$1 million over the next four years will help ARC Justice – a rights-based, for-purpose organisation incorporating community legal centres in Bendigo and Shepparton – expand its work into climate justice.
ARC Justice provides legal and tenancy support services across 13 local government areas in Central and Northern Victoria, with a team of 54 staff working to advocate for and uphold the rights of rural and regional Victorians.
The funding is thanks to the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner’s Strong Foundations
grant, which is designed to help community legal centres provide vital services in the long term.
ARC Justice CEO, Damian Stock, says climate justice – which recognises the human rights implications of climate change and the unequal distribution of the burdens of climate impacts – was a growing area of focus for the organisation.
Head of Strategy and Impact, Kate Clohesy, calls this funding a game-changer!
Stock says the funding will accelerate the establishment of ARC’s climate justice portfolio, developed in response to the devastating 2022 floods.
Victorian Legal Services Board CEO and Commissioner, Fiona McLeay, says the funding will provide the “flexibility and certainty” that’s needed to see long-term growth in access to justice.
ARC Justice was one of eight community organisations to share in the $7 million Strong Foundations grants.
