Establishment of a LGBTIQ+ legal service grant

⁠⁠⁠The Victorian Government committed to establish the legal service, following the 2016 Access to Justice Review (‘the Review’). The Review recommended that legal triage and services be established in the Victorian Pride Centre (VPC) to provide tailored and specialist legal advice to LGBTIQ+ people, and deliver LGBTIQ+ cultural competency training to legal service providers (Rec. 3.6). The Victorian Government committed to delivering this recommendation in its official response to the Review. The commitment is also included in Pride in our future: Victoria’s LGBTIQ+ Strategy 2022-2032.

A grant program has been developed to establish a community-led, specialist LGBTIQ+ Legal Service based in the VPC, with outreach to rural and regional areas.

The LGBTIQ+ specialist legal service, to be based in the Victorian Pride Centre, will comprise:

• a legal advice and casework clinic
• a strategic legal policy program
• a legal education, training and community outreach program to create awareness of legal rights among LGBTIQ+ communities and upskill legal professionals on legal issues and needs for LGBTIQ+ Victorians respectively.

One applicant will be selected to deliver the legal service.

The legal service aims to address current constraints to the provision of specialised legal services to LGBTIQ+ Victorians. This includes providing service offerings that are accessible, able to address the unique legal needs of LGBTIQ+ communities, and meet the current and future demand for services

Disclaimer:

As the Victorian State Election will be held on Saturday 26 November 2022, the Victorian Government will assume a caretaker role from 6:00PM on 1 November 2022 until such time that either it becomes clear that the incumbent government will be returned, or when a new government is commissioned.

In line with the caretaker conventions, the incoming government will determine whether to proceed with this grant process and award the grant after the caretaker period if no executed agreement is in place.

Applicants should be aware that:

• all information about this grant process represents the position of the current government only, and is subject to change; and
• the incoming government may decide to not proceed with this grant process