The “law van” is run by the Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County (GWLC) and funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario.
The van connects with people living in rural Wellington County to support their everyday legal needs. We travel around the county setting up in our scheduled locations and invite people to come by and talk with us (find our schedule at www.gwlegalclinic.ca or 519-821-2100 or on Facebook).
And while many of our conversations involve legal issues, we also spend much of our time listening and problem solving for other challenges including housing, mental health supports and food security.
There are varying social supports available to help those who might be experiencing difficulties in their everyday lives. Sometimes those visiting the van don’t know where to look for assistance and sometimes they are overwhelmed and confused about how to navigate the help available.
The network of supports in the county and throughout the province (from local church groups providing food to provincial ministries that regulate program funding) has many parts to it and can sometimes be difficult to figure out.
In preparation for the law van rollout, our team re-connected with local support organizations to get up to date on their work and let them know about our law van. Thanks to these ongoing partnerships, our law van team can help people navigate these systems much more effectively.
Many conversations that start with “I wonder if you can help me…” regularly turn into an introduction to one of our community partners. Together we have been able to support and connect with many people this summer.
One of the greatest rewards of our work at GWLC and the law van is putting people’s minds at ease around issues that have been causing them stress.
For some, asking for legal or other support can be an intimating process. Almost daily, we see that a conversation with some collaborative problem solving can quickly put a plan in place to reduce or eliminate these points of stress.
Our connections with our community partners is key to our ability to offer this help.
We appreciate being a part of a vast network of organizations ready and willing to help support everyone in our communities.
We are grateful for how the law van has been accepted into the social fabric of the communities we serve.
Rose Vandermeer is a rural outreach worker at the Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County.