The Legal Help Centre opens outreach clinic in Winnipeg’s North End

The Legal Help Centre hosted an opening of the clinic on December 12, featuring a tribute to Jerry Woods.

The Legal Help Centre will run a monthly Legal Help Clinic at 485 Selkirk Avenue (the William Norrie Centre of the University of Manitoba) beginning in January 2014. The monthly clinic will provide free legal information to community members with family incomes less than $50,000 a year.

Funding for the clinic has been provided through a gift in honour of the retirement of Jerry Woods, the past chair of the Manitoba Human Rights Commission.

The Legal Help Centre is a not-for-profit law centre set up by community volunteers working together with faculty and students from both the University of Winnipeg and University of Manitoba. It is run by a community board made up of members of the legal profession, the community and the university sector.

The Legal Help Centre also serves as an experiential education opportunity for students in the Faculties of Law and Social Work at the U of M and the departments of criminal justice and inner city studies at the U of W.  Under the supervision of accredited professionals students apply the work they have learned in the classroom to the field.

The Legal Help Centre main location is in the Portage Place Mall just above Staples. The Centre offers ‘Drop In’ Legal Clinics each Tuesday and Friday afternoon as well as a Family Law Clinic by appointment on Monday mornings. They also offer monthly workshops and trainings as well as a monthly outreach clinic at Siloam Mission. All services are free of charge.

About Jerry Woods

Jerry Woods is a proud member of the Couchiching First Nation and hosts all the Commission’s youth conferences. His background in the labour movement and his expertise as a negotiator serve him well as a strong advocate for Aboriginal employment and human rights issues. Jerry was appointed vice President of the Human Rights Commission in 2007 and became the Chair in 2007.  Through those years Jerry was a passionate advocate for families and particularly children. In 2001 Jerry hosted the first of what became yearly youth conferences and was active in the development of human rights awareness for youth. He was also an active member of the Racialized Communities and Police Services Project which served to improve the relationship between Winnipeg Police Services and the public.

Jerry continues to work in the community as an activist and strives for equitable outcomes with a dedication to improving the quality of life for all people. Jerry’s passion is golf, and his joy is his family, wife Cathy, their six children and ten grandchildren.

For more information, please contact:

Jennifer Chlopecki, communications coordinator, Faculty of Law, at: 204-480-1452 or email: Jennifer.chlopecki@umanitoba.ca

or

Kathy Jones, Executive Director, Legal Help Centre, at: 204-258-3095 or email: kathy@legalhelpcentre.ca