The strategic plan is a document that maps out the future direction for the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) for the period 2008-2011.

The strategic plan for the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) was prepared during early 2008 by consultant Alan Cartwright, based on information provided during many planning sessions involving upper management staff.

On behalf of the Board of Directors and staff, I am proud to present the Strategic Plan that will guide the next 3 years of the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited.

At the ALS, we are committed to achieving culturally appropriate justice for Aboriginal people and communities.

Directors, together with our staff, are actively aware that we face complex and hard challenges in the service delivery to the communities we serve. We are driven to make a difference for the people who rely on us and the broader community agenda of improving outcomes for Aboriginal people.

The plan sets the direction for a period of consolidation, improvement and growth for the organisation. It provides clear deliverables we will achieve for our funders and the communities we serve. The next 3 years are not without challenge. While under funding pressure, we still face unprecedented demand for service; and we are regarded by clients and their families as an integral support and service mechanism in their lives. Our staff work tirelessly with limited resources to achieve results. The principal challenge for the next 3 years is to maintain and build this organisation within an environment of Federal fiscal constraint.

The Board of Directors look forward to reporting on the progress of this plan and commend it to the communities we serve and our key government and non-government partners.

Yours Sincerely
Ted Fernando
Chairperson

This plan builds on the success of our organisation to date. It represents the collective thinking of the Board, management and staff in our combined effort to achieve culturally appropriate justice for Aboriginal people and communties. We are committed to the provision of quality legal services but also to ensure broader, preventative and service-focused partnerships are created. The focus of this plan is on service delivery, innovation and growth. The operation of an effective organisational culture requires nurturing through good leadership and successful delivery of this plan and the results it outlines. I am committed, together with my management team, to the successful implementation of this plan for the benefit of our clients, communities, staff and key stakeholders. I encourage all staff to understand and get behind the delivery of this plan to ensure its successful implementation over the next 3 years. Yours Sincerely Trevor Christian Chief Executive Officer

Aboriginal Community Challenges:
Aboriginal communities are still below par in their access,prosperity and opportunity on all major indicators. This creates a complexity for all individuals and agencies offering support - how to make a sustainable difference. The ALS of course finds itself often responding to and supporting people through the consequences of some broader social, economic and political fabric that is so fragile for many Aboriginal communities.

Service Pressures and Demands:
We enjoy high levels of trust with the communities we serve. We continue to experience increasing demands for our services. A preferable indicator of course for us, would be a decline in the use of our services as a result of a stronger community fabric and broader social, political and economic reform and inclusion.

We face an internal risk to our capacity and staff - put simply, staff retention and turnover due to overwhelming demand on our services.

Commonwealth resources - the economic outlook:
At the time of the creation of this plan, the economic outlook for Australia is driving fiscal restraint across all federally funded agencies. This impacts on our ability to not only grow, but it severely compromises our ability to deliver current services.

Broader solutions through service:
The frustration of the ALS is that we see an urgent need for broader solutions and services than we could offer. The present economic restraint, together with our current service demands, places a great challenge on us to be able to evolve and implement more sustainable, prevention based initiatives alongside our current services.

Our focus for the next 2-3 years is on service delivery, innovation and growth, and organisation effectiveness

Strategy 1 - Improve our current service delivery and capacity

• Strengthen our core services
• Strengthen advocacy
• Improved efficiency in how we work and deliver results
• Strengthen management, leadership, planning and delivery of results
• Improved understanding of the ALS (NSW/ACT) and connection with state, regional and local services

Strategy 2 - Service innovation and growth in what we deliver

• Proposed new services established to better meet our clients' needs
• Strengthen prevention and support to our clients and their communities
• Work with governments to secure legal system, law and policy reform

Strategy 3 - A well run, effective organisation

• Stronger people management frameworks
• Stronger governance
• Improved budgeting and financial management
• Stronger IT direction, deliverables and support
• Reduced environmental footprint
• Stronger external profile for the ALS
• Our people knowing about our organisation
• Increase non-government provided resources