinics could also develop
new partnerships with one another, like developing a working group made up of legal clinic staff
to address how best to meet newcomer needs.
Welcoming space
In order to increase visibility and ultimately access of immigrant populations to legal clinics,
some promising practices are to provide multi-lingual flyers at other agencies, multi-lingual fact
sheets or tools for understanding legal rights, and multi-lingual signs or online resources and
websites. Recruiting a board member who is a member of the immigrant community is also a
method of better understanding the needs of the population, developing cultural competency,
increasing networks that penetrate into that community and therefore creating a space for
newcomers to more readily access services.
Supporting migrant workers
To be able to better deliver services to migrant workers, more outreach is needed, to build trust
in these communities and break down some barriers migrant workers have in accessing
community legal clinics. Since this population often have multiple and complex needs, part of
better meeting migrant workers should involve holistic approaches, including partnership and
collaboration with other services to create seamless links across the sector.
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MENTAL HEALTH STRATEGY

There are increasing mental health challenges among clients, and an increase in people with
mental health issues seeking community legal clinic services. This is exacerbated by ODSP
changes at the provincial level, and the amount of ODSP cases is increasing. Working with
individuals with mental health issues takes time, support and patience in gathering and sharing
information on legal issues and rights. People with mental health issues can face huge barriers,
both physical and non-physical, in accessing community legal clinics. From community
consultations it was found that some tasks, like taking public transit, can present unachievable
challenges to this population, and therefore flexibility, patience and understanding is essential
in serving them.
LAO has developed a Mental Health Strategy with the goal of better meeting the needs of this
vulnerable population. This strategy is still in the development phases but focuses on reducing
barriers that this population faces in accessing services, offering holistic services and training
staff to better be able to work with people with mental health issues.
OPTIONS
Embedded social workers
Although there was mixed feedback from community consultations on whether or not social
workers located at the community legal clinics would be beneficial or not, it remains an option
to offer a more holistic approach for people with mental health issues. Social workers in the
same location can close the gap between services, making a more seamless system which is
especially important for people who have a hard time accessing multiple services.
Partnerships
Developing strategic partnerships with agencies that many people access or with agencies that
serve people with mental health issues specifically can aid in meeting the needs of people with
mental health. These strategic partnerships can both increase visibility of the community legal
clinic to those populations, making it easier to access and these partnerships can also help move
toward a more holistic approach to service delivery. As one of the priorities named in LAOs
Mental Health Strategy, offering holistic approaches can be a tool in meeting clients where they
are at in understanding their legal issues.
YOUTH OUTREACH
Youth represent a vulnerable population, sometimes exposed to generational poverty, or even
generational ODSP, meaning generations within the same family in need of financial support
from ODSP. This population tends to have housing issues, because students often live in
precarious housing situations, or because they have employment issues, especially in rural areas
where there is a lack of stable employment opportunities for young people. There is also a
tendency for young people to not advocate for themselves, and only access legal services if the
matter is urgent. These issues have led to a community legal clinic interest in preventative
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measures for youth and for increasing young peoples perception of community legal clinics as
accessible, welcoming services.
OPTIONS
Partnerships with schools
The community legal clinics could develop partnerships with legal programs at local schools,
like Durham College, Queens Community Legal Clinic, University of Ottawa Community Legal
Clinic, or the Trent University Legal Referral Service to develop strategies to better reach youth.
Partnerships with schools should also involve not only post-secondary schools but also
secondary schools to establish preventative legal issue networks. Finally, legal agencies targeted
to youth could also be connected with, such as Pro Bono Students Canada, and the Ontario
Justice Education Network. Since these organizations target youth in their work, they may have
existing outreach or PLE practices that community legal clinics can learn from. Although some
community legal clinics have existing partnerships with schools (especially paralegal schools), if
formalized partnership were created, partners could set targets for mutual referrals, and also for
peer training on how to better reach youth and other relevant skills.
Greater online presence
Developing a greater online presence, including an improved social media presence and posting
of quick legal facts, could increase visibility to young potential clients. This could also include an
enhanced website, which might have forms, information, appointment scheduling, and the
option of a legal live chat. These methods would encourage younger clients to access legal
services and legal information in a comfortable environment. This may also increase legal
information flow to families, especially in newcomer families.
SENIORS
In many areas of the East and Central Region there are growing senior populations. These
populations have varied needs, with some being retirees who are not necessarily a vulnerable
population who would not need legal clinic services, and some very vulnerable populations,
potentially with income, housing maintenance, communication, and mobility issues. Seniors are
accessing community legal clinics at various rates, with some clinics seeing an increase in
seniors coming into their clinics, and some expecting an increase, but not seeing it yet.
OPTIONS
Medical Legal Partnerships
MLPs are an initiative that has shown to improve individuals health, since legal health has been
determined as a significant factor in the social determinants of health. This partnership could
include training family doctors to identify legal issues and conduct legal health checks. The
nature of these partnerships can vary, such as collaborative PLE and health promotion, since
they are often reaching out to similar audiences, although there tends to be more emphasis on
preventative work in the medical field.
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Other partnerships
Developing partnerships with community agencies or services that seniors access, like Rotary
Clubs, churches, and Legions, could be an effective strategy. Within these circles, trusted
intermediaries could be trained to recognize legal issues and refer clients to legal clinic services.
Developing a stronger partnership with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE) is another
option to increase clinic capacity for outreach, advocacy, and also for peer-training on promising
practices.
Satellite locations
One significantly vulnerable group is seniors living in institutional homes. To increase this
groups access to justice, satellite services could be set up at regular hours at institutional homes.
This would reduce the mobility barriers this population faces, and would increase the visibility
of the clinics services and of seniors legal rights.
DEAF POPULATION
This is a vulnerable population, with significant communication barriers. Where there are large
agencies that serve this population, it tends to draw more people to the community. There is
currently low capacity to serve this population, since most clinic services are provided in-person
or by telephone, and sign language translation is not readily available.
OPTIONS
Cultural competency
Training for staff in cultural competency and delivering services form an Anti-Oppressive
Practice lens will increase the perception that legal clinics are a safe place for Deaf people to seek
services. Another suggestion that helps with this perception is providing outdoor signage and
flyers that advertise that American Sign Language is available.
Effective communication
Developing effective ways of communicating with Deaf clients will better meet the needs of this
population and increase their access to legal clinic services. Some strategies include texting and
emailing updates and documents to Deaf clients when possible, or offering ASL translation
through videoconferencing, which is currently being piloted in the Community Advocacy &
Legal Centre. Any such strategies should be reviewed to ensure they are in compliance with the
Law Society of Upper Canada.
Partnerships
Developing partnerships with agencies that serve this population can increase the visibility of
legal clinic services, and lower barriers that Deaf people face in entering clinics through mutual
referrals from service providers they trust. A satellite office could also be offered at a community
partners office that people who are Deaf frequently access.
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RURAL POPULATIONS
Most of the participating community legal clinics have rural regions in their catchments. The
community legal clinics have established many innovative ways of accessing this population, but
they still frequently struggle to do so. There are significant transportation barriers to rural
populations accessing legal clinic services. There are other barriers to accessing clinics, such as
access to internet and illiteracy. Rural populations are hesitant to access services and have
greater mistrust in government agencies.
There are two main reasons for legal clinics to set up satellites:
To deliver services closer to clients, reducing travel barriers.

To gain the trust of potential clients and raise awareness by being visible in their
communities.
OPTIONS
Rural and remote strategy
Given the specific needs and unique characteristics of rural and remote communities and
clients, a well-supported option for meeting those needs is further investigating the needs and
gaps and developing a Rural and Remote Strategy. This strategy, similar to the Aboriginal
Justice Strategy or French Language Strategy, would outline priorities and goals of reaching out
to and supporting rural and remote populations. However, this strategy should also set specific
targets and goals, to assure that community legal clinics and LAO are making efforts to comply
with the Rural and Remote Strategy.
Satellite locations
Although already a main pillar of rural outreach for many clinics, there are still areas in the
region that do not have access to offices or satellite locations. Satellite locations often work best
when they are located at the same place as another service agency, and especially if there is
another program happening at the same time as the clinic satellite, which draws in more
potential clients. It is also necessary to assure the satellite operates at regularly scheduled times.
Trusted intermediaries
Trusted intermediaries can be trained to identify legal issues, and refer community members to
the legal clinics. The types of trusted intermediaries recruited for this job can fall into four
general categories; (1) voluntary or informal, like friends, neighbours, faith leaders, or wellknown community members, (2) people in the helping professions, such as teachers, social
workers, or nurses, (3) people connected to the justice system, like court staff, private lawyers
and police officers, and (4) professional advocates, like union stewards, shelter support workers
or court diversion staff. The strategy in connecting to these types of people is that they either are
in contact with people who have legal issues directly, or they are in contact with people who have
any number of issue that might lead to a legal issue. Trusted intermediaries can be external
partners that serve as links to the system by identifying legal issues and directing clients to the
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clinic, or they can serve as guides or navigators from within to ensure that the system serves
them effectively.
Partnerships or programs can be pursued based on initiatives such as the Community Law
School (Sarnia-Lambton) that exist in order to enhance the capacity of community
organizations, social service agencies, and low income citizen groups to identify legal issues and
promote a broader awareness of legal rights.
Use of technology
Greater use of texting, emailing, and faxing can facilitate access for rural populations.
Videoconferencing from another community resource that is closer to home, for example a
private room in a library, can also be used to talk to a legal worker at a clinic, eliminating the
need to travel to the clinic. It is important to note that these strategies would be used to augment
the current services delivered rather than replace them.
Clinic collaboration
Since many of the clinics currently have innovative methods of outreach and delivering services
to rural populations, there is room for inter-clinic knowledge sharing of promising practices.
Developing a Rural Network that could study outreach strategies and work towards ways to
better meet the needs of rural groups is an option.
CLINIC SERVICES
MEETING DEMAND
There is a high demand for legal clinic services, and clinics are often faced with shortage of
resources or capacity strain. Legal clinics currently try to represent as many people as possible,
but it is sometimes impossible because of resource strain. Although many other strategies
discussed in this section can also aid in meeting demand, such as developing strategic and
meaningful partnerships, population-targeted strategies, and collaborative structures, this
section will discuss strategies to help reduce resource strain.
The efficacy of using self-representation as an effective strategy is hotly debated. Some of the
literature pointed to this being an ineffective solution, as did many community stakeholders.
However, some community stakeholders noted that with the eligibility criteria increasing, there
may be more people who have the capacity and will to self-represent. Although selfrepresentation would not work for many clients, some clients want to and are able to selfrepresent. There is also a chance that with the increase in eligibility criteria the number of
people who can self-represent will increase.
There are specific skills needed for intake, such as identifying issues and getting to the root of
peoples problems, or gaining the trust of clients and encouraging them to share personal stories
that may be of use. These skills are applicable across regions, while other skills, such as effective
referrals to the right local community resource, need local knowledge.
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OPTIONS
Re-envisioning Intake Systems
Some opportunities for new intake models might be possible, and many were discussed in the
Eastern Region Spring Conference, 2015. Some of the options that came out of this discussion
were greater evaluation of the potential that the Clinic IP system has to create efficiencies, and
putting those changes in place if it creates significant efficiencies. Another option explored in
the Spring Conference were developing greater systems of referral for intake staff, and perhaps
drawing on CLEOs learnings on how clients navigate the social service system.
Another opportunity is developing a system of shared intake systems, given the nature of intake
skills. Although local knowledge is needed for effective referrals, intake might be able to be
shared between clinics in regions that are close together. Learnings for this might be able to be
drawn from LAOs Client Service Centre, which is a centralized intake system.
Effective use of board member skills and connections
One opportunity for meeting demand is making more effective use of community connections
that board members have. This can provide more intentional partners that might better meet
the specific needs of community members, and may create efficiencies in the process of
developing these partnerships as the connection is already existent through board members.
Emerging legal professions
With recent changes to the capabilities of emerging legal professions, especially paralegals, there
are new opportunities to expand the role that non-lawyer legal professionals play in legal clinics.
Some community legal clinics, like Northumberland Community Legal Clinics, currently partner
with paralegal schools and leverage paralegal students to make use of their skills and expertise
in many different stages of casework and outreach. There may be room for further development
of these partnerships and increased responsibility in paralegal roles in legal clinics which
warrant exploration.
Managing ODSP cases
Some community legal clinics, including Community Legal Clinic Simcoe, Haliburton,
Kawartha Lakes, have developed processes of routinizing ODSP cases. This process involves
dividing the tasks involved in ODSP cases to create efficiencies. In this model, legal students
conduct ODSP intake with support from community legal workers, while community legal
workers provide most advice to clients with support from staff lawyers, and lawyers represent
clients at hearings when that step is required.
Self-representation
There may be room for expanding systems for supported self-representation. This would include
a system of support and training and effective communication with clients who might want to
self-represent. The goal would need to remain to support clients who are interested in this
approach, rather than saving costs.
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AREAS OF LAW
There are significant ODSP demands, and although these are difficult to meet, clinics work hard
to not let them overtake other areas of law. Some clinics have developed different structures and
tools to better meet this demand, and represent clients. There are significant housing issues in
the region that are sometimes hard to manage due to the high volume of ODSP demands. There
are significant family law needs in communities, with very little resources to meet those needs.
There was interest and space for legal clinics to grow in both employment law and in supporting
people in attaining employment. Some clinics have coordinated on areas of law to better meet
needs, and there is interest from other clinics to do the same.
OPTIONS
Sharing expertise
As seen in the chart that shows the legal clinics practice areas, there is a high level of expertise
across clinics, but it is not uniform. This leads to concerns that some clients are not able to
access legal help because of the areas practiced in the catchment they live in. One opportunity
for growth named was an inter-clinic referral system of sharing certain types of law, such as a
partnership in which one clinic takes on consumer and debt law, where another takes on small
claims court. Another option would be offering videoconferencing services, so that if a client was
accessing the clinic in their catchment, they could easily speak to a legal worker with specific
expertise located in another catchment.
Peer training
Staff with different skills can conduct training with one another, to be able to increase capacity
and also increase communication between staff working at different clinics.
Partnerships with Family Law Information Centres
Family law was identified as a legal need that is currently unmet in the East and Central Region.
This need might be met by developing partnerships and implementing satellites with FLIC,
either from a FLIC legal worker working from a community legal centre or vice versa, by
increased mutual referrals, or even by peer-training with FLIC employees.
Pro-bono lawyers
There are often not a lot of supports for criminal law in the East and Central Region. Some of
this need might be able to be met if a formalized partnership was developed between PBLO and
pro-bono lawyers, making use of criminal legal skills in the private sector.
PARTNERSHIPS
Community legal clinics have found that effective partnerships can help them to:
Better meet the needs of clients by linking them to more services that they need
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Increase awareness about the work that the clinic does and ultimately get more clients in
the door
Access clients in remote and rural areas by providing satellite services at partner
agencies located in different communities
Community legal clinics currently have a wealth of partnerships, and the nature of those
partnerships tend to be:
Service delivery agencies, like mental health service delivery or employment centres, to
be able to establish a system of warm referrals, trusted intermediaries or satellite
locations with those agencies to better meet the needs of clients
Advocacy agencies and networks that the clinics can partner with on community
organizing and development
However, in focus groups and interviews, participants consistently advocated for more
partnerships to achieve further goals of the regions clinic system.
OPTIONS
Persistent and regular contact
In order to develop and maintain effective partnerships, clinics benefit from proactive and
deliberate efforts to build and maintain interagency relationships. More frequent joint meeting,
planning and practice appear to have been successful in fostering the growth of these
relationships, but strategic decisions to pursue beneficial relationships have also played a role.
Strategic partnerships
Developing partnerships with service agencies that have a similar client base as the community
legal clinics is one way to ensure that both participating agencies and their clients will benefit
from the partnership.
Satellite locations
Developing satellite locations on the site of another service delivery agency ensures a level of
visibility and ease of access for clients. Satellite locations work best if there is a similar client
base between the legal clinic and the service delivery agency, and if the satellite is provided at
regular hours.
Learning from fellow clinics
Many of the effective strategies brought up in the research come from practices that
participating legal clinics have already adopted. At the same time, the clinics vary widely in the
development and nature of partnerships, with some having many satellites or some that use
trusted intermediaries, and some clinics that do neither. Because of this, there is a lot to learn
from some of the clinics participating in the process on promising practices and strategies that
might work in other catchments.
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Collaboration with LAO
There may be opportunities to increase collaboration with LAO to better meet the needs of
clients. Though not all models are ideal for all clinics, some of the options that could be studied
include:
Colocation, meaning full colocation of a community legal clinic and an LAO office;
Including an LAO lawyer in a clinic part time, meaning that an LAO lawyer would
deliver services at regularly scheduled times from a community legal clinic;
Proximity and referrals if LAO offices and community legal clinics are located close to
one another they could develop an effective system of warm referrals.
A full breakdown of potential strategies for collaboration with LAO is in Appendix XIII.
COLLABORATIVE STRUCTURES
DIVERSITY
The community legal clinics of the East and Central Regions are diverse, and the clinic cultures
different, but in many cases the clinics have more in common than they think they do, such as
their dedication to delivering quality services to everyone who walks in the door, and having a
collaborative team model and staff culture. The demographics and characteristics of the
catchments that community legal clinics serve, however, are quite diverse. This diversity can
appear in language spoken, rurality or density of the population, accessibility of services and
transportation systems, and many more areas. Because of these diverse catchments, community
legal clinics are hesitant about collaborating with other clinics that might not understand the
needs of their community.
OPTIONS
Collaborate with demographically similar clinics
Specific strategies are developed to serve different kinds of communities. These strategies and
promising practices could be shared between clinics that have similar catchment areas. One
example of this might be the Durham Community Legal Clinic and Scarborough community
legal clinics, since the communities that they serve are increasingly similar; they all have high
immigration, low income populations, poor transit and are densely populated. Another
opportunity for collaboration might be between the Community Legal Clinic of Stormont,
Dundas and Glengarry and Clinique juridique populaire de Prescott et Russell, since both of
these clinics serve a high number of Francophone clients, and might have similar interest in
sharing materials and working on community development. Finally, Peterborough Community
Legal Clinic and Kingston Community Legal Clinic serve a somewhat similar demographic of a
mid-size city with poor transportation, with industries focused on hospitals and schools, and a
rural population that currently has low access to legal clinic services.
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Collaborations across less population sensitive matters
Some areas of potential collaboration may be less sensitive to demographic difference. The
efficacy of ODSP case management systems for example may not vary widely across
demographic distinctions and could be an area of collaborative practice between clinics. Other
potential areas include back office functions like bookkeeping and accounting, shared expertise
in more technical areas of law.
COLLABORATION BETWEEN CLINICS

Community legal clinics have a high level of expertise in and knowledge of services delivery,
PLE, community development and innovative practices. Throughout this process, a common
theme was that the clinics wanted to work more collaboratively with one another.
As seen from the chart showing clinics areas of practice, community legal clinics deliver
different legal services. This is due to a combination of need in the catchment and legal clinic
staff interest areas. Although it was identified as being important that clinics and staff can excel
in areas they are interested in, there is concern that clients should not be denied services in an
area of law because it is not delivered by the legal clinic in their catchment.
OPTIONS
Knowledge and expertise sharing
Communicating and building strong inter-clinic connections and relationships will be essential
to the development of collaborative approaches, programs, or models of service delivery.
Common training sessions for staff have served in the past to develop such relationships. These
training sessions could incorporate transformational sessions to promote a critical engagement
among staff with the systems they use and encourage innovation and imagination. Knowledge
sharing platforms, such as KnowledgeNOW or the clinic list serve, as well as tools such as an
Intranet permit staff at various clinics to pose questions and share experiences over vast
distances. These systems can be used to communicate the strengths (or weaknesses) of new
initiatives, or to gather feedback from the broader clinic system about potential changes clinics
may be considering.
Several clinics involved in the Eastern and Central Region Transformation Project have
attempted to utilise video-conferencing at one time or another. Though concerns still exist
regarding the security and confidentiality of programs like Skype, there remains some
excitement about the potential for such platforms to promote knowledge sharing between clinics
with different areas of expertise. Video-conferencing can help maximise resources by leveraging
existing skills and promoting clinic specialisation or knowledge clusters, which can in turn
allow for more consistent access to services in various areas of law, such as Aboriginal law or
healthcare, that are not currently covered by most clinics. Similar innovations within the
healthcare sector have generated positive results.
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Collaboration and partnership between clinics
Where these specializations exist, clinics could benefit from formalising them and creating a
system of inter-clinic referrals that capitalise on them. This level of formal collaboration can
occur between just a few clinics or it can be extended across the region by way of videoconferencing. In either case, clinics will benefit from closer relationships with their neighbours.
Beyond sharing human resources, by videoconference or otherwise, clinics might also pursue
methods of collaboration that involve sharing materials. This could include anything from
pamphlets, legal information or lists of available resources, to intake models and databases.
Various clinics participating in the project have developed innovative tools for intake and
managing files that could be shared between clinics. Clinics can also apply collectively for
funding to create a position that would serve a mutual interest or need.
SUCCESSION PLANNING
In most centralization strategies studied from other community legal clinics in Ontario, most of
the savings they saw came from staff turnover. Some of these models have included buying out
the most senior lawyers or executive directors to hire newer lawyers or frontline staff and
developing a system of shared executive directors. Others simply track the likely turnover at
senior levels and plan for hiring in key areas of law when new staff are needed. This can happen
at the clinic level but can also be used as a tool for regional planning of inter-clinic capacity.
In other sectors, there has been success in sharing executive directors or governance structures
without losing local autonomy and community connection. One model is the Genesis
Cooperative, which was developed by five churches in the Ottawa Valley. In this model, the five
participating congregations were losing ministers because of lack of funding. The five groups
decided to develop a network together to enable them to continue providing services in their
communities. They developed a rotating minister system, so that instead of 5 ministers, they
rotated 3 ministers. They have also centralized their governing body, having one counsel with
two representatives from each congregation, rather than 5 counsels. The ministers are paid
centrally from all five congregations, but other than that the congregations finances remain
autonomous. Although at this point, the current executive directors are dedicated to
maintaining a role in transformation at their community legal clinic, there is interest in
potential savings and areas for growth using succession planning.
OPTIONS
Succession plans
Clinics can plan internally or across the region for pending needs in areas of law, likely patterns
of staff turnover, priorities in hiring and the implications of turnover for freeing up resources to
expand or modify services.
Long-term plans for regional collaboration
Greater collaboration in the future might involve sharing frontline staff among clinics that are
geographically close, and similar in characteristics. This could increase the capacity and
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expertise of legal clinics for outreach, community development and frontline service. This
method has been used by the Genesis Cooperative, which shares priests among similar and
geographically close communities.
PLE/COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
The participating community legal clinics do a great deal of community development, through
advocacy with other agencies and clinics, and also a lot of PLE work. Some of this PLE work
includes presentations and workshops at partner agencies when requested, or large-scale annual
events. The ability and the strength of legal clinics to do PLE and community development is
strongly tied to clinic identity. Legal clinics would like to be able to do more PLE and community
development, but oftentimes resources constrain their capacity to do so.
There was divergence from the research around conducting PLE with the general population; in
some cases it was understood that PLE with community partners was much more preventative,
since they can be a referral source, and the general population tends to only seek legal
information once they already have a legal issue. At the same time, clients reported not having
heard of any PLE events and being interested in having more of them.
There was significant interest in collaboration between clinics in order to conduct more PLE and
community organizing.
OPTIONS
Public Legal Education Strategy
In order to assure that PLE strategies are maintained as a priority for community legal clinics,
the clinics could collaboratively develop a shared strategy. This might include sharing regions to
conduct PLE, and sharing tools and other resources.
Partnerships with CLEO
Developing a formalized partnership with CLEO might meet some of the contrasting issues
about conducting PLE with the general population. CLEO carries out a significant amount of
PLE with the general population and could offer promising practices that the legal clinics could
learn from, or could facilitate PLE themselves. The suggestion of developing informative videos
with CLEO on legal rights was also raised as a potential strategy.
Community Development Strategy
Similar to a Public Legal Education Strategy, the community legal clinics could develop a
collective strategy for community organizing and development. In this strategy it would be
important to take on issues that affect all the communities participating in the project, like the
dysfunction of the ODSP system, or Francophones access to FLS.
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BACK OFFICE SYSTEMS

There was interest from community legal clinics in reducing the time spent on administrative
tasks, or creating efficiencies on these tasks. Across the province, other community legal clinics
have also been looking at ways to reduce back office costs. From looking at what other
community legal clinics in Ontario are doing, three different models of back office system
sharing have been identified:
Ottawa community legal clinics and Northwest Community Legal Clinic: In this model
the clinics have merged their back office functions, including bookkeeping, auditing,
payroll, equipment ordering, etc. They are also moving to a model of sharing some
administrative positions, such as a shared executive director and a shared office
manager. The Northwest Community Legal Clinic was also able to save on executive
director salary, since there is now one instead of two.
Southwest community legal clinics: Clinics in the Southwest of Ontario are currently
looking at their back office systems to find the optimal way of completing these tasks.
Each clinic will take on specific back office tasks for the whole region, creating
efficiencies through repetition and specialization. The savings from this model are not
yet realized since they are still underway.
Hamilton clinic and specialty clinics: Three Hamilton clinics amalgamated into one
clinic, including their back office, management, and front office functions. Through this
they were able to generate savings on accommodation, utilities and equipment, and
auditing. Specialty clinics in Toronto, although remaining separate entities, collocated
into one office and developed shared systems of administrative duties like bookkeeping.
Potential savings from this model are not yet realized.
A more in-depth study of these models can be found in Appendix XII.

Throughout these examples, it is understood that many of the savings seen are offered through
the retirement of senior staff personnel and hiring of newer, and less expensive, legal clinic
workers. The amalgamation of simple back office functions such as bookkeeping or data
management, though beneficial, provide limited economic benefit.
In the case of the East and Central Region, many of the back office functions are already
consolidated in some manner:
Leasing
Centralized Resource Services
Employee Assistance Program
Test use litigation support
Basic practice management
Training
Knowledge management
Information Technology services
Some equipment purchasing
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Case management software (CMT/CIMS)

RRSP provider
Some PLE materials
There have also been cases where there were centralized back office functions historically, but
are no longer centralized, such as RRSP, benefits package and auditing.
Although the community legal clinics see much more value in building effectiveness through
collaboration in the work they do rather than how they manage their finances, there is still room
for some centralization in payroll, bookkeeping and human resources. Currently, each clinic
outsources payroll and bookkeeping separately, and spends about $6,000 on average on
bookkeeping, not including benefits administration. There is some support for management
through the Employee Assistance Program, but it is not comprehensive and not well known
among community legal clinic executive directors and staff. There are accounting firms that
complete this work, and tend to cost $45.00 per hour, charging anywhere between $5.00 and
$20.00 per staff member they are conducting accounting services for.3.
OPTIONS
Exploration of southwest ontario model
The model currently being investigated by the Southwest community legal clinics is one that
may be the model the most transferable to community legal clinics of ECRTP, and therefore this
model should be explored further. Some specific methods being explored, like system analyses
to find out optimal ways of completing tasks and sharing back office tasks between clinics
should be evaluated to determine potential savings and efficiencies created.
File storage
There may be opportunities for shared digital file storage. This might cut down on the physical
space needed for storage, and the time needed for organizing files. There are many companies
that offer online storage space for agencies, and if this expense is shared amongst clinics there
may be cost savings.
Human resourcing options
Human resourcing was raised as a major gap in the current clinic system, with concern about
not having support for executive directors when there is a human resource issue within their
clinic. There was a feeling that because of the environment of the legal clinic system, there was
nobody to turn to that was competent in human resourcing skills, and could provide the
confidentiality needed when handling these matters. There was interest in hiring an agency that
is skilled in this matter to provide support when issues arise. Another suggestion was shared
learning throughout the legal clinic system, given that some executive directors have a high level
of skill in managing human resources. This could be accompanied by a system of knowledge
sharing like a network, a referral system, or an online chat. Finally, subscribing to a service such
This estimate is generated from discussions with three accounting agencies to estimate the costs of
outsourcing.
3
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as HR Downloads, an online resource that offers human resource support and tools, might be a
viable option, given the physical distance between legal clinics.
Outsourcing payroll, benefits and human resources
This is a common bundle for accounting agencies to offer non-profit organizations like the
community legal clinics. One option mentioned was centralizing payroll, benefits and human
resources so that one agency does this work for all participating legal clinics. Costs of what is
spent now versus what would be spent on a centralized agency would need to be analyzed to
establish whether or not this would be cost effective. However, there would be other efficiencies
drawn from this, such as standardized financial models, making reporting to the funder easier
for legal clinics and also making auditing simpler and perhaps less expensive because of
standardized books. Some community legal clinics currently share bookkeeping with ACLCO
through shared purchasing of accounting services, which presents as another options for legal
clinics that might offer some savings. The option of outsourcing these tasks to ACLCO was
named as a possibility, or of outsourcing to accounting firms. Finally the option of reestablishing the system of outsourcing payroll to LAOs Clinic Service Office offers an
opportunity for exploring.
Group purchasing
In some other agencies, group purchasing of things like internet services, technology and human
resource tools has proven effective. This did not necessarily save on costs, but by pooling
resources the legal clinics were able to get better, faster, services.
CLINIC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

USE OF TECHNOLOGY
The participating community legal clinics have innovative methods of using technology to both
make their work easier and more effective but also to make access to legal services easier for
clients. Some of these technologies include delivering legal services over the phone, with one
clinic conducting a pilot project delivering services by videoconference. There have also been
initiatives on sending and receiving documents, such as sending documents by email, fax, mail
and sometimes text, between clinics and clients, but also between clinics and other agencies.
This helps to speed up document transfer, and prevents clients from needing to physically go to
clinics, which is especially helpful for rural populations. There may also be room for
development in intake systems using technology, as some clinics have implemented a pilot
project of an online intake system that can easily be learned and completed offsite by service
delivery workers at other agencies.
Participating legal clinics tend to have outdated technology, and slow or intermittent access to
the internet. There is interest in increasing the clinics capacity by using technology, but there
may be updates needed for strategies to be put in place.
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OPTIONS
Online document storage
There are opportunities for storing and maintaining documents online, rather than in hard copy.
This might help the clinics save time in filling out forms, by only needing to complete one online
form rather than one by hand and one online. This may also in some cases save space and
resources within community legal clinics because there would be less storage space needed. This
could be facilitated by the use of tablets while legal workers travel to store documents and forms.
Communication with clients
Clients tended to want more updates and more communication from legal clinic staff on the
progress of their case. Because of the high demand for service this is sometimes difficult for legal
staff to do. If this update system was more efficient sending a text or an email rather than
calling or having the client come into the office, for example it might be a more manageable
task to take on. Texting or emailing with clients will also be more affordable for them since
calling in and taking transport both cost time and money whereas people who have access to
texting or emailing can often do so at no extra cost to themselves. Videoconferencing using
reliable and secure videoconferencing technology may also help increase accessibility to the
clinics by clients, similar to the Telehealth model used in Ontario.
Sharing knowledge
Knowledge sharing platforms, like KnowledgeNow, could be further developed to support
community legal clinics across Ontario. This could help increase capacity in clinics by increasing
staff knowledge base and access to resources. This could also create efficiencies, like developing
comprehensive PLE tools since work would not be repeated. The option of developing an
Intranet, or an online hub only accessible to community legal clinic staff, could also increase
knowledge sharing between community legal clinics. This tool would be a secure space to
exchange tools, information, and learnings between community legal clinic staff.
Intake tools
Online intake tools, such as the Clinic IP program, could be used more by the participating
community legal clinics. This could be implemented either by ensuring the clinics adopt these
tools, or by training trusted intermediaries to identify legal issues and fill out intake forms in the
field. These tools would be used to supplement current intake structures, rather than to replace
them. The goal is to make intake accessible to a wider variety of clients, with the understanding
that different clients prefer and are comfortable with different methods of communication and
access services in many ways.
Investment in technology
As a way to address issues that community clinics face such as outdated technology, some
investment in technology may be necessary. This would include technology-dedicated funding to
have access to better systems of accessing clients, like increased internet bandwidth or scanners.
This may also include investing in resources for sharing knowledge like KnowledgeNOW or a
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community legal clinic Intranet. By creating a culture of investing in technology, innovations
that connect community legal clinic to one another and to clients can be more readily supported.
ONLINE PRESENCE
All of the participating legal clinics have individual clinic websites. These websites range from
providing information on what type of services they offer and contact information, to providing
tools for understanding legal rights and processes, and referrals to partner agencies. Generally,
staff members who are most knowledgeable about websites or online presence are responsible
for managing and updating clinic websites, but in some cases community legal clinics have
partnered and had one person between multiple clinics updating multiple websites and other
online material. Many of the legal clinics have a social media presence, mostly on Facebook,
where information about community development and activities, and other advocacy campaigns
are posted.
There was interest among the community legal clinics in further centralizing their websites and
social media, and providing more online tools for clients to be able to easily access and use.
OPTIONS
Shared website
One option mentioned was developing a shared website so that website management handled by
one person, rather than by each clinic individually. There may be opportunities to work with
Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO) on a shared website, since they have expertise in
raising awareness and knowledge about legal rights through online resources.
Increased social media
Although many of the legal clinics currently have their own Facebook page, there may be
opportunities to work together on social media, or to increase use. This could include posting
regular facts about legal rights, PLE events, reminders of satellite locations and hours,
community advocacy initiatives, and links or referrals to other relevant services.
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CONCLUSION
The primary goal of this report has been to better understand the East and Central Region
Community Legal Clinics, and the diverse identities and legal needs of the communities they
serve, and identify any opportunities to serve them better. This report identifies many strengths
and assets of the community legal clinics, many service needs that still exist and a variety of
opportunities for service improvement. What was clear throughout the process is that the clinics
are highly dedicated organizations that play a considerable role in the maintenance of the
wellbeing of their clients.
Clinics struggle with resources and the challenges of service provision in such a geographically
expansive and social diverse setting. They have developed new approaches to addressing those
and through this process shared new ideas and successful tactics. They have also identified an
array of possible avenues to pursue, guided by experience as well as by research into the
practices in other jurisdictions.
This report has documented the challenges and opportunities presented by clinic staff, clients,
board members, EDs, partners and the demographic data and literature. The issues and options
section has presented those in an easily reviewed catalogue that provides the clinics with the
opportunity to select from among the ideas raised the best options for the clinics in the region.
It is important to recognize that, as phase I of the East and Central Region Legal Clinic
Transformation Project, this report was not designed to lay out a proscriptive transformation
plan. Rather, it was construed as the background research that can inform the decision making
ahead. Phase II of the project will include a review of that research, the selection of key priorities
and the strategies best able to address them, and the development of a detailed transformation
plan, making use of the extensive information, issues, and options identified in this report. Once
this is completed, Phase III will undertake the implementation of this plan, and in doing so
increase the capacity of the East and Central community legal clinics to efficiently, effectively,
and accessibly deliver the legal services their clients need.
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APPENDICES
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APPENDIX I:
EASTERN ONTARIO COMMUNITY

LEGAL CLINICS MEMORANDUM OF
UNDERSTANDING
BACKGROUND
This Memorandum of Understanding is an expression of commitment, internal to the
participating community legal clinics located in the geographic area identified by Legal Aid
Ontario (LAO) as its Eastern Region.
Our collective clinic understanding is that LAOs commitment to stable, ongoing funding will be
contingent on the active participation by each local Legal Clinic and an ongoing willingness to
coordinate, cooperate and collaborate throughout the period of the eventual Funding
Framework (3 years) and beyond.
As specific exploratory, trial, and evaluative outcomes are achieved and final recommendations
are developed and shared, local clinics will have to make final commitment decisions that are in
the best interests of their specific communities.
All of the clinics identified below have been actively involved in the development of this MOU.
Renfrew County Legal Clinic,
Northumberland Community Legal Centre,
Peterborough Community Legal Centre,
Rural Legal Services - Sharbot Lake,
Community Advocacy and Legal Centre,
Community Legal Clinic - Simcoe, Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes,
Lanark Leeds and Grenville Legal Clinic,
Durham Community Legal Clinic,
Kingston Community Legal Clinic,
Clinique juridique populaire de Prescott et Russell,
Clinique juridique Stormont, Dundas et Glengarry Legal Clinic.
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Executive Directors from the 11 participating community legal clinics in Eastern Ontario met
during the Fall and Winter of 2013/14 to determine a way forward to investigate opportunities
for change that would sustain or improve the quality and extent of their client services, to
identify and document local clinic strengths, areas of greatest client service volumes, greatest
unmet clinic client service needs, and areas of high potential for inter-clinic collaboration and
sharing of resources to provide an evidentiary basis on which to make decisions about change.
Largely as a result of geography, the ability of the Eastern Region clinics to meet in person is
limited by cost and travel. The Eastern Region Executive Directors, have used email and met by
telephone whenever possible, to discuss issues. However, teleconference is not an optimal
means to generate collaborative thinking or projects. Moving forward with this project will
require substantial funding to enable representatives of the participating clinics to meet in
person as well as by teleconference, to engage the help of a facilitator at times of critical decision
making, and the resources to conduct the needs assessments, resource and skills inventories and
exploration of alternative models in a comprehensive manner so as to achieve meaningful
results.
The participating Clinic Executive Directors agree that both the Association of Legal Clinics
of Ontario - Strategic Plan collectively developed by member clinics, and the Legal Aid
Ontario - Clinic Law Services Strategic Direction report, have informed this agreement.
Discussions with LAO regarding clinic system transformation have now acknowledged that in
order for transformational exploration and innovation to take place, a stable funding
environment needs to be present, with the possibility of additional initiative-specific funding for
pilot projects consistent with Clinic system and LAO objectives. The participating Eastern
Clinics also agree that a commitment to explore cooperation, coordination and collaboration,
and to move together toward concrete implementation, must come from within the clinic system
itself.
Consistent with LAOs proposed three (3) year Transformation Funding cycle; we are proposing
a three-year timeline for exploration, and evaluation, to be followed by implementation. We
recognize that some initiatives may not provide the desired or anticipated outcomes and could
be replaced by new initiatives, and that some will exceed our goals and allow for permanent and
even early implementation.
We understand that this initiative represents one of several being undertaken throughout the
Ontario Legal Clinic system. Clinics wish to work together as a system to ensure transformation
that leads to improved client services and to administrative savings that would be reinvested in
the clinic system. To achieve this goal we will also be requesting a modest amount of funding
from the LAO Transformation Fund, to be forwarded by us, to the Association of Community
Legal Clinics of Ontario, so that the ACLCO is able to exercise a leadership role in enhancing
system wide clinic transformation.
The intent of this MOU is to collectively demonstrate our active local commitment to this open,
collaborative and explorative approach, which we believe will lead to a transformation in how we
provide clinic law services to clients in Eastern Ontario.
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OVERARCHING/STRATEGIC GOALS
1. The participating clinics in Eastern Ontario will commit individually and collectively to
exploring and developing innovative service delivery models and administrative structures
that will be responsive to the low-income demographic in the Eastern region.
2. Transformational change will based on focussed client need assessments, the development
of innovative service delivery models, and a joint clinic determination regarding how
existing resources can be unlocked and reallocated to support direct client service initiatives.
STRATEGIC IMPERATIVES
In order to maximize our ability to achieve these goals, the following imperatives must inform
all phases of this project:
1. Both Eastern Region and locally focussed needs assessments for clinic law services will be
used.
2. Regular progress and consultation sessions specific to our overarching/strategic goals, and
underlying Regional Initiatives, will be organized for the Oversight Committee at
minimum on a quarterly basis. These sessions will include consistent designated
representatives from both individual clinic boards and management, and will require
professional facilitation.
3. Each clinic will encourage its senior staff to maintain and expand regular contact with their
colleagues in the clinic system in a spirit of cooperation, collaboration, improved client
service, and administrative savings.
4. Administrative savings will be used to assist in funding clinic transformation within the
participating clinics to achieve client service enhancements. Clinics will continue collectively
to provide a full range of community legal clinic services including: direct client services,
public legal education, community development, and law reform.
5. Clinics must continue to be responsive to their local communities, client centred, and
governed by local community boards of directors.
6. Clinics will continue to collectively provide relevant, evidence based client services
including: casework, public legal education, community development, and law reform.
GOVERNANCE
The Eastern Regional Transformation Initiative will be governed by an Oversight Committee
made up of one Board level representative and the ED from each participating clinic. As much as
is possible it will be important to have a consistent board representative who will serve as liaison
between the local Board of Directors and the Oversight Committee as a whole.
The Oversight Committee will determine the Terms of Reference of the Steering Committee and
will receive reports from the Steering Committee and will provide direction.
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The project will be managed by a project Steering Committee comprising 4-6 clinic
EDs/Directors who will take a more active role in managing the overarching project, and
direction and support to the regional Transformation Project Manager (TPM). Steering
Committee members will be selected by the Oversight Committee, and will maintain a close
working relationship with EDs in the region.
Eastern Regional Transformation Project Manager (TPM) The TPM will be an existing
clinic ED chosen by the Steering Committee and will require local clinic backfill funding by
LAO for 25% of 1 FTE plus related employment costs and specifically identified TPM expenses
(travel, phone, clerical support).
EXPRESSION OF INTEREST & COMMITMENT

By signing this Memorandum of Agreement (MOU), each clinic is providing an expression of
serious interest in, and commitment to, actively participate in this Eastern Regional
Transformation project and its overarching objectives.
Throughout the project, information both locally and systemically relevant will be shared by
both the project Steering Committee, the Oversight Committee and/or local EDs. We expect this
information will become a regular and relevant part of our local Board meetings and our
Regional events.
At intervals throughout the projects three year life, reports regarding initiatives and tangible
progress on each will be provided to all participating Clinics and to LAO as our funding partner.
The project and/or sub-regional/or local clinics will apply for funding as required to hire
consultants and facilitators to work on various aspects of the project. Ultimately a combination
of consultants, staff, and steering committee members will contribute to the production of the
final report which the participating clinics will be asked to endorse.
Signing this Memorandum of Agreement below does not commit a clinic to supporting the
final report and recommendations as they are currently unknown and will evolve throughout the
process. At the end of the project a final report and recommendations will be prepared and
distributed. Clinics will then be asked to indicate in writing whether they support the
recommendations and commit to their continued implementation.
EASTERN TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

The project has been delineated in a funding application to Legal Aid Ontarios Clinic
Transformation Fund.
In broad terms, the project involves the following stages:
Planning Phase determining Terms of Reference for the Steering Committee and the
consultant, and hiring the consultant.
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Research Phase Region wide and local needs assessments, Clinic resources and skills
inventory, and investigation of alternative models of collaboration and resource sharing,
provision of back office functions, etc.
Evaluation Phase - determining implementation steps based on the evidence obtained.
Action phase the development of action plans for implementation
Implementation of approved changes.
This project focuses on the stewardship of the Eastern Transformation as a whole.
PLANNING PHASE
We will do this by:
Providing professionally facilitated meetings of the Oversight Committee and production of
reports to achieve the following objectives:
FUNDING
1. Securing funding to:
a. Hire a Consultant on a two year contract basis.
b. Hire a facilitator to assist in the development of the Terms of Reference for the
Oversight Committee and the Steering Committee,
c. Back fill a clinic Executive Director position for one quarter of their salary & benefits,
etc. each year so that they can dedicate one quarter of their time to this project as
TPM.
d. For in-person and teleconference meetings of the Oversight Committee, Steering
Committee and sub groups.
RESEARCH PHASE
NEEDS ASSESSMENT, RESOURCES AND SKILLS INVENTORY
This phase of the project focuses on determining the needs of clients and the resources available
to the participating legal Clinics.
We will do this by:
1. hiring a consultant and working with the consultant.
2. using surveys and focus groups as well as available statistics to develop a regional and local
assessment of client needs.
3. developing an inventory of clinic assets.
4. preparing an overview document of client legal needs in the catchment areas of the
participating Legal Clinics
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RESEARCH PHASE
ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR COLLABORATION AND RESOURCE SHARING, AND
ADMINISTRATIVE FUNCTIONS
This phase is to discover and to explore innovative models for service delivery with the goal of
allocating resources to identified needs in ways that preserve Clinics ability to be responsive on
a local level.
This stage is also devoted to examining the supporting administrative functions for Eastern
clinics to determine if there are alternative models which would be responsive to the Clinics
needs while being cost effective. This includes the possibilities of: purchasing, corporate
compliance, information technology, bookkeeping and audits, best practices regarding policy
and operational support. The goal is to enhance and maximize clinics abilities to provide front
line community based legal services and to convert existing administrative resources to client
service delivery.
We will do this by:
1. identifying the level of common service delivery required and matching with the appropriate
resources.
2. examining and making recommendations regarding collaboration and sharing of resources
for front line service delivery.
3. examining and making recommendations for changes to provision of administrative
functions where appropriate.
EVALUATION PHASE
In this phase, the participating legal Clinics will consider which steps to be recommended for
implementation.
We will do this by:
1. Reviewing the recommendations arising from the project
2. Facilitated meetings of the Oversight Committee
3. Decision making by Clinic Boards
ACTION PHASE
In this phase, Clinics will develop action plans for implementation of agreed steps.
We will do this by:
1. Facilitated meetings of participating clinics
2. Consulting with legal Aid Ontario
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IMPLEMENTATION PHASE
In the final Phase, participating Clinics will seek to implement agreed upon recommendations.
We will do this by:
1. Seeking necessary funding to implement the changes.
1. Working with all appropriate partners to effect the identified changes.
Our Clinic supports the Eastern Ontario Legal Clinic Transformation Project:
Clinic: _______________________________________________________
Board Signature:_______________________________ Date: ____________
Name & Position:_______________________________________________
Our designated Board representative will be: ____________________________
Direct email contact for Board representative: ___________________________
ED Signature:____________________________ Date: ________________
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APPENDIX II:
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Name
Clinic
Role
Contact
Richard Owen
Renfrew County Legal Clinic
Executive Director
owensr@lao.on.ca
Project Lead
tienne
Saint-Aubin
Community Legal Clinic of

Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry
Executive Director esta@lao.on.ca
Northumberland Community Legal

Executive Director cromartl@lao.on.ca
Clinic
Peterborough Community Legal
Executive Director reesm@lao.on.ca
Clinic
Lois Cromarty
Melinda Rees
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Name
Clinic
Baillie Carleton Renfrew County Legal Clinic

Community Advocacy & Legal
Brad Smith
Centre
Role
Contact
Board Member
Board Member
carlbail@bell.net
dnickle@cogeco.ca
bsmith@ontario.anglican.ca
Dave Nickle

Centre
Board Member
Deborah
Hastings
Durham Community Legal Clinic
Executive Director hastind@lao.on.ca
Elizabeth
Greaves
Elke Ham
tienne
Saint-Aubin
John Done
Lois Cromarty
Melinda Rees
Michael
Hefferon
Michele
Leering

Clinic
Community Legal Clinic Simcoe,
Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes
Community Legal Clinic of
Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry
Kingston Community Legal Clinic
Clinic
Clinic
Community Legal Clinic Simcoe,
Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes
Community Advocacy & Legal
Centre
Paul Dobbs
Durham Community Legal Clinic

Pierre-tienne Clinique juridique de Prescott et
Daignault
Russell
Board Member
elizabeth.greaves@sympatico.ca
Board Member
elke.ham1@gmail.com
Executive Director esta@lao.on.ca

Executive Director donej@lao.on.ca
Executive Director cromartl@lao.on.ca
Executive Director reesm@lao.on.ca
Executive Director hefferom@lao.on.ca
Executive Director leeringm@lao.on.ca
Board Member
paul.dobbs@jhsdurham.on.ca
Executive Director daignap@lao.on.ca
Steve Tennant The Legal Clinic
Executive Director
owensr@lao.on.ca
Project Lead
Board Member
ferdburphyll@gmail.com
Susan Irwin
Staff member
Richard Owen Renfrew County Legal Clinic
The Legal Clinic
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irwins@lao.on.ca
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APPENDIX III:
MAPS
DEMOGRAPHIC MAPPING
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APPENDIX IV:
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Partnerships: Addressing Competency Needs Through Lawyers. Journal of Graduate
Medical Education , 1 (2), 304-309.
FINAL REPORT
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Pleasence, P., Coumarelos, C., Forell, S., & McDonald, H. M. (2014). Reshaping leal assistance
services: building on the evidence base. Sydney: Law and Justice Foundation of New
South Wales.
Pollock, J. (2012). Recent Studies Compare Full Representation to Limited Assistance in
Eviction Cases. Housing Law Bulletin , 42, 72-80.
Prevention, Triage and Referral Working Group. (2013). Responding Early, Responding Well:
Access to Justice through the Early Resolution Services Sector. Action Committee on
Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters.
Pruitt, L. R., & Showman, B. E. (2014, August). Law Stretched Thin: Access to Justice in Rural
America. UC Davis Legal Studies Research Paper Series . California.
Queensland Association of Independent Legal Services Inc. (2014). Queensland community
legal centres' use of technology. Queensland Association of Independent Legal Services
Inc.
Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House Incorporated. (2013). Sharing the Menu:
Perspectives and Data from the Legal Health Check.
Rae, J. (2009). Program delivery devolution? A stepping stone or quagmire for First Nations.
Indigenous Law Journal , 7 (2), 1-44.
Rahman, S. (2011). Mapping the Gap. Vancouver: West Coast Leaf.
Regenstein, M., Teitelbaum, J., Sharac, J., & Phyu, E. (2015). Medical-Legal Partnership and
Health Centers: Addressing Patients Health-Harming Civil Legal Needs as Part of
Primary Care. The National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership.
Reid, G., & Malcolmson, J. (2008). Voices from the field: Needs mapping self-help services in
rural and remote communities. Supreme Court Self-help Information Centre (SHIC)
Advisory Committee.
Rich, N. (2009). Reclaiming Community Legal Centres: Maximising our potential so we can
help our clients realise theirs. Victoria Law Foundation Community Legal Centre
Fellowship 2007-8: Final Report, Consumer Action Law Centre.
South Ottawa Community Legal Services. (2014). 2013 Impact Report. Ottawa.
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providers, and the role of Friendship Centres. In J. White, & J. Bruhn (Eds.), Aboriginal
Policy Research Volume 8: Exploring the Urban Landscape (pp. 89-101). Ottawa:
Thompson Education Publishing.
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Envisioning equal justice. Canadian Bar Association.
FINAL REPORT
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Sullivan, M. P., Parenteau, P., Dolansky, D., Leon, S., & Le Clair, J. K. (2007). Shared geriatric
mental health care in a rural community. Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine , 12 (1),
22-29.
Teufel, J., Goffinet, D., Land, D., & Thorne, W. (2014). Rural Health Systems and Legal Care:
Opportunities for Initiating and Maintaining Legal Care After the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act. Journal of Legal Medicine , 81-111.
The Ontario Rural Council. (2008). Roundtable Report on "Linguistic and Rural Access to
Justice". Guelph.
Trubek, L. G. (1998). Reinvigorating Poverty Law-Practice: Sites, Skills and Collaborations.
Fordham Urban Law Journal , 25, 801-811.
Walkem, A. (2007). Building bridges: Improving legal services for Aboriginal peoples.
Vancouver: Legal Services Society.
Younes, M. (2004). Accessibility of French Language Services in the Ottawa Region for
Francophone Women and French-Speaking Immigrant Women Who are Victims of
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Comit Rseau.
Zalik, Y. (2006). Aboriginal people and access to legal information. Community Legal
Education Ontario.
Zuckerman, B. (2012). Medicine and Law: New Opportunities to Close the Disparity Gap.
Pediatrics , 130 (5), 943-944.
Walkem, A. (2007). Building bridges: Improving legal services for Aboriginal peoples.
Vancouver: Legal Services Society.
Zalik, Y. (2006). Aboriginal peoples and access to legal information. Community Legal
Education Ontario.
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 169
APPENDIX V:
STAFF FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS

Go around: Please introduce yourself, your role at the legal clinic and how long youve been at
the clinic.
1. Who does your Clinic serve? Have the demographics of your clients changed over the last
five years? How do you anticipate it to change in the next 5 years?
2. Based on your experience working with low-income individuals and communities, what
poverty law issues are your clients most concerned about? What issues do they seek
assistance for?
a. OW/ODSP
b. Tenancy
c. Immigration
d. Employment
e. Other
2. What areas of law is the clinic not offering services in that would be important to you or
your community?
3. What proportion of your clients have just one legal issue in their file? What tools do you
use to find out about the other legal issues? What tools could be implemented to help
identify multiple legal issues?
Prompt for an intake manual, red-flagging system, legal health checklist,
4. What legal issues are your Clinic unable to meet, within or outside of the clinics
mandate? What are the barriers to addressing them?
5. How are clients currently accessing services phone, in person, workshops and to
what degree do they rely on one method of interaction over the other? How would you
imagine doing things differently in ways that would increase client access? How would
you see technology playing a bigger role in client access?
6. What are some of the barriers that clients face in accessing services? (Prompt for What
can the Clinic do to help overcome some of these barriers?
7. In your experience, what service expectations do your clients have of your Clinic?
Proximity to clinic, be seen within a specific time frame, language supports. What is the
impact on service delivery?
8. What of these expectations are you able to meet and not meet? What are the barriers to
addressing them?
9. What are the successful ways that the Clinic is able to address clients challenges and
barriers to accessing services? How can access to services improve?
a. How does your staff use technology? Are there barriers to making the best use of
technology in your clinic?
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PAGE | 170

10. What else does your clinic do well? Where is there room for improvement and what
would they look like? Staffing, location, services, partnerships
11. How would you describe the culture of the Clinic? Formal and informal working
environment
12. From your experience, what are the main issues facing your Clinic at this time and what
are the barriers to addressing them?
13. Are there any structural or organizational issues that create barriers for clients to access
services? How can these be overcome? Are there opportunities for service improvement
that you would like to capture?
14. Is the location of the legal clinic and/or its satellites in a good location accord to travel
and accessibility of your community? Is it easy to get to for clients? Is it important for it
to be physically accessible to clients?
15. What impact does non-legal staff have on the clinic and service delivery? What other
kinds of expertise would help you serve your clients and communities better?
16. Are there significant differences between the ways services are delivered to urban clients
versus rural clients?
17. (Some clinics do not have French population, some are bilingual) Are clinics able to
provide a generally bilingual environment for clients? What impact does that have? Are
there barriers to providing good service on a bilingual basis? What are those barriers?
18. How have you collaborated with other clinics? What have you learned about
collaborating with other clinics? What have been some of the challenges? What have
been the success factors?
19. How have you collaborated with other agencies? What have you learned about
collaborating with other agencies? What are the key agencies that your clinic partners
with? What have been some challenges? What have been the success factors? (Prompt:
referral patterns)
20. What is your clinic currently doing to raise client awareness of legal issues, clinics, and
other available resources. How effective are these strategies?
21. Tell us how different staff skills and expertise are used at your clinic. What other ways
could your staff skills be used? (i.e. one staff who is good with technology?)
22. Is there one thing above all that you would change to make the Legal Clinic more
effective? What would that be?
23. Is there one thing above all that must be preserved to keep the Legal Clinic effective?
What would that be?
24. As you may know, ten legal clinics across Eastern and Central Ontario are participating
in this same process, on this region-wide scale, what improvements could you see in the
legal clinic system? How can this process facilitate positive change?
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 171
APPENDIX VI:
CLIENT FOCUS GROUP QUESTIONS

Go around: Please introduce yourself and where you live.
1. What legal issues are you or your family and friends, and people in your community
most concerned about?
Prompt for
OW/ODSP/EI
Landlord/Tenant
Employment
Immigration
Affidavits
Family
Criminal
2. Which of these issues are covered by your legal clinic? Which are not covered?
3. Can you get help with those areas of law from other resources? What areas of law have
very little or no resources in your community?
4. What type of service did you receive? Was this the type of service that was needed?
Prompt for
Information on phone
Appointment with lawyer/CLW
Forms filled/signed
Referral to another agency
Advice
Other
5. How effective was the support that you received?

a. What did you like about the support you received?
b. What would have improved the support you received? (time with lawyer, meeting
in person, area of law not covered by clinic)
6. What do you expect from a legal clinic? How do they meet your expectations?
7. How do you find out about the legal services and supports available to you and your
friends/neighbours/family?
Prompt for
Word of mouth
Referral from other agency
Storefront sign
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 172
Online (clinic website, Facebook, twitter)

Other (ex. Radio)
8. How would you know you have a legal issue?

9. What are some other ways that the legal clinic could let more people know about their
services and about legal rights in the community?
10. It is important to the legal clinics that they maintain their community presence. Who
does your clinic serve? What do you consider your community?
11. How do you currently get services from the legal clinic?
Prompt for
Over the phone
Through the website
In-person (either satellites or main offices)
Workshops/PLE (self-representation)
a. Which method do you prefer?
b. How effective have you found each of them to be?
12. What are some of the challenges and barriers you have in accessing legal clinic services?
13. What can the legal clinic do to help overcome some of these barriers?
14. Is the service youre able to get appropriate to the language you speak?
15. How long does it take for you to get to the clinic/satellite? How do you get there?
16. What impact does travel have on your access to service?
Prompt for
Travel times
Distance
Cost
Transit/lack of transit
Ties to more than one community
17. How important is the location of the legal clinic for you? (prompt for why/why not in
each of the following)
a. Is the location of the legal clinic and/or its satellite offices in a good location? Is it
easy to get to? (Prompt for transit vs. driving and travel patterns)
b. Would the location be more attractive if the legal clinic were to move closer to
other programs and services?
c. Would the location be more attractive if the legal clinic shared physical space
with other programs and services like a CHC or Hub?
d. Are there any programs and services that would be problematic to share space
with? What would they look like?
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 173

18. What impact could non-lawyer staff have on the way you experience support from legal
clinics? Are there any non-lawyer staff that could have a positive impact on your
experiences with the legal clinic?
Prompt for
Aspirational social worker, mental health worker, social services worker,

housing worker
19. What benefits or challenges would you face if your legal clinic used technology more?
a. Video-conferencing with your lawyer/legal clinic staff
b. Enhanced website or more work online
c. Increased social media presence
d. Costs for all of the above?
20. What other services are important in your community? Prompt for CHC, employment
centre, mental health agencies, etc.
21. Do you have any suggestions for improvements to service delivery for the clinic?
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 174
APPENDIX VII:
CLIENT SURVEY
Welcome to our survey!
You've probably been asked to do this survey by someone at your local community
legal clinic. In East and Central Ontario, 10 community legal clinics are working together
to make sure more people have access to their services and are getting the help they
need.
As a client, your experiences with your local community legal clinic are very important.
By doing this survey you'll be helping us make the right choices when finding new ways
to serve our clients.
Your responses to this survey will be kept completely confidential.
To learn more about the work we're doing, please visit www.ecrtp.ca or ask for an
ECRTP project hand-out from your clinic. We also send out a monthly newsletter by
email, which you can sign up for here: www.ecrtp.ca/newsletters.
Thank you!
QUESTIONS
1) Which community legal clinic do you use?
[]
Renfrew Community Legal Clinic (Renfrew County)
[]
Northumberland Community Legal Centre (Cobourg)
[]
Clinique juridique Stormont, Dundas et Glengarry (Cornwall)
[]
Peterborough Community Legal Centre (Peterborough)
[]
Durham Community Legal Clinic (Oshawa)
[]
Kingston Community Legal Clinic (Kingston)
[]
Community Legal Clinic: Simcoe, Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes (Orillia)
[]
Community Advocacy & Legal Centre (Belleville)
[]
Clinique juridique de Prescott et Russell (Hawkesbury)
[]
The Legal Clinic: Lanark, Leeds & Grenville, Northern Frontenac, Northern
Lennox & Addington (Sharbot Lake)
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 175

2) What city or town do you live in?
_________________________________________________
3) What legal issues are you, your family and friends, or people in your community most
concerned about?
Please select all that apply.
[]
Income maintenance (OW or ODSP)
[]
Seniors issues (CPP, OAS, wills and estates)
[]
Employment issues (workplace safety, employment standards, EI, etc.)
[]
Housing issues (whether you're a tenant or a home owner)
[]
Immigration
[]
Human rights (harassment, discrimination, etc.)
[]
Violence/abuse (criminal injuries, domestic violence, etc.)
[]
Family
[]
Criminal
[]
Other: _________________________________________________
4) Do you have trouble getting help in any of these areas of law?

[]
Income maintenance (OW or ODSP)
[]
Seniors issues (CPP, OAS, wills and estates)
[]
Employment issues (workplace safety, employment standards, EI, etc.)
[]
Housing issues (whether you're a tenant or a home owner)
[]
Immigration
[]
Human rights (harassment, discrimination, etc.)
[]
Violence/abuse (criminal injuries, domestic violence, etc.)
[]
Family
[]
Criminal
[]
Other: _________________________________________________
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 176

a. What troubles did you have getting help in the areas of law you selected?
[]
The legal clinic does not provide help with this type of law
[]
Theres nowhere to go in my community to get help with this type of law
[]
I did not want to ask for help in an area of law (embarrassment or stigma)
[]
It is difficult to travel to get the legal help I needed
[]
I did not know I had a legal issue
[]
I did not know where to get legal help
[]
I did not know about the legal clinic
[]
My income was too high so I did not qualify for legal help
[]
Language barriers
[]
Other barriers (no phone, etc.):

_________________________________________________
5) What type of legal help did you receive?

[]
Information on phone
[]
Appointment with a lawyer, CLW, or other legal worker
[]
Forms filled/signed
[]
Referral to another agency
[]
Advice
[]
Representation
[]
Public Legal Education (PLE)
[]
Other: _________________________________________________
6) Was that the help you needed?
[]
Yes
[]
No
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 177

7) What could have improved the help you received?
[]
More information over the phone
[]
More appointments with legal workers
[]
Forms filled/signed
[]
Referrals to other agencies
[]
Advice
[]
Representation
[]
More Public Legal Education (PLE)
[]
Other: _________________________________________________
8) How satisfied were you with the following?

Very
unsatisfied
Unsatisfied
Neutral
Satisfied
Very
satisfied
Outcome of
your case
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
Support of
clinic staff
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
Atmosphere
of clinic
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
Accessibility
of clinic
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
9) How did you find out about the legal services and supports available?
[]
Word of mouth/from a friend
[]
Referral from other agency
[]
Storefront sign
[]
Online (clinic website, Facebook, Twitter)
[]
Yellow Pages
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 178
[]
Other: _________________________________________________
10) How do you currently get services from the legal clinic?
[]
Over the phone
[]
Through the website
[]
In-person at the main office
[]
In-person at a satellite office
[]
Email
[]
Events (workshops, talks, etc.)
11) Which method(s) do you prefer?

[]
Over the phone
[]
Through the website
[]
In-person at the main office
[]
In-person at a satellite office
[]
Email
[]
Events (workshops, talks, etc.)
12) What has made it harder for you to use your clinic's services?
[]
The clinic is not easy to travel to
[]
Getting to the clinic is expensive
[]
I have a hard time getting through to someone at the clinic on the phone
[]
I dont have access to a phone
[]
I have a hard time getting to the clinic during their office hours
[]
They don't cover all of the areas of law I need help with
[]
I can't always see someone at the clinic when I need to
[]
Other: _________________________________________________
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 179

What can the legal clinic do about this?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
13) Is the community legal clinic (or its satellite offices) in a good location?
[]
Yes
[]
No
14) Would there be a better location?
[]
Yes
a. If yes, where and why?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
[]
No
15) Do you think it would be better for the clinic to share space with other programs or
services?
[]
Yes
a. If yes, which ones, and where?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 180
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
[]
No
b. If no, why not? Which programs or services shouldn't share a space with
the community legal clinic?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
16) Are there people other than legal workers who you'd like to see in your community
legal clinic?
[]
Social worker (or social services worker)
[]
Mental health worker
[]
Housing worker
[]
Other (required): _________________________________________________
[]
Other (required): _________________________________________________
[]
Other (required): _________________________________________________
17) Do you think you would get better or worse service if your community legal clinic
used the technologies listed below?
Much worse
Somewhat
Worse
Neutral
Somewhat
better
Much better
Videoconferencing (i.e.
Skype) with legal
clinic staff
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
Social media
(Facebook/Twitter)
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 181
Legal advice by
email
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
Online intake
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
A better clinic
website
[]
[]
[]
[]
[]
THANK YOU!
Thank you for taking our survey! Your responses will be a big help.
Are you interested in receiving updates about the ECRTP? Visit our website at
www.ecrtp.ca or sign up for our monthly newsletter at www.ecrtp.ca/newsletters.
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 182
APPENDIX VIII:
CLIENT SURVEY RESULTS

What legal issues are you, your family and friends, or
people in your community most concerned about?
Percentage of Total Respondants
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Income
mainten
ance
Seniors
issues
Employ
ment
52%
21%
30%
Legal Issue
Housing Immigra
issues
tion
40%
1%
Human
rights
Violence
/abuse
Family
Criminal
Other
24%
25%
26%
17%
9%
Do you have trouble getting help in any of these areas of

law?
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Income
mainten
ance
Seniors
issues
Employ
ment
42%
9%
23%
Legal Issue
FINAL REPORT
Housing Immigra
issues
tion
22%
0%
Human
rights
Violence
/abuse
Family
Criminal
Other
3%
11%
4%
1%
25%
PAGE | 183
What troubles did you have getting help in the areas of law
you selected?
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
The legal Theres I did not

clinic
nowhere want to
does not to go in
ask for
provide
my
help in
help with communi an area
this type ty to get
of law
of law
help
(embar
Troubles
11%
10%
13%
It is
I did not
difficult
know I
to travel
had a
to get the
legal
legal help
issue
I needed
14%
My
I did not I did not income
know
know
was too
Language
where to about the high so I
barriers
get legal
legal
did not
help
clinic
qualify
for
11%
10%
10%
1%
Other
barriers
(no
phone,
etc.)
1%
41%
What type of legal help did you receive?

70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Legal help type
Appointme
nt with a
Forms
Referral to
Informatio
lawyer,
filled/signe
another
CLW, or
n on phone
d
agency
other legal
worker
35%
54%
44%
8%
Advice
Representa
tion
Public
Legal
Education
(PLE)
Other
65%
39%
9%
10%
Was that the help you needed?

No
10%
Yes
90%
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 184
Percentage of Total Participants
What could have improved the help you received?

25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Improvements
More
informati
on over
the
phone
More
appointm
ents with
legal
workers
Forms
filled/sig
ned
Referrals
to other
agencies
24%
14%
1%
8%
Advice
Represen
tation
More
Public
Legal
Educatio
n (PLE)
Other
23%
12%
7%
21%
How satisfied were you with the outcome of your case?

Very unsatisfied
2%
Very satisfied
36%
Unsatisfied
6%
Neutral
33%
Satisfied
23%
How satisfied were you with the support you got from
clinic staff?
Very unsatisfied
Unsatisfied
9%
0%
Neutral
10%
Very
satisfied
57%
FINAL REPORT
Satisfied
24%
PAGE | 185
How satisfied were you with the atmosphere of the clinic?

Very unsatisfied
9%
Unsatisfied
0%
Neutral
7%
Very satisfied
55%
Satisfied
29%
How satisfied were you with the accessibility of the clinic?

Very unsatisfied
9%
Unsatisfied
0%
Neutral
17%
Very satisfied
46%
Satisfied
28%
How did you find out about the legal services and supports
available?
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Method of discovery
FINAL REPORT
Word of
mouth/from a
friend
Referral from
other agency
Storefront
sign
Online (clinic
website,
Facebook,
Twitter)
Yellow Pages
Other
47%
26%
2%
7%
1%
12%
PAGE | 186
Which method(s) do you prefer?

80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Preffered method
Over the
phone
Through the
website
In-person at
the main office
In-person at a
satellite office
Email
Events
(workshops,
talks, etc.)
33%
6%
73%
26%
14%
1%
How do you currently get services from the legal clinic?

70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Service method
Over the
phone
Through the
website
In-person at
the main
office
In-person at
a satellite
office
Email
Events
(workshops,
talks, etc.)
42%
4%
66%
22%
1%
6%
Axis Title
Access barriers
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
I have a
The
Getting
I dont
hard
time
clinic is
to the
have
not easy clinic is getting
access
to travel expensiv through
to a
to
to
e
phone
someo
Access barriers
30%
16%
12%
3%
FINAL REPORT
I have a
They
I can't
hard
don't
always
time
cover all
see
getting
of the
someon Other
to the
areas of e at the
clinic
law I
clinic
during need when I
12%
12%
3%
22%
PAGE | 187
Is the community legal clinic (or its satellite offices) in a

good location?
No
4%
Yes
96%
Would there be a better location?

Yes
20%
No
80%
Do you think it would be better for the clinic to share

space with other programs or services?
No
48%
FINAL REPORT
Yes
52%
PAGE | 188
Are there people other than legal workers who

you'd like to see in your community legal clinic?
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Professionals
Social worker (or social

services worker)
Mental health worker
Housing worker
56%
28%
41%
Do you think you would get better or worse service

if your community legal clinic used videoconferencing?
Much worse
3%
Much better
Somewhat worse
18%
7%
Somewhat better
27%
Neither worse
nor better
45%

if your community legal clinic used Social Media?
Much better
13%
Much
worse
24%
Somewhat
better
35%
Somewhat worse
8%
Neither worse nor
better
20%
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 189

if your community legal clinic used email to give
legal advice?
Much
worse
7%
Somewhat worse
6%
Much better
23%
Neither worse nor
better
24%
Somewhat better
40%

if your community legal clinic did intake online?
Much better
25%
Somewhat better
19%
Much worse
11%
Somewhat worse
11%
Neither worse
nor better
34%

if your community legal clinic enhanced their
website?
Much better
19%
Much worse
1%
Somewhat better
19%
FINAL REPORT
Somewhat worse
2%
Neither
worse nor
better
59%
PAGE | 190
APPENDIX IX:
COMMUNITY PARTNER KEY

INFORMANT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Tell me a bit about your organization, your catchment and your communities (the people
in this area that you represent/serve/belong to a community with)
2. Prompt for demographic breakdown, languages, ages, employment, and geographic
clusters.
3. What are your communitys needs and how have they changed in the last 5 years? How
do you expect them to change in the upcoming 5 years?
4. Prompt for housing, food security, income, education, disabilities, etc.
5. For populations with these types of needs, what types of services exist to support them?
6. Are there gaps in services to respond to your clients needs? What is needed to fill these
gaps?
a. Are there specific underserved populations, whether in or outside your scope of
service?
7. How does your community interact with your community legal clinic? (programs,
satellites, services, outreach etc.)
a. Do they interact with the other clinics and if so how?
b. How could the local CLC improve their relationship with your organization to
provide better services for residents?
8. In your opinion, what does your CLC do well? What can it do to improve?
9. In your opinion, what are the benefits of having your legal clinic in the community? And
to having satellite locations in the community? (if any exist)
10. In terms of geography, where do your clients live? How does distance impact on your
clients ability to access services? Do they deal mostly with their local clinic?
11. The literature review found that Francophone clients will often opt for services in
English, even where French language services are available, because of barriers they may
face, such as incurred costs, lack of FLS throughout all levels of the court, or not wanting
to displease service providers. Can you comment on your experiences in this area?
12. How do Aboriginal residents access services (either legal or other)? Are there things that
agencies can do to make themselves more accessible to these populations?
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 191

13. As you may know, an itinerant model of service delivery is one where the service is not
necessarily fixed at one location, such as a satellite. Instead, key partnerships within
various communities allow for staff to work out of partner offices, but also allow for
flexibility to respond to shifting community needs. What would be the impact in the
community if the clinic were to become part of an itinerant model of service delivery?
a. If your clinic already has satellites: How could the community legal clinic
facilitate more access to their satellites/get the word out about their satellites?
b. If your clinic does not have satellites: What types of supports or accommodations
would be needed to ensure that the full range of CLC services remains accessible
for clients?
c. Apart from satellites, what are some other ways that legal clinics could reach
their rural populations?
14. In your experience, what can your community legal clinic do, and what can the other
community legal clinics do, to:
a. Reach more residents/improve access to justice;
b. Provide services that reflect the needs of the community;
c. Provide greater, quality service for clients including better continuum of service;
d. Work better with other organizations in the area.
15. Do you think the use of technology would be accessible to your community? For
example, online intake systems, or video conferencing?
16. How well do you think self-representation would work in your community?
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 192
APPENDIX X:
BOARD MEMBER KEY QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Tell me a bit about your catchment and your communities (the people in this area that you
represent/serve/belong to a community with)
Prompt for demographic breakdown, languages, ages, employment, and geographic
clusters.
2. What are your communitys needs and how have they changed in the last 5 years? How do
you expect them to change in the upcoming 5 years?
Prompt for housing, food security, income, education, disabilities, etc.
3. For populations with these types of needs, what types of services exist to support them?
(legal and other)
4. Are there gaps in services to respond to your clients needs? What is needed to fill these
gaps?
a. Are there specific underserved populations, whether in or outside your scope of service?
5. How does your community interact with your community legal clinic? (programs, satellites,
services, outreach etc.)
a. Do they interact with the other clinics and if so how?
b. How could the local CLC improve their relationship with organizations in the community
to provide better services for residents?
6. In your opinion, what does your CLC do well? What can it do to improve?
7. In your opinion, what are the benefits of having your legal clinic in the community? And to
having satellite locations in the community? (if satellites exist)
8. In terms of geography, where do your clients live? How does distance impact on your clients
ability to access services? Do they deal mostly with their local clinic?
9. The literature review found that Francophone clients will often opt for services in English,
even where French language services are available, because of barriers they may face, such
as incurred costs, lack of FLS throughout all levels of the court, or not wanting to displease
service providers. Can you comment on your experiences in this area?
10. How do Aboriginal residents access services (either legal or other)? Are there things that
agencies can do to make themselves more accessible to these populations?
11. As you may know, an itinerant model of service delivery is one where the service is not
necessarily fixed at one location, such as a satellite. Instead, key partnerships within various
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 193

communities allow for staff to work out of partner offices, but also allow for flexibility to
respond to shifting community needs. What would be the impact in the community if the
clinic were to become part of an itinerant model of service delivery?
a. If your clinic already has satellites: How could the community legal clinic facilitate more
access to their satellites/get the word out about their satellites?
b. If your clinic does not have satellites: What types of supports or accommodations would
be needed to ensure that the full range of CLC services remains accessible for clients?
c. Apart from satellites, what are some other ways that legal clinics could reach their rural
populations?
12. In your experience, what can your community legal clinic do, and what can the other
community legal clinics do, to:
a. Reach more residents/improve access to justice;
b. Provide services that reflect the needs of the community;
c. Provide greater, quality service for clients including better continuum of service;
d. Work better with other organizations in the area.
13. Do you think the use of technology would be accessible to your community? For example,
online intake systems, or video conferencing?
14. How well do you think self-representation would work in your community?
15. What are some ways that your clinic can collaborate with other legal clinics, either
community legal clinics or specialty clinics (prompt for ACE, CLEO, etc.)
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 194
APPENDIX XI:
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KEY

INFORMANT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
UNDERSTANDING CLIENTS AND THE COMMUNITY
1. Who does your clinic currently serve? Have you seen changes in who youre serving over
the last 5 years? 1 year? What changes do you expect in the upcoming 5 years?
2. How is your clinic dealing with the changing demographics of your catchment area?
3. From your perspective, what are the major issues facing people in your catchment area?
How is your clinic able to address these issues?
4. Are there client needs that your clinic is unable to meet? What are they and what are the
barriers to addressing them?
5. Who would you say is facing the greatest challenges to accessing support from your
clinic?
6. Please describe the ways that your clinic facilitates linguistic access to clinic services.
7. How does travel impact on client access to clinic services?
8. How do clients access your clinic? If you were to estimate, what percentage would be
walk-in? What percentage would be by appointment? By phone?
9. What kind of outreach/PLE does your clinic do? How do you raise awareness about legal
rights and about your clinic?
10. Please describe the ways that your clinic facilitates rural access to clinic services.
11. Describe ways that your clinic facilitates access to clinic services for Aboriginal
populations, both on and off reserve?
12. Do you have any formal or informal partnerships with other organizations? If yes, who
are they and what is the nature of your partnership?
13. What role do you see partnerships with other organizations playing in the future of your
clinic?
14. Describe the social service structure of your community. Who are the major players and
how to services interact? What are the priorities for your community as a whole?
GENERAL ORGANIZATION
15. How long has your clinic been operating?
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 195

16. What is the mission and focus of your legal clinic? How does it differ from others in this
initiative? Across Eastern and Central Ontario?
17. What is your role in your clinic? How has your role changed since you started?
18. What is the staffing make-up in your clinic? What gaps have you identified that impact
service provision?
19. How would you describe the culture of your clinic?
20. What does your clinic do well? What are the aspects of your clinic that are not working as
well?
21. Are there services that you would like to see your clinic provide? What are they and have
you taken any steps towards implementation?
22. From your perspective, what are the main issues facing your clinic at this time? What are
the barriers to addressing these issues?
23. What major issues should be considered during the planning and implementation of this
process?
24. How does your clinic use technology?
PROCESS
25. What made you think it would be useful for your clinic to participate in this process?
26. What external elements are influencing this process and need to be considered?
27. What would constitute success for this initiative? What are some key components to
achieving this success?
28. What do you hope this process does not do? What are the possible bad outcomes or bad
processes that should be avoided?
29. What would constitute success for LAO? What would be seen as a failure by LAO?
30. What would constitute success for your clinic?
31. What are there particular challenges/issues that you hope this process will address?
What are the challenges that are important to address, but cant be with this process?
32. What are the opportunities you hope to secure with this process? What are the
opportunities that cant be secured with this process?
33. What would you and your staff see as signs that this process has been a bad choice?
34. Is there anything in particular that we should know about your CMT data? For example,
do you take down postal codes, do you document referrals, etc.
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 196

35. We have the capacity do a limited number of key informant interviews and focus groups.
Who are the key people/groups that you feel must be included?
36. Is there anything that you would like to add that we have not spoken about, or that I have
not asked?
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 197
APPENDIX XII:
BACK OFFICE INTEGRATION

STRATEGIES
DEFINITION
Back-office integration refers to a consolidation of mostly administrative functions and
resources between agencies that are collaborating in some form. This may include shared space,
co-location, or separate offices. The functions that are consolidated are usually financial
accounting, human resources, administration, and policy and/or governance functions.
Generally, the expectation is that duplicate functions will be reduced, and any savings (staff
time, hard costs, or other resources) can be redirected to the substantive functions of the agency
or agencies.
MODELS OF BACK-OFFICE INTEGRATION

HAMILTON COMMUNITY LEGAL CLINIC MERGER
Three clinics merged into one location, therefore all back-office functions were merged.
Saved on auditing (2.4K). saved on accommodation (74K). and saved in utilities, travel,
audit, and equipment (37K).
They were also able to acquire new funding through new services and projects.
Saw increase in cases opened, increase in outreach, and decrease in referrals (no need to
refer to other legal clinics).
Expanded partnerships because they were able to hire a part-time community

development coordinator with savings. This helped reach out to previously underserved
populations (ex: Aboriginal peoples) and increased coordination between agencies.
Financial reporting to LAO was easier. Board representation also improved since they
added more pre-requisites, and were able to get representatives from more groups. They
were also able to become designated bilingual. Finally, they could better their reporting on
client statistics.
Saw more staff time spent on service delivery and less staff time spent on administration
(See Figure 1).
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 198

FIGURE 18
HCLC Staff Time Pre vs. Post Merger

30
3.6
25
20
# of FTE Staff 15
6.2
23.6
10
5
FTEs dedicated to
Management/Internal Services
13.8
FTEs dedicated to Service

Delivery
0
2008-09
Year
2012-13
Goss Gilroy Inc. (2014) Review of Clinic Mergers: Final Report
SPECIALTY CLINIC MODERNIZATION PROJECT

Speciality clinics in Toronto have been having discussions on amalgamating their offices into
one central office, as well as their back office functions. Some of the key points of this discussion
have been:
Specialty clinics do not serve clients within a particular catchment, but they serve target
populations like children and youth, people with disabilities, or people living with HIV/AIDS.
The legal clinics anticipate savings in their accommodation costs, and the ability to increase
efficiency.
From a colocation, the participating clinics also hope to increase collaboration and knowledge
sharing between clinics. With savings they hope to invest in new information technology.
In this process, once the clinics decided to collocate, they worked together to design a space that
would best suit the needs of all the clinics, as well as facilitate collaboration.
In the projects next steps the clinics will be starting to investigate office locations and review
landlords.
NORTHWEST COMMUNITY LEGAL CLINIC MERGER
Maintained 3 main offices and 2 sub-offices, therefore some back-office functions were
merged.
Saved on ED salary (80K) and on bookkeeping (3K) and were therefore able to hire more
service delivery staff and do more outreach, since savings were retained by clinic.
Outreach increased by 126% (82 outreach activities in 2008-09, 185 in 2010-11).
Saw increase in timeliness in working with cases and increased access to clinics.
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 199
Could not draw conclusions about increase in cases opened because of inconsistent
reporting prior to merger.
Financial reporting to LAO was easier. board representation improved since they added
more pre-requisites. were able to become designated bilingual. could better their reporting
on client statistics.
Rent stayed the same, audit costs increased (1.4K) (paid more for auditor because needed a
bigger company).
Saw increase in staff time dedicated to service delivery and less dedicated to
administration (See Figure 2).
FIGURE 19
NWCLC Staff Time Pre vs. Post Merger

12
10
2.1
8
# of FTE Staff
3.2
8.1
4
2
FTEs dedicated to
Management/Internal
Services
FTEs dedicated to Service
Delivery
0
2007-08
Year
2011-12
Goss Gilroy Inc. (2014) Review of Clinic Mergers: Final Report
OTTAWA COMMUNITY LEGAL CLINICS

Three community legal clinics in Ottawa were eager to save on back office functions in order to
redirect more funds to front-line services, PLE and community partnerships. In the beginning,
full amalgamation was discussed as the most viable option but after looking at the physical size
of Ottawa and current accessibility of the clinics, it was decided that merging only back office
functions, and not offices, would be the best choice for clinics.
It was agreed that three offices should remain open, in order to best serve the catchment of
Ottawa, and to keep the levels of accessibility they currently have.
The three clinics is currently working on a process that will merge the back office functions, like
payroll and bookkeeping.
The three clinics will also now be sharing one executive director, and one office manager.
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 200

This project is still underway, however the estimated savings are $300,000.00. These savings
come from early exit packages, creating back office efficiencies and LAOs Financial Eligibility
Guideline funding.
From these savings the clinics are hoping to increase outreach to target populations, such as
Francophones, Aboriginal peoples, and rural populations as well as a more robust community
development and partnership network.
The next step in this process is developing a transition plan to be able to implement changes
smoothly, without affecting client-facing services.
SOUTHWEST COMMUNITY LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION

The clinics participating in the Southwest transformation project met to discuss which areas of
their back office administration they would like to collaborate on or share. They decided on two
different areas where they are hoping to collaborate on, split into two phases:
Phase I: Financial systems, including audit, payroll, bookkeeping and financial filing.
Phase II: Data gathering, including collective purchasing, HR policies and pay equity, CIMS and
data management tools.
They are now in the phase of studying task distribution within clinics, to better understand any
efficiencies that might be available.
The clinics are also looking at optimal practices of completing tasks, some systems can be set up
because thats the way theyve always done it. The clinics are now looking at those systems to
find efficiencies that would be available in introducing different systems.
The goal of the project is that the clinics will distribute the shared tasks amongst the clinics
throughout the region, hoping to reduce overall time spent on such tasks.
LEARNINGS FROM LITERATURE AND OTHER CASE-STUDIES

Back office integration is a relatively new trend, therefore we also reached into disciplines
outside of community legal clinics for any learnings that can be found. The studies and
initiatives researched were the Toronto Neighbourhood Centres, CANES community services,
Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia and Addiction and Mental Health
Ontario. A common set of key learnings arose from almost all of the studies and scenarios,
regardless of the sizes or diversity of the organization involved, or of their relative success:
Clearly defined governance, with clearly defined roles and goals, should be decided at the
very beginning of the process.
Clear communication between, and consistent engagement of, all stakeholders and
everyone involved is key to a successful process.
A project manager, particularly a consultant or someone external to the agencies
involved, should be assigned at the beginning.
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 201
THE TORONTO NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRES (TNC)4
In 2013, TNC looked at various shared services models and their costs and benefits.
They stressed the importance of collaboration between agencies, especially in an

environment of underfunding and cuts.
They explored the costs and benefits, financially and otherwise, and the learnings from a
number of case studies.
CANES
Collaboration between CANES Community Services, Community Care Partners and the
CCAC to expand delivery of home-care to seniors in larger area.
Cost savings through shared purchasing, resources, and training.
Expanded outreach larger geographical scope, reached more seniors.
Found savings in staff benefits, together (not much detail):
Redirected 100k into services.
Shared IT plans meant they could afford more expensive, effective software they couldnt
previously afford.
Joint trainings and supply purchases resulted in 5-10% savings.
ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBOURHOOD HOUSES BRITISH COLUMBIA
One Association is the central office for eight houses and serves other private settlement
houses.
Central suite of services:

o
Accounting.
Payroll.
Budgeting.
HR.
Strategic planning.
Turnbull, R. (2013). Exploring Shared Service Models: A Cost/Benefit Analysis. Toronto Neighbourhood Centres,
Toronto.
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 202

o
Board management.
Training.
Records management.
Event planning.
Streamlined operations and created efficiencies.
Each agency is saving approximately $85,000-$90,000 by sharing these back office

functions.
Additional resources used to enhance service delivery.
Initiatives for group purchasing of food supplies, office supplies, equipment, IT services,
insurance and a voicemail system through leveraging buying power with a common
vendor.
Each house has an administrative staff complement that is half of what it would be if there
was n0t a central office.
Challenges/drawbacks:
o
Disconnect between houses and central office.
Some houses feel theyre subsidizing other ones because of varying membership fee
revenue.
Reaching consensus in decision making, although easier when priorities align
Managing the politics.
ADDICTION AND MENTAL HEALTH ONTARIO
Amalgamation of Addiction Ontario and Ontario Federation of Mental Health and

Addiction programs.
...shared back office functions, areas that have been improved are: communications,
providing advice to government and cross-organizational support of each others work.
Importantly, the needs of clients supersede organizational self-interest. This means a
principled approach putting aside organizational requirements and self-interest in order to
benefit the system as a whole. In this case, the focus of the collaborative mandate was
people, community, and the broader determinants of health. (p24)
Benefits (p25):
o
Role efficiencies clearly defined roles.
Standardization of processes.
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 203

o
IT support.
Facility, space and office management.
Sharing of finance and administration.
Were able to affect policy change and access additional funding.
Staff positions were not eliminated or made redundant no excess capacity to eliminate:
future possibility for shared positions like reception.
Mergers require substantial upfront costs for organizational infrastructure (training, skills
development, software, IT, facilities) cost savings will take a while and depend on the
success of the merger and its maintenance.
CHALLENGES OF MERGING FUNCTIONS FROM LITERATURE
In the community legal clinic sector agency mergers or back office amalgamations are
relatively new strategies. In some cases, like Hamilton and Northwest
In the general non-profit field there were a number of other concerns that have been
brought up in the literature. Some of these concerns are:
There is the concern of one agency being overtaken by the other in a merger, especially if
one of the agencies is larger than the other(s).
Clashing organizational cultures which can strongly affect staff morale.
Resistance from boards, who sometimes are concerned that mergers take the focus away
from the mandate of the agency.
Changing relationships between agencies, who can be competitors to partners.
Larger organizations do not inherently mean more efficiency, sometimes efficiency lowers
since there is more bureaucracy involved.
Mergers take time, patience, and perseverance. All of these take resources form the agency
to implement the new system.
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 204
APPENDIX XIII:
INCREASED RELATIONSHIP WITH LAO

The following are some models to consider in looking at models for an increased relationship
with LAO.
COLOCATION
This model involves full colocation with an LAO office. This means one office location, one
reception and one intake process. Although there are some examples of clinics and LAO offices
being located in the same building, like Durham Community Legal Clinic, there are no current
examples of a clinic and an LAO office sharing space and reception.
BENEFITS
CHALLENGES
Ease of access it offers to clients. In

this model, clients could access the legal
service hub and get services for more issues
that low-income populations struggle with,
like income maintenance, housing issues,
family law or criminal law.
Relocation. One agency or another would

need to relocate which is a significant
transition for clinics and clinic staff and
potential disruption of services for clients.
Increase in communication. This would

mean greater communication between LAO
and CLCs, and also increase in trust of the
work that each agency does.
Clinic cultures. One concern has been

that the cultures are not compatible and a
colocation would lead to potential culture
clashes.
Power dynamics. The power dynamics at
play in the relationship between funder and
clinic has also been named as a barrier.
LAO LAWYER SATELLITE IN CLINIC

This model relies on the community legal clinic continuing to offer services from their office, but
with scheduled satellite office for visiting LAO lawyers. In this model, an LAO lawyer who
delivers family law services could visit a community legal clinic at scheduled times, like once a
month, to offer their services. Some of the community legal clinics that have a partnership
similar to this is South Ottawa Community Legal Services, the Northumberland Community
Legal Clinic and Rexdale Community Legal Clinic.
FINAL REPORT
PAGE | 205

BENEFITS
CHALLENGES
One location of access. Clients can

access services for more areas of law in one
place, making it easier for people who have
difficulty travelling to multiple offices.
Office hours. Since the LAO lawyer offers

services only on specified dates, clients
might meet the frustration of visiting when
the lawyer is not there. One key would be
making sure the LAO hours are consistent.
Increase in communication. This would

mean greater communication between LAO
and CLCs, and also increase in trust of the
work that each agency does.
Space constraints. Many offices have very

limited space as is, and might find it
challenging to create space for another
person, even if infrequent.
PROXIMITY AND WARM AND ACTIVE REFERRALS

A model that supports LAO-CLC referrals would maintain each agencies respective offices, but
would facilitate ease of referrals between the two. This would mean the development and
maintenance of a formalized partnership agreement, and potentially supporting systems like a
common intake system. Although not using a common intake system, Durham Community
Legal Clinic and the LAO office located close by are active in their mutual referrals.
BENEFITS
CHALLENGES
Referral follow-through. Clients are

more likely to follow-through with a referral
if it is warm.
Lower accessibility for clients. In the

social service system, clients tend to be
bounced from agency to agency, which
would be a factor in this model.
Access to other areas of law. Through

this model clients can get help in areas of
law that clinics do not provide, like family
law and criminal law.
FINAL REPORT
Office confusion. Some who use this

model have said that clients frequently
confuse the two agencies and travel to one
when their appointment was at another.
PAGE | 206
Clinic
RCLC
Kingston
CALC
NCLC
Durham
PETE
SHKCLC
Ottawa
TLC
CJPR
SDGCLC
Location
Pembroke
Renfrew
Kingston
Frontenac
Belleville
Napanee
Lennox & Addington
Cobourg
Northumberland
Oshawa
Durham
Peterborough
Lindsay
Barrie
Bracebridge
Muskoka
Parry Sound
Simcoe
Victoria-Haliburton
Ottawa
Perth
Brockville
Lanark
Leeds - Grenville
Prescott-Russell
Cornwall
SDG
FINAL REPORT
DC
Operation
Criminal
DC
Operation
Civil
DC
Operation
Family
Area
Office
LAO services
District
Per Diem
Office
DC
Family
Law
Services
Office
Criminal
Law
Office
Integrated
Legal
Services
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
PAGE | 207

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FINAL REPORT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH SUMMARIES ................................................................... 64

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

ISSUES & OPTIONS................................................................................................... 103

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 126

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

COMMUNITY RESOURCE MAPS

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

BACK OFFICE STUDY

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT

COLLABORATION BETWEEN CLINICS

OUTREACH TO UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION

Renfrew County Legal Clinic (Renfrew Renfrew County)

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

LEGAL AID ONTARIO STRATEGIES FOR MEETING NEEDS

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

TRANSFORMATION PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

Clinic capacity assessment

QUANTITATIVE DATA GATHERING AND ANALYSIS

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

COMMUNITY RESOURCE MAPPING

KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEWS

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

BACK OFFICE STUDY

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

MULTIPLE SITES OF ACCESS

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

Income Tax Law

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

*Points indicated in pink represent First Nations reserves.

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

COMMUNITY RESOURCE MAPPING

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT

GENERAL SERVICE DELIVERY

THE EAST AND CENTRAL REGION LEGAL CLINIC TRANSFORMATION PROJECT