How is SALCO delivering legal services?

1.  Legal Aid Services

In October 2002, SALCO received project funding from Legal Aid Ontario, which paid for a lawyer and a community legal worker for 12 months.  The specific focus of the LAO project is to provide legal services in 1) Immigration/Refugee Law and 2) Social Welfare/Assistance Law.  SALCO has received numerous calls and clients since it began offering legal services to the public in January 2003. 

2.  SALCO Pro Bono Project

In February 2002, SALCO began working with PBLO on a project to recruit private practice lawyers to help with summary advice and legal education.  The main objective of the SALCO Pro Bono Project was to improve access to justice for low-income South Asians.  By working with PBLO, SALCO has been able to recruit private bar lawyers to deliver services to clients who are currently unable to access justice through the current systems. 

This project is in full operation, and has been extremely well received, with approximately 60 lawyers attending the first training session in July 2002.  To date the project has already delivered over five legal clinics across various partner sites throughout the city.   Most importantly this project has served over 700 clients. 

3.  Legal Education

SALCO has partnered with a large number of diverse agencies throughout the GTA to better understand the legal issues facing their clientele.  SALCO has been developing customized legal education seminars based on the needs of the partner agency.