CLWA and Lived Experience – Justice Through Our Eyes: 100 Voices for Change
April 2026
In November last year, Community Legal WA and the Lived Experience Project Group jointly launched Justice Through Our Eyes: 100 Voices For Change.
This publication brings together the voices of more than 100 people across Western Australia who have needed legal help. Through their stories, we are reminded that behind every policy, service, or case is a person who deserves to be heard, respected, and treated fairly.
CLWA are proud and excited to partner with people with lived experience to release this publication, the first of its kind for legal services in Australia. Handing over power to promote their voice and wisdom is a deliberate choice.
At the launch, attended by the WA Attorney General, lived experience contributors, community legal workers, pro bono partners, members of the judiciary, and sector leaders – the message was clear. The publication is not a conclusion. It is an invitation.
It invites us to look closely at lived experience and to reflect on what the justice system feels like for the people it serves. It invites stronger collaboration across government, the legal profession and community services. It invites us to invest in early help that puts people in the centre and recognises the impact of trauma. It calls for us to embed people’s lived experience as a driver of system improvement. Above all, it invites us to listen deeply, think differently, and act with intention.
Justice Through Our Eyes is not a standalone publication. It sits within the broader Lived Experience of Legal Assistance (LELA) Change Project, a CLWA statewide initiative that places people’s lived experience of legal help at the centre of service design, planning, and reform. We are excited to share our learning and experiences with colleagues in other States and Territories as this project continues.
Through co-design workshops, a Lived Experience Steering Group, partnerships with community legal services, and ongoing evaluation, the project works to ensure that people who have navigated the justice system help shape the services that support them. This approach is transforming how we work at Community Legal WA and is beginning to reshape how the broader sector engages with lived experience. It is not enough to care deeply for clients; we must also understand what it feels like to receive a service – or to be turned away from one – and learn from those insights.
Get in touch with the WA Lived Experience team: livedexperience@clwa.org.au