Our Strategic Plan and Goals

We are an independent community legal centre based in the inner Melbourne area. Our staff and partners assist clients who experience, or are at risk of, chronic or acute legal crises.

We recognise that IMCL’s clients live within an injust system in which they experience complex forms of social and economic disadvantage and inequality and face structural barriers to accessing justice.

Our vision

We are working towards a future where systemic injustices that affect our target clients are recognised and addressed.

Our objective

To create a just society by building fairness and wellbeing in our local community through the legal system.

Our priorities

After careful analysis of community need, our strengths and our capacity to influence, our strategic plan sets out the social change we believe we can achieve for five priority community groups:

1. Public and community housing renters
2. People experiencing over and under-policing
3. People with mental illness and AOD-related challenges
4. People falling through legal service gaps
5. People experiencing family distress and violence

Our strategic activities

Specialised legal services:

•  Family issues and family violence
•  Housing problems
•  Policing and criminal justice system
•  Money problems
•  Migration

Community and integrated partnerships:

•  Health Justice Partnerships at Royal Melbourne Hospital, Royal Women’s Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
•  Homelessness and Housing Justice
•  Education Justice
•  Police Accountability Project
•  Legal education

Law reform and strategic advocacy:

•  Civil litigation and class actions
•  Pushing for law reform
•  Police Ombudsman Now campaign
•  Partnerships with other CLCs and human rights organisations

You can download a summary of the 2024-28 Strategic Plan here.