The Mental Health Legal Services Project (MHLSP) has been
nominated for a ZEST Western Sydney Community Sector Award.
The MHLSP is nominated in the category of Exceptional Project in a Not for Profit Organisation.
The nomination is for the work of MHLSP pilot projects at the
NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma
Survivors (STARTTS) and the Multicultural Disability Advocacy Association
(MDAA).
STARTTS has offices in Fairfield, Liverpool and Auburn. Its refugee clients often have
considerable difficulty understanding and accessing the Australian legal system
and ongoing legal issues frequently interfere with successful trauma
counselling.
The MHLSP solicitor at STARTTS, Anne Mainsbridge (pictured), has
provided legal information, advice, advocacy, casework and referrals to many
STARTTS clients across Western Sydney in areas as diverse as criminal law,
family law, consumer law and care and protection matters.
MDAA is based at Harris
Park. Its non-English speaking clients have particular difficulty in having their
legal needs met and their disability creates many barriers to justice. The
MHLSP solicitor at MDAA, Nancy Walker, works with MDAA’s disability advocates, increasing
their skills and knowledge about how the law works in NSW. MDAA clients, who
would often have great difficulty accessing the law, can now have their problem
dealt with in a satisfactory and professional manner.
The ZEST Awards are an annual event that recognise outstanding
contributions by non-government organisations operating across the Greater
Western Sydney region.
The Western Sydney Community Forum and a number of other
organisations established the awards in 2010 as a way to raise awareness of and
acknowledge the positive impact that community capacity-building activities can
have within the Greater Western Sydney Region.
The MHLSP is nominated in the category of Exceptional
Project in a Not for Profit Organisation.
The awards will be presented in Parramatta on 9 February
2011. PIAC would like to thank
STARTTS for nominating the MHLSP.
Further information about the Zest Awards is available online.