We've heard from both public libraries and legal advocates that they want to have more awareness of each other and the services they deliver. Having the chance to build connections within local communities helps alleviate some of the stress of providing legal information services and ultimately ensures faster and more effective referrals for patrons.
We want to support you in this work; one way in which we do so is through our Community Forum initiative. In the past, these Forums have been held both in-person in communities and virtually across geographic regions, with the end goal of facilitating connections between public libraries, community legal advocates, and other access to justice actors.
Out of this work, LawMatters created the Community Legal Information Forums: A Planning Guide, now available on our website. This guide walks you through the process of planning and holding forums in your own community, both in-person and virtually. It also includes sample documents including invitations, agendas, meeting notes, and evaluation forms from past forums you can adapt for your own event.
We’ve created and updated this guide in the hopes that it will be useful to those wanting to host their own community forums. You know your community best and know which issues are most relevant to discuss.
If you are interested in hosting your own community forum and have questions, please feel free to reach out to us at lawmatters@courthouselibrary.ca We’re happy to support you!