Reach Out & Connect (2014-15)
With funding from the Victoria Law Foundation, our Reach Out & Connect project enabled us to ramp up the number of community legal education sessions we delivered in 2014-5. It also gave us the opportunity to ask young people two very important questions: is our community legal education program effective and how could we make it more effective?
Over the course of 12 months, we delivered over 40 community legal education sessions to over 1000 young people across Victoria. We presented sessions to young people from a diverse range of backgrounds, most of whom experienced some form of disadvantage or marginalisation.
We sought feedback from those young people and from teachers and other professionals who support those young people about our education sessions and our resources. We compiled their responses into our Reach Out & Connect Report.
For a copy of the report appendices and any other enquiries about the project, please contact education@youthlaw.asn.au.
Streetsmart guide
“The first interaction with police here … I felt quite invaded. I’d want to know where I legally stand in that situation. I’d want to know how to remove myself from that situation.”
– Justin (not his real name), age 18
Would you know what to do if a police officer ordered you to move on? What if a Protective Services Officer asked you for your name and address? Can a ticket inspector arrest you? Can a security guard search your bag without your consent?
Youthlaw answers these questions and more with Streetsmart: a smartphone-friendly website that explains the law in plain English. Designed to be just as easy to use on your smartphone as it is on a tablet or desktop, Streetsmart has all the legal information you need to know about police, PSOs, ticket inspectors and security guards as well as useful tips on how to handle yourself.
Streetsmart was developed in collaboration with young people and design researchers at Paper Giant, a design consultancy based in Melbourne. You can find a copy of the Paper Giant’s research paper compiled during the development of the guide online here.
Youthlaw provides training and legal education on using Streetsmart to school groups or other groups of young people. Given our limited resources, we generally target young people who are disengaged or are at risk of disengaging from mainstream education, training or employment (eg. VCAL and alternative learning pathways students).
Use this form to get in touch with us and request a talk, send us an email at education@youthlaw.asn.au, or call us on (03) 9113 9500.
For more information about StreetSmart, head to the website or contact Youthlaw at education@youthlaw.asn.au.
Street Law
In 2014, Youthlaw developed ‘Street Law’ – a series of videos about young people and their rights when dealing with police and Protective Services Officers (PSOs). The videos with links to accompanying fact sheets can be found here.