1. The CLCNSW ICT Project / Service
I’m Mark Riboldi, the Advocacy and Communications Manager at Community Legal Centres NSW.
I’m from Darug country, out Parramatta way. I pay respects to the Traditional Custodians of where we are today – the Gadigal people.
I’m here to talk about the Community Legal Centres NSW Information & Communications Technology Project – the ICT Service.
Mark Riboldi
ADVOCACY & COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

2. Here it is in a nutshell:
Community Legal Centres NSW is incubating a service to build public, collaborative and advocacy-related online tools for community legal centres at a lower cost than if you went it alone.
Basically, it’s like the successful Community Legal Centres NSW Financial Service – minus the bookkeepers, plus some web developers, and sprinkled with some websites

3. Okay, let’s go back to the beginning.
The general online capabilities of our sector are bad. The BBS was the worst system I have ever seen. Our websites were not designed to be useful for the people who need our services.
We keep our contact lists in Word documents.

4. A series of reports meant we understood the problems.

5. $205,000
And with a small grant from Legal Aid NSW, we launched an ambitious ship to Planet Digital.

6. First, we reached out –
We talked to our members: what were people already using? What did people want in terms of online tools?
We created a steering group of CLC peaks, then we started doing stuff:

7. 1 2 3 We started with three principles:
We want to use open source software where possible. We don’t want to be captured by corporations or old-school developers who build IT castles around themselves.
We want to build in-house sector capacity
We eventually want to be nationally scalable integrate with CLASS 1 2 3

8. CLCNSW ICT Program Map CLC Directory Public websites Payment Gway CRM
ICT Project #
- Key capability
Integration point
Public access / find a CLC
Donate, buy membership, buy event ticket, online shop
Public-facing
CLC Directory
- Online directory of CLCs
Public websites
- Individual public-facing websites for CLCNSW and CLCs
Payment Gway
- Secure online transactions processing
Donate, join/renew as a member register for event, apply as a volunteer, update information
CLCs/Peak bodies information
Stakeholders -facing
CRM
- Stakeholders/contacts database (not clients)
- Fundraising
- Memberships
- Events
- Volunteer management
- Marketing Comms
Donations, memberships, events tickets
CoPs
- Online knowledge sharing and collaboration
Next, we created a map of what an ideal CLC ICT Network would look-like:
It means public websites that speak directly to their audiences; with easy to access information for people needing help – so the people that are able to can help themselves online – where each centre maintains their unique identity while being on a common platform that was supported and developed centrally.
It means CRM (constituent relationship management) systems to manage non-client contacts, to keep track of law reform advocacy, engage with the media, plan and host events and recruit and manage volunteers.
It means Communities of Practice & E-Learning capabilities for sector workers across NSW to collaborate, share knowledge and ideas and expanding our support networks outside our centres to the whole sector.
It means payment gateways for donations, events, memberships, and a one-stop portal as a single log-in gateway to all the online toys.
That’s a fully-integrated, easy to use suite of online tools bringing our sector closer together AND helping the people and communities we work with.
eLearning
- Online training
- HR development
integration
CLASS
- Client/case management
Login via portal
Operations
ICT Services Portal & Hosting
- Online portal for systems access
- Shared hosting & support
Guidelines & Best Practices
- Sector resources for guidelines & best practices in ICT management
Digital Archiving
- Digital files archiving processes + technology
BBS Migration
- Move to MS365 or G-Suite

9. Sounds awesome, right?
It will be, but we’re not there yet.

10. We’re realistic. We’re building.
We’re achieving a lot with limited resources

11. Here’s what we’ve done in twelve months:
We’ve moved NSW centres off the BBS.
Begun trials of digital archiving.
And launched a Beta-version Community Legal Centres NSW website

12. We’ve partnered with Allens, NEOTA and UTS to create an online CLC directory that focusses on the problems people face to direct them to the appropriate member.
We’ve connected centres to design students at the University of Technology to save them thousands of dollars in graphic design costs.

13. And here’s what’s coming soon:
The launch of CiviCLC: a canopy CRM for media, political and sector contacts, integrating with pilot foliage CRMs for Community Legal Centres NSW, Hume Riverina Community Legal Service and Immigration Advice and Rights Centre.
We’ll build websites for Elizabeth Evatt CLC, Welfare Rights Centre, and Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre and pilot versions of the CLC Portal and Communities of Practice.

14. And here’s what’s coming soon:
The launch of CiviCLC: a canopy CRM for media, political and sector contacts, integrating with pilot foliage CRMs for Community Legal Centres NSW, Hume Riverina Community Legal Service and Immigration Advice and Rights Centre.
We’ll build websites for Elizabeth Evatt CLC, Welfare Rights Centre, and Northern Rivers Community Legal Centre and pilot versions of the CLC Portal and Communities of Practice.

15. Want to partner or collaborate?
We can’t do it alone:
We need partners: peaks and larger centres who share our vision and want to be part of building the CLC ICT forest.
We need collaborators: smaller centres that want to buy into the system, with a new website, or a CRM, or who just want to work closer online with people across the sector.
Want to partner or collaborate?
Get in touch via

16. Boom! mark.riboldi@clcnsw.org.au
Thank you!