Event: Big Yarn Up

All expenses — flights and travel costs, accomodation, venue hire, and food — will be paid for by Community Legal Centres NSW with National Legal Assistance Partnership funding made available by the NSW Attorney General.

Key information

Dates: 11:30am Tuesday 21 June - 10:00am Thursday 23 June
Where: Pacific Bay Resort, Coffs Harbour
Who: All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working at community legal centres across New South Wales are invited to attend. 

Travel

All expenses — flights and travel costs, accomodation, venue hire, and all meals — will be paid for by Community Legal Centres NSW. 

Your community legal centre will need to book your return travel to and from Coffs Harbour (flights, train, or otherwise). Please ensure that your flight arrives in Coffs Harbour before 10:30am on the 21st of June. If no flights are available on that morning, Community Legal Centres NSW will pay for an additional night of accomodation on Monday 20th June. 

Once your community legal centre has booked your flights, please email your receipt and an invoice to officemanager@clcnsw.org.au for reimbursement. 

To ensure that the event stays within the travel budget, we request that your organisation books your travel arrangements as early as possible so as to avoid expensive flight costs.

Accomodation

Community Legal Centres NSW has organised accomodation at the Pacific Bay Resort (Coffs Harbour) for all attendees. There will be a shuttle bus that will transport attendees from the airport or station to the accomodation venue. 

If you wish to extend your stay in Coffs Harbour, or bring family members or carers, please get in touch with officemanager@clcnsw.org.au to organise. Community Legal Centres NSW will liaise with the accommodation venue to book the extra nights/rooms and attendees will need to pay for these additional costs.

Per diems

All attendees will receive per diems of $70/day for 2 days. 

Part-time and casual workers

Community Legal Centres NSW has funds to cover the wages of staff who work part-time or casually, who would be attending outside of their usual work hours. Please email officemanager@clcnsw.org.au to discuss organising a wage reimbursement.

In recent years, there has been significant growth in the employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the community legal sector sector across New South Wales. The Aboriginal Advisory Group has identified the need to develop principles for supporting First Nations employment in the community legal sector. Once developed, these principles will be printed on a poster and displayed in every community legal centre in New South Wales.

Further, the Aboriginal Advisory Group has identified the need for self-care and cultural care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff. Big Yarn Up will aim to meet these objectives.

Dates: Tuesday 21 June - Thursday 23 June

A program draft has been circulated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff in the community legal sector. Big Yarn Up will focus on the following priorities: 

• Principles to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment in the community legal sector. 
• Cultural self-care and vicarious trauma. 
• Social and legal issues: policy and practice discussions.
• Yarning about experiences and connecting with the community. 

If you have any questions about logistics or organising reimbursements, please contact Alice and Imogen on 0479 138 173 or email officemanager@clcnsw.org.au. 

If you have any suggestions or questions about Big Yarn Up or the program, please email Zac at zachary@clcnsw.org.au or call (02) 9212 7333 (then press 3).