Awards

Hui Zhou - YDHF Worker of the Year award

We are pleased to announce that Hui Zhou was the co-recipient of 2010’s Yarra Drug and Health Worker of the Year award. Hui was employed as the Drug Outreach Lawyer with Fitzroy Legal Service for four years. 

This position is funded by the Department of Human Services and has been developed in recognition of the connection between legal needs and health – that is, the detrimental impacts to health of unresolved legal problems, and the necessity to employ alternative models of legal service delivery to ensure legal needs are met in a timely and equitable manner.

Hui works on an outreach model, with regular attendance at Inner Space, Billabong BBQ, Living Room, North Richmond Community Health Centre Drug Safety Program, YSAS Day Program, and De Paul House.

Hui provided  legal support across an extremely broad range of legal issues including: criminal matters, victims of crime applications for assistance, fines, guardianship matters, tenancy, debt, child contact and family law matters. 

As Drug Outreach Lawyer, Hui  ran approximately 800 cases, many involving multiple and complex legal problems,  and requiring great commitment, patience and ingenuity to obtain good legal outcomes.

This has been in addition to the countless informal legal information sessions to workers and potential service users in relation to their questions about legal problems and legal processes in a variety of contexts.

Hui worked very closely with a variety of practitioners in the AOD sector to provide holistic legal support that is cognisant of the links between legal issues, health and basic unmet needs (e.g. housing, nutrition, safety) that clients may be facing in their day to day living.

As part of Hui’s contribution she also provided community legal education in a variety of forums to build on the legal knowledge embedded in peer networks and service users, and to build on the capacity of AOD workers to engage with legal problems and processes. 

Finally, Hui’s knowledge of discrimination experienced by the AOD community enabled her to contribute significantly to law important advocacy on policy and law reform issues of significance to the legal interests of her clients, including advocacy seeking reform to victims of crime legislation limiting awards of assistance to community members with criminal histories, and advocacy against legislation facilitating involuntary detention and treatment of persons with AOD dependence.

Top photo: Hui Zhou

Bottom Photo: Hui Zhou with Kasey, Elmore North Yarra Community Health, Bernie Geary, Child Safety Commissioner, and Peter Wearne, Yarra Drug and Health Forum