OUR STORY
The concept for a women’s community legal clinic was the result of many years of research conducted by West Coast Legal Education and Action Fund (West Coast LEAF) culminating in their 2014 report Putting Justice Back on the Map. The report found that massive cuts to legal aid, beginning in 2002, had a devastating, disproportionate impact on women, leaving many to navigate the legal system alone. The report identified the need for affordable, accessible legal services for women in the province, and explored a student clinic as one model for delivering accessible legal services. A partnership with the University of British Columbia was created to provide externship opportunities to their law students. Rise opened as a three-year pilot program based on this model in May 2016.
In this video: Kim Hawkins, founding Executive Director talking about the role of Rise followed by Kasari Govender, BC’s Human Rights Commissioner talking about the beginnings of Rise.
The first two years…
Rise started with three full-time staff, and a student clinic with law students from the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. The team was supported by a dedicated board of directors and community advisory committee. Rise’s mission was to provide accessible legal services that were inclusive of all women, regardless of age, race, culture, religion, sexual orientation and ability, and to provide an innovative and practical learning experience for law students. By the end of December 2017, Rise had worked with 24 student clinicians and served 600 clients in the Lower Mainland.
In this video: Ana Mihajlovic, now a family lawyer, and a Rise alumni (May- August 2016) taking about the opening of Rise and experience as a student clinician.
Innovating client services
In August 2017, Rise created the first iteration of the Virtual Legal Clinic and expanded its services to assist clients living outside of the Lower Mainland. Before virtual meetings became a standard practice, Rise recognized the need for providing virtual (telephone and videoconferencing) legal services to clients in rural, remote and northern communities in BC. Vicky Law spearheaded the Remote Services Project (funded by Law Foundation of BC) to explore best practices in delivering family law service throughout the province. The project was very well received by community organizations, advocates and clients, many of whom would not have access to legal services due to the lack of legal resources in non-urban centres. From August 2017- August 2018, the project reached clients in 23 different communities around the province. Subsequently, the project received additional funding from Face the World Foundation, Health Sciences Association and Vancouver Foundation and eventually the Law Society of BC Access to Justice Fund and is now the Virtual Legal Clinic. The Virtual Legal Clinic introduced a community partner model to client services. Noting the lack of resources for clients in rural, remote, and northern communities, the clinic partnered with community partner organisations to provide wrap-around support to clients. As of 2024, the VLC has over 60 community partners, each with a signed understanding with Rise to provide and accept referrals, and to attend regular training on family law matters.
Start of community-research projects
In addition to expanding client services beyond the Lower Mainland in BC, Rise started it’s first engagement through community-based research in 2017. This research was undertaken with the goal of understanding the challenges faced by clients and providing recommendations for improving existing family law systems. Rise received funding from Women and Gender Equality Canada (then Status of Women Canada) to explore how the family legal system in BC could improve its response to family violence. Rise partnered with the Center for Response-Based Practice for this interdisciplinary project. Three reports were published from the findings of this research project:
Expansion of programs and services
To streamline client services, Rise added a case manager in 2018 to work as a first point of contact with clients reaching out to Rise and streamline access to services. The case manager was able to cut down the client waiting period from months to weeks in a short span of time. To expand opportunities for students, Rise hired its first articling student, and provided supervision for their first social work practicum student. Between 2018 and 2023, Rise worked with 5 articled students and supervised 19 social work students.
By the start of 2019, Rise had already worked with 39 student clinicians and had launched an Incubator program for junior lawyers who completed their articles at Rise. The incubator lawyer was able to utilise Rise’s office space, receive client referrals from Rise, and had opportunities for ongoing support from Rise’s staff lawyers. The idea was that junior lawyers could use their Incubator year to launch their own private family law practice.
Funded by the Law Foundation of BC, a new staff lawyer joined the team as the Family Advocate Support Line (FASL) lawyer. This new service was available to support workers, which the lawyer used to answers questions regarding family law. The FASL also started providing training to anti-violence workers, transition house workers, support advocates and settlement workers throughout the province who were supporting family law clients.
In 2019, Rise strengthened its partnerships with community organisations across the province as Vicky and Haley travelled to nearly every corner of BC – a total of 28 communities. The aim of the travel was to conduct research, strengthen partnerships and advance Rise’s mandate of access to justice for all. Through this experience, they were able to understand challenges that are unique to, or exacerbated in, rural communities, including a lack of structured supports for those fleeing violence, infrequent availability of court dates, limited public transportation to court, and lengthy delays in court proceedings, all of which were significant barriers to women and gender diverse people in the family law system.
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In 2020, as Rise continued to grow, the pandemic significantly shifted the way we worked. The staff and students were able to safely transition to working from home, and the Virtual Legal Clinic provided a model for delivering excellent virtual legal services, meaning Rise was quickly able to meet an almost doubling in demand for services – which has only grown since. The pandemic created opportunities for immediate advances to the status quo for clients in smaller communities, and for those with other barriers to access, through the use of technology in spaces like the court system. Not only was court easier to access, but Rise’s lawyers and advocates were now able to support clients in virtual court appearances.
5 years of Rise and beyond…
In this video: The Honorable Donna Martinson talking about Rise’s evolution followed by Kim Hawkins, Executive Director talking about our generous funders and donors.
The Law Foundation of BC continued to support Rise’s Virtual Legal Clinic, Family Advocate Support Line and triage program (which would later be renamed as Rise’s Community Legal Clinic). In 2021, the Law Foundation of BC increased their support to create a virtual advocate (now family law advocate) position under the Virtual Legal Clinic. The position was created to increase assistance for women and gender diverse people in rural, remote and northern communities, which did not have a legal advocate located in their area. At the end of 2021, Rise received further funding from Women and Gender Equality to support the network of the Virtual Legal Clinic’s Community Partners through a coordinator position, and publish a report on best practices for providing remote legal services (to be published in 2024).
At the end of 2021, Rise received 5-year funding from the Department of Justice to increase our capacity to assist survivors of violence. This funding initially created five new staff positions: two summary advice lawyers, two program assistants, and one legal navigator. In 2022, this funding increased again to create two additional positions: a lawyer to run an Indigenous Family Advocate Support Line (IFASL), to provide specialised support to support workers working in Indigenous communities and with Indigenous clients; and the family advocate educator, to provide mentorship, community, and support to family law advocates. In total, Rise received $3.1 million in funding from the Department of Justice from 2021 till 2026.
In 2022, the Law Foundation of BC increased their support with an additional virtual advocate position (now family law advocate), this time to serve clients in the Lower Mainland through the newly renamed Community Legal Clinic (CLC). They also funded a Centralised Legal Services program, to create a new advocate supervision model, responsive and adaptive to the growing needs of advocates and clients. With funding from an anonymous donor, a community outreach advocate position was also created to support the CLC team in 2022. The advocate is able to provide specialised support to clients in the Lower Mainland with additional barriers to accessing services, such as clients with mental health challenges, and clients located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES).
Want to support our work?
Rise Women’s Legal Centre is a registered charity.
#76336 8099 RT0001
A tax receipt will be issued for every donation in any amount.
We accept donations online, or through cheque.
Cheques can be sent to:
Rise Women’s Legal Centre
PO Box 3761
Vancouver PO Terminal, BC V6B 3Z1
Questions about donating and giving? Contact development@womenslegalcentre.ca
“Just the fact that there is a skilled team helping and providing support is amazing. It is admirable to see how this team of people can join strengths to support when it is most needed. Thank you!”
— Client Feedback
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