Brophy Family and Youth Services
Education
A collaborative response to youth disengagement in regional Victoria
Continuing success for Australia’s first embedded school lawyer
Image Vincent Shin, Australia's first school lawyer. Photo: Plgrm Media
"Vincent's openness is one of the reasons the kids at The Grange relate to him so strongly. He's willing to talk frankly about his own experience of family violence." Evonne Maric, school counsellor.
The ABC’s Law Report recently featured Vincent Shin, Australia’s first school lawyer, who is embedded within the The Grange P-12 College at Hoppers Crossing, a school with students from predominantly lower socio-economic backgrounds. The School Lawyer Project is an innovative two-year pilot project for WEstjustice (Western Community Legal Centre formerly Wyndham Legal Service) funded with the assistance of an HMSTrust Community Multi-year grant and has been attracting attention from around the world.
The idea is to provide access to legal assistance for those who wouldn’t otherwise have it, in an environment they are familiar with. The service is available to both students and their families.
“I’ve seen lots of students access his support and I’ve felt really comfortable having someone like that there to be able to help those students with those legal issues, instead of having to access it outside of school,” says school counsellor Evonne Maric.
