1. Centennial College
Early Childhood Education Program
Understanding and Communicating With Families
(ECEP – 232, Section: 002)
Family Support Systems Report and Presentation
Submitted To: Prof. Sheila Sullivan
Submitted by:
Nasima Bahar
Samarat Rahaman
Dunya Sahibzada
Farzana Jangda
Farhana Yeasmin
Date of Submission: Nov.12, 2012

2. Part one
For the „family support systems report and presentation assignment‟ first, we have formed a
group of five according to our teacher‟s direction. After making our group, primarily we divided
our work. Dunya proposed to visit Catholic cross-cultural services and took the responsibility to
contact with the agency. We agreed and asked our teacher about that organization. After getting
teacher‟s positive response, we try to contact with them, but the organization refused to give any
interview. We tried to contact with some other organization. At last we got a positive response
from Flemingdon Community Legal Services (FCLS). We called them Oct. 24, 2012. They called us back
next day and gave time and date for interview. Oct. 03, 2012, at 11 45 was the prescheduled time for
our visit. We made a visit plan and divided our work. Farzana did research and share the information
with us; Nasima took the responsibility for buying flower. Farhana arranged meetings, send information
to all. Samarat took responsibility to bring camera, and Donya drove us to the centre and take us back to
the college. We had our question ready, prior to visit the agency we sat together and discussed about the
question. We started early to be present there before time. Our agency‟s address is:
Flemingdon Community Legal Services (FCLS)
49 Donway West,
Suite 205, Donmills
Ont M3C 3M9
Phone: (416 441 1764), Fax: (416 441 0269)
Web site address:
www.flemingodonlegal.org
After we reach the centre Ms. Catherine Mason (community Legal Worker) warmly
greeted us. We sat in their conference room for the interview. Ms. Catherine Mason first told
about the history of Flemingdon Community Legal Services (FCLS) then started answering our

3. questions. She also gave a copy the history of Flemingdon Community Legal Services (FCLS). In the
following paragraph we are going to give a brief description about the history and question &
answers.
HISTORY OF FLEMINGDON COMMUNITY LEGAL SERVICES
Flemingdon Community Legal Services (FCLS) opened for operation on June 1980 with a staff of four.
Initially, the clinic was meant for residents living between the areas of Danforth, Warden, Bayview and
York Mills. However, since then it has extended its boundaries to include Victoria Park on the east and
Yonge Street on the west side. Its constitution was originally passed by the interim Board of Directors in
August, 1981 and passed as amended by the membership in November, 1981
FCLS is currently located at suite 205 - 49 The Donway West, moving from the basement of the
Flemingdon Park Shopping Mall, the third floor at 10 Gateway Blvd in 1998.
In December 1979, the first employee of FLCS (a community legal worker) was hired when the request to
Ontario Legal Aid Plan for funds was approved due to the joint efforts from Flemingdon Community
Council, Justice for Children and Ismailia council. . In order to adopt the Executive Director Model, the
first Executive Director was hired in May, 1984, by that time the total number of employees of the clinic
were 8, including two lawyers, three community legal workers and three support staff. The clinic
experienced considerable staff turnover, by June 1989 the staffing had again stabilized. Since then, the
clinic continues to have eight permanent positions, that being four lawyers (one of whom is the clinic
director), three community legal workers and one office manager/administrative assistant.
Additionally, the clinic has maintained its community oriented focus by acting as a work placement for
high school students during their co-op courses, and has also offered work placements for George Brown
College students enrolled in the community work program. Besides work placements for students, the

4. clinic assists local individuals and groups experiencing law-related problems to develop public legal
education forums and to assist in community development.
Questions & Answers at interview
1. What are some of the circumstances leading up to families choosing access support through
this agency?
Flemingdon Community Legal Services is a non profitable community centre which is
accessible for everyone and open to all. They provide different services especially legal
aid services for low –income Torontonians, who live in their catchment area (North to
York mills road, south to Danforth / Bloor, east to Victoria Park Ave. and west to Yonge
Street). They have the best adequate lawyers, Office Manager, volunteers and staffs.
They assist people if there is an issue of legal aid, like, divorce, problem with house
owners, accidental injury, etc. and provide the best professional services to solve the
problem. Their services are available five days a week and they provide the services to
different language speaking people like, Somali, Parsi, Urdu, Bengali etc. This agency
helps family and people with advice and aid. From 9 to 12 30 anyone can call regarding
any problem, between 1:30 to 4:30 secretary try to call them back with their advice. They
maintain privacy and confidentiality for the caller.
2. What support is available to families through this agency (such as counselling,
parenting workshops, child care, living arrangements, financial support, community
outreach, and/or advocacy services, etc.)?

5. They provide different types of support for the families, like, legal advice, legal
representation, public legal education, community development, law reform, Tenant‟s
rights, Ontario Works (OW), Ontario Disability, Support program (ODSP), Employment
insurance, Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS), Immigration and
Refugee Law Services, Family law Services, Domestic Violence, Criminal Law, Duty
Counsel etc.
3 What is the process through which support to families is eventually tapered off and
how is that decided?
Flemingdon Legal Services aims to provide legal services and advice to those that live in
the catchment area, meet their financial guidelines, and that require help in area of law
that they practice. If these guidelines are true for a person needing legal services, then
FLS aims to do provide them with the support that they need. However, this support
given to families is eventually tapered off once the staff members have reached their 15
hour service. Once the staff members have given 15 hours of service to their clients, their
free support to families is finished. After that, if they continue to need additional
assistance, the clients would have to pay.
4 What community outreach/follow-up is provided by the agency?
The agency tries to contacts the clients using telephone services several times. If that is
unsuccessful, and the clients have provided a valid email address to them, the agency will
contact their clients through email. If it is a domestic issue however, they will not contact
their clients through email or telephone as there is a risk of getting caught by the family
members. If there is a domestic abuse issue, it is the client‟s responsibility to contact the
agency.

6. 5 How would the prospective client contact you?
They can contact via the telephone or by a walking into the office.
6. Who provides funding for your clinic?
Legal Aid Ontario provides funding.
7. Who are eligible to get services from Flemingdon Community Legal Services?
Those who live in our catchment area.
Meet the financial guideline (The client must fill out the form for the financial guidelines).
Requires help in an area of law where we practice.
8. Is all your case workers licensed with The Law Society of Upper Canada?
Yes. They are all licensed with the Law Society of Upper Canada and have many years of
experience in providing services to the disadvantages in our community.
9. What are the hours of operation?
Mondays to Fridays 1:30pm to 4:30pm.
10. How many staff working in this centre?
Total 9 staff working here with lawyers and paralegals, there are some volunteer and law
school / university student (who is in placement) working with them.
11. Are you providing family law issues here?
No, not here but we refer to Sheppard Family Law Centre.
12. : What services you provide for immigration and refugee?
We fill up the application and follow up the case and if the case denied by the embassy
we claim for appeal and our lawyers follow up with embassy.
13. Are you accessible for wheelchair or person with disability? What are some
examples for the help you provide to them?
Yes, we are. Our office has elevator and the door has accessible button for the easy
accessing of them. If the person have lower vision capacity (problem to read smaller
font), we mail or send the information in a bigger (18) font for them, so they can read on

7. their computer screen. We help the people who have hearing disability or the person who
use sign language; if they contact we arrange the interpreter. We also provide the
interpreter for the people who don‟t understand English language well.
14. Do you provide any services for housing?
Not directly. But we have the information and flyer about different housing help centre,
we advise them to contact with them. Those help centre give them the information about
affordable housing in their catchment area. In any legal case related to housing we
provide correct information, call house inspector, send letter to them. We always
represent the victim.
15. Do you provide any special service for the person who call to the centre for help but
can’t come to attend physically?
Yes. If the person is unable to contact physically and asked for help, our send a person or
representative to contact with him / her.
16. Do you have any service for single mom or pregnant women?
Yes. We help single moms. If her baby‟s father denied paternal responsibilities we help
her for potential court case or to get contact with bar lawyers. We also help the single
mom to get E.I. if they want to study; they need to show all the tax receipt for that. For
the pregnant mom we provide information of the other agencies who work with prenatal
program.

8. Part Two
Analysis
Accessibilities:
This organization started their service in 1979. This is a non profitable organization and over 30
years they are serving people with different types of needs in their catchment area, as a trusted
organization. The person who live or work in the geographic catchment area (which we
described in the part one) of Flemingdon Community Legal services can apply for a membership
of this organization and it doesn‟t require any fees. They especially work for people / resident /
family of low income of the Flemingdon Park Community. They work for the deaf community of
the City of Toronto. They serve the residents of the community who require assistance in legal
matters and who are unable to access legal services from private lawyers. Basically this
organization provides legal aid support for the people. One of their main objectives and goals is
“to provide legal advice, legal assistance, legal representation, legal education and such other
legal services that are consistent with the policies and priorities of Flamingdon Community
Legal Services to both individuals and groups within the communities.” (The Objectives and
goals of F. C. L. S. – Membership application or renewal forms) This organization provides help
to disable and different cultures people. They also provide the information and leaflet in various
languages. They also provide information for housing, health, community care, coping from
drugs for people. They arrange and contribute in community fair to let the people know about
their services, people s rights, and how can get the justice. They work for collective solutions of
legal problems and social injustices. They have open to all policy. The person with disabilities,
like, deafness, sightless gets the facilities according to their needs.

9. Barriers:
The main barrier of this organization is it provides services only for the people who live or work
in their catchment area. That means this is not accessible for all other people. In the discussion
Catherine Manson, the community legal worker, told us this institution doesn‟t have any
permanent office building, it changed places several times, and within two months it is going to
change the address again. We think this can make an informational gap between the office and
the people with needs. This organisation directly helps people only for legal aid. If there any
other concern they help indirectly, like, providing information or send to other organization, who
works with related problems. This is sometimes disappointing for the people / family who come
for help. Another barrier is, there is no time limitation for case proceeding; according to queue,
sometimes it takes two to three years. That can create a negative impression to this institution or
institution‟s service.

10. SUMMARY
The Mission Statement-“protecting your legal rights”
Core Values- “FCLS operate a community clinic within and for the benefit of low income
residents of the Flemingdon Park Community and the Deaf Community of the City of
Toronto” (Flmingdon manual).
FCLS offer services only to those clients who live in their geographic catchments area:
- Dan forth/Bloor to the south
- Yonge Street to the west
- York Mills/401 to the north
- and Victoria Park Avenue to the east.
ROLES AND SERVICES
FCLS may provide legal representation in the following areas of landlord and tenant
law:
1. Eviction hearings: “when landlord has made an application to evict you.”
2. Motions to set aside an eviction Order: “when landlord got an Order to evic, because
he/she told the “Landlord and Tenant Board” that you breached the terms of a legal
agreement or that you agreed to end your tenancy.”
3. Motions to void an eviction Order: “when landlord got an Order to evict you because
you owe rent money, but you are able pay this money before you are locked out of your
home.”
4. Illegal lockouts: “If landlord has locked you out of your home without following proper
legal procedure.”

11. 5. Reviews of eviction hearings: “You were not reasonably able to participate in your
Landlord and Tenant Board hearing and an Order was made to evict you. You want a
new hearing.”
Flemington Community Legal Services does not provide assistance in the following
cases:
1. Landlord requests for assistance
2. Disputes against other tenants
3. Tenants not covered by the Residential Tenancies Act (ex: co-ops, persons sharing a
bathroom or kitchen with the landlord, university residences)
4. Divorce/separation
5. Immigration or deportation
Flemington Community Legal Services does provide assistance in the following cases-
Ontario Works (OW, which is often still called welfare)
Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) financial assistance.
The legal clinic also provides information, advice and assistance regarding Canada Pension
Plan benefits, such as Canada Pension Plan disability benefits.
Accessibility
FCLS answer all telephone inquiries during the same business day. Messages are returned
within 24 hours.
FCLS have a language line (telephone interpretation service) to help those for whom
English is not their first language.
FCLS have a TTY telephone service for those who are part of the Deaf Community.
FCLS offices are accessible with a ramp near the front door of the building, activated
doors at the front of the building and elevators.
Office Hours

12. Office Hours
Mon, Tues, Wed, Friday-9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Thursday 1:30pm-5:00pm
Telephone
Reception Tel #: 416-441-1764
Reception Fax #: 416-441-0269
email
gen1_flem@lao.on.ca
(www.flemingodonlegal.org)

13. PART 3
TEAM PARTICIPATION EVALUATION SHEET
NAME E-MAIL ADDRESS PHONE NUMBER
Dounya Sahibzada dunyafarhat@yahoo.com 647-686-8729
Farhana Yeasmin Yeasmin.farhana@yahoo.ca 647-343-1972
Farzana Jaugda farzanamin@yahoo.com 416-429-9802
Nasima Bahar baharnasima@yahoo.ca 416-465-0568
Shamrath Rahman Srahma51@my.centennialcollege.ca 647-213-1807
September, 8th, 2012- group member setup and we distributed our work.
September, 15th, 2012 Dounya called the agency Catholic Cross Cultures (CCC
refused for interview.)
September, 18th, Dounya called Flemingdon Community Legal Service
September 25th 2012- Flemingdon Community Legal Service accept us.
September-30th2012- in a group meetings we all final our question for Interview
October-3rd2012- at 11.30 we all reach there and after 5 minutes our session
begins
October-5th, 2012 - in a meetings we distrubite our assignment portions.

14. References
The picture taken from
http://www.google.ca/imgres?q=family+pictures&num=10&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=571&tbm=i
sch&tbnid=CUEDzJ7mDl6bNM:&imgrefurl=http://everydayforlifecanada.blogspot.com/2012/0
2/family-day-2012-perfect-time-to-
share.html&docid=pypOa4GVByJu9M&imgurl=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-
Ef6cYwNOuws/T0GNhkiIQsI/AAAAAAAAAgs/dju5xhap6nM/s1600/images-
%25252Bfamilles%25252B2.jpg&w=600&h=624&ei=5KqaUNKUBobDyQGF7oDYAw&zoo
m=1&iact=hc&vpx=434&vpy=107&dur=5719&hovh=229&hovw=220&tx=85&ty=116&sig=1
08365704947716759586&page=5&tbnh=128&tbnw=123&start=70&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:2,s
:70,i:375
www.flemingodonlegal.org
Flemingdon Community Legal Services (FCLS) manuals
The Objectives and goals of F. C. L. S. – Membership application or renewal forms
The History of Flemingdon Community Legal Services (The agency provide that copy to us)