A Tasmanian woman says she wouldn't have her children nor her home if it weren't for access to Women's Legal Services Tasmania.
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Fiona Smith* said she first reached out to WLST, a community legal service, during a time where she was in extreme stress over her safety and the safety of her children.
"To be able to access trauma-informed, sensible, clear and empathetic advice assisted in helping me feel safer, and more in control of my situation and in mitigating risk," Ms Smith said.
Engender Equality Tasmania chief officer Alina Thomas said accessible and well-resourced services were vital.
"It's really important to have trauma-informed services that are based in the community, that are able to build a level of a level of trust and and a reputation within communities as places to go where people can really be who they are when they get there, that they don't need to be presenting in a particular way," she said.
Ms Smith had lost her access to Legal Aid just two weeks before she went to family law court with her ex-husband after substantial child support lump sums pushed her out of the support threshold and faced up to $85,000 in legal fees, which she couldn't afford.
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"To be able to receive representation, advice and guidance in this time, in a trauma-informed manner, was invaluable to me being able to navigate this traumatic experience and assisted me to feel safe in the decisions I was making, under extremely difficult circumstances," she said.
Ms Thomas said integrated and safe services such as Women's Legal Service Tasmania, were vital to ensure survivors were not dropping out of services.
"As long as we're saying everyone has a right to safety, and everyone has a right to feel safe in their home, that also means that everyone has a right to accessing a service support that is appropriate for where they're at in their life," she said.
*name changed on request
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