A LAWYER previously employed by the Peninsula Community Legal Centre has been awarded for her efforts as a volunteer. Claire Williams was presented with the Kath Neilsen Award for outstanding contribution to the centre at the recent annual volunteer and supporters appreciation dinner. The award is named after Kath Neilsen, a founder and long-term supporter of the centre. It acknowledges a volunteer who has demonstrated a superior understanding of the centre’s values and the principals of social justice; along with a reliable and respectful approach to interactions with our clients. Ms Williams was employed by the centre for six years and has since remained a volunteer. “I found my feet as a lawyer while working at PCLC. The great staff, plus a sense of belonging to a team that are working to end family violence, made the job very rewarding,” Ms Williams said. To support herself through university Ms Williams worked with people with a disability as a part-time job and gained an understanding of the difficulties faced by those with special needs. After leaving PCLC, she worked in a policy role with government and then started her own practice in Frankston Justice Crew Legal Services. Her practice focusses on helping clients have “a low-stress journey through the legal system”. Ms Williams says she is passionate about helping guide people with mental, physical and intellectual disabilities through the legal process. “This can involve many hours acting as a go-between; connecting clients with support services such as psychologists
Aero club tries again for permit change
Award for lawyer’s work as a volunteer
Volunteering lawyer: Peninsula Community Legal Centre director Kate Ross, left, with Kath Neilsen award winner Claire Williams and PCLC CEO Jackie Galloway at the centre’s volunteer and supporters appreciation dinner. Picture: Supplied
and family violence workers.” Ms Williams is one of 120 volunteers who enable the legal centre to run free legal advice sessions at five locations in Melbourne’s the south east. “After 40 years service to the community, the work we do ensuring access to justice for vulnerable
communities, is as important today as ever,” the centre’s CEO Jackie Galloway said. “We are increasingly facing an environment where people’s human rights are being eroded and there are more and more vulnerable members of our community slipping through the safety net.”
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PCLC specialises in family law and family violence, fines and tenancy issues and has offices in Frankston, Rosebud and Frankston North and its lawyers provide outreach services to Chelsea and Hastings. For more information about free legal services, call 9783 3600 or visit www.pclc.org.au.
PENINSULA Aero Club will submit a new application to Mornington Peninsula Shire Council in an attempt to have it lift the ban on flights during the controversial “holy hour”, 9.3010.30am Sundays. Club president Jack Vevers said a knockback would give the club the trigger to bypass the shire and seek a ruling from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. A previous application to the council’s planning services meeting to remove the one hour no-fly ban was withdrawn by the club alarmed at a shire officer’s recommendation to ban take-offs and landings from sunset on Saturdays to 9am Sundays in exchange for the lifting of the “holy hour” ban (“Higher ruling sought on holy hour” The News 29/5/19). “We are giving the council every opportunity to do as they said,” Mr Vevers said. “They asked us to apply to have the holy hour ban removed from our permit and said there were no other problems and that they would approve it. Then they added the sunset Saturday night to 9am Sunday ban which is completely unworkable.” Fearing prosecution, Mr Vevers said the club was forbidding take offs and landings during “holy hour” despite not having observed it for more than 45 years. “The council has already agreed that the ban is obsolete, but then they lumped in the other restrictions,” Mr Vevers said. “We don’t want to break any laws, but we do want our day in court.”
Help us direct the community to you! Is your community group, organisation or service listed in the Mornington Peninsula Community Information Directory? It’s time to update your listing!
Please ensure your organisation’s details are correct by 5pm Tuesday 18 June 2019 to ensure your details are accurate in the printed 2019 Community Information Directory. The quickest way to update your details is by logging on to: mpcommunity.com.au Last year Mornington Peninsula Shire worked closely with local Community Information and Support Centres to develop a new online, searchable version
of the Community Information Directory, where organisations can create their own listing or login to update their listing. The online directory can be found online at: mpcommunity.com.au Not listed yet? Jump online today and create a listing before 5pm Tuesday 18 June 2019. The Community Information Directory only lists not-for-profit organisations. If you are operating a for-profit organisation or business, please register in the business directory: MPBusiness.com.au
For further assistance, please email VMP@mpcommunity.com.au
Western Port News 5 June 2019
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