News

News and updates from the lab team

Access to Justice Week BC 2023

BC’s Access to Justice Week begins on February 4th! This is a great opportunity to find out more about A2J and initiatives across the province and country. Click here for a list and description of the many interesting events planned for this year. Thank you for your support for Access to Justice in BC! BC […]

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Kids Deserve to Have a Voice – Part One

The Youth Voices Initiative partnered with Adler University to provide a 3-hour online workshop on April 1, 2022. The workshop was generously funded by the Notary Foundation. It focused on providing Adler students (future counsellors and therapists) with insight into the impact of separation and divorce on children and youth and the importance of meaningful […]

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BC Child & Youth Champions Event

This March, the members of the Youth Voices Leadership Group are participating in a two-part virtual event hosted by Access to Justice BC and the Representative for Children and Youth of BC. The Child & Youth Champions event is part of the multi-sector Transform the Family Justice System (TFJS) Collaborative that is focusing on achieving […]

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Youth Voices: A Call to Action for Family Lawyers and Mediators–Part 2

This is Part 2 of a two-part piece focusing on how family lawyers and mediators can participate in and support the Youth Voices Initiative. Originally published on Slaw.ca, Canada’s Online Legal Magazine and republished with permission. In Part 1, I described the foundations of the Youth Voices Initiative, overseen by the BC Family Justice Innovation Lab, which […]

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Youth Voices: A Call to Action for Family Lawyers and Mediators–Part 1

This is Part 1 of a two-part piece focusing on how family lawyers and mediators can participate in and support the Youth Voices Initiative. It was originally published in September 2020 on Slaw.ca, Canada’s Online Legal Magazine and republished with permission. It has been 10 years since Brené Brown published her book The Gifts of Imperfection. […]

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Youth Voices Initiative Update – Launch Coming Soon!

It has been a few months since our last update on the Youth Voices Initiative (March 7).  The world has changed in fundamental ways since then!  But we have been continuing our work and we’d like to describe some of the highlights so far and provide a peek into the exciting things coming next!! The […]

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More Lessons from the Therapy Dog

Two years ago I published a piece on slaw.ca entitled Seeing (And Feeling) the Family Justice System Through the Eyes of the Therapy Dog about Ollie the therapy dog who visited the Kamloops courthouse on “family remand day”. One comment on that post really stuck in my mind.  It was from a family lawyer who […]

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Youth Voices Article, Update & more

Our friends at Access to Justice BC (A2JBC) wrote and published a story about the Lab’s Youth Voices initiative. We are grateful for the shoutout and for the support! Our funding from the Vancouver Foundation and Giving Well has carried the Lab through four wonderful years. We are so grateful for their support! While that funding […]

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Two important surveys

This is a reminder to complete two important surveys affecting access to justice in British Columbia: The National Action Committee’s annual survey – deadline extended to January 17th. This is your opportunity to have your A2J initiatives included in the 2019 Report on Canada’s Justice Development Goals. The Law Society of BC’s Futures Task Force […]

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Collaborating with our Northern Ireland Colleagues on Human-Centred Design

In the summer of 2019, the Lab received a very warm invitation to work with a group from Ulster University in Northern Ireland. Led by Professor Gráinne McKeever, the group was eager to use a human-centred design process as part of their research project to create and test supports for litigants in person (“LIPS”) in […]

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