About YouthLaw Aotearoa
YouthLaw Aotearoa is a community law centre that provides free legal services to rangatahi aged under 25 or those acting on their behalf. Our clients are mainly seeking help for matters related to employment, education, family, and youth justice. Our offices are based in Manukau, but we help people around the motu.
Our main services are:
- Legal advice via our advice phone line.
- Education sessions for young people and those who work with them. We empower youth to understand their rights!
- Legal information on our website and in other resources.
- We work to make law changes that will improve access to justice for children and young people.
Volunteer opportunities
For many years, YouthLaw has provided opportunities for university law students and get some hands-on experience working on client matters. This is done under the supervision of our solicitors, and we have a structured process so that volunteers are carefully trained and supervised.
We have three intakes each year – semester one, semester two and over the summer holidays. The volunteer programme is suitable for year two and above law students and graduates. Our volunteers commit to at least one fixed shift each week for the entire intake. We have two volunteer sessions each workday: 10am to 1pm and 1pm to 4pm, which take place at our office.
The main tasks include the following:
- Taking client calls and replying to voice messages.
- Conducting an initial interview of the client and/or their support person
- Administrative tasks such as entering client details and relevant information into the CRM system.
- Following the initial interview, volunteers may be assigned to obtain more details from the client.
- Legal research, such as reviewing and analysing the documents sent through by clients, or researching case law and other legal publications.
- Legal advice drafting.
- And where available, law reform work may also be completed.
Many of our staff begin as volunteers and progress to being paid employees, because they love the environment at YouthLaw.
Feedback from a few past volunteers
I have loved my time at YouthLaw and would love to come back in some capacity after I have graduated. Thank you for the opportunities YouthLaw has provided me with. The work you guys do is amazing and I’m very grateful for being a part of it – Bella
Thank you so much for the opportunity of being able to work with everyone at YouthLaw, I’ve loved every minute of it and have found it very valuable – Angelika
I have gained more than I could have imagined through my experience at YouthLaw. Enabling access to justice for young Kiwis has been truly rewarding. Most importantly, I have felt hugely supported by the wonderful legal team at YouthLaw – Azita
The team working here are all eager to help volunteers do our part and they emphasise how important our role is here. For us volunteers, we work with a passionate legal team and learn how to communicate with clients, draft and give advice. My time at YouthLaw has showed me a glimpse of what my future will look like – Hyunjee.
Contact details
To find out more, go to Volunteer Programme – YouthLaw or email admin@youthlaw.co.nz