The Community Legal Education and Reform database (CLEAR) showcases community legal education and law reform projects undertaken by Community Legal Centres (CLCs) and other Australian non-profits.
It provides community legal education and law reform workers with an online database of projects, resources and contacts to inspire and connect them with others.
CLEAR was launched by the national association of CLCs in late 2011. It is found online at www.naclc.org.au/clear.
CLEAR helps workers to plan future community legal education and law reform projects by providing them with an accessible database of projects already undertaken accross Australia. Visitors to the site can search for projects by jurisdiction, area of law, project audience and/or method of delivery.
CLEAR currently has 47 projects relevant to consumer law.
CLEAR allows people working in the areas of legal education, advocacy and law reform to leverage off the work previously undertaken by others. Every project on CLEAR provides contact details so that the site visitors can follow up interesting projects with the relevant person. Grant managers also refer to CLEAR when assessing applications and when working with potential applicants to craft submissions for new projects.
CLCs and other non-profits have uploaded more than 350 projects to CLEAR since it was launched in 2011. Contributing projects to CLEAR is quick and simple and does not require site registration or password access. Most projects take less than two minutes to upload. It’s simply a matter of selecting the purple ‘Contribute Your Projects’ tab on the homepage and following the prompts.
Once your project has been submitted and approved by CLEAR’s administrator, it goes live.
Contributing projects not only assists other CLCs and non-profits; it helps those who contribute. CLEAR’s administrator (aka “Bruce”) promotes projects uploaded to CLEAR via twitter (@NACLCBruce) and an e-newsletter that is distributed to almost 500 subscribers Australia-wide.
Bruce is followed on Twitter by more than 400 of Australia’s kew legal tweeters, including law students, law firms, human rights and consumer advocates, media outlets, CLCs and community lawyers.