Sir David Watson Award goes to Canadian legal advice project

The award, presented at the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s (NCCPE) Engage Conference, is given in memory of the university’s former Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Watson. It recognises the combined efforts of community and university partners towards making a difference in the lives of people in their shared community.

The winning project, the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law’s CLASSIC project, has been providing access to free legal advice and legal services for low-income people living in the inner-city of Saskatoon for the past 11 years. The project was proposed and created by students and is staffed by law student volunteers.

Left to right USASK Dean Martin Phillipson, Professor Tara Dean and USASK Associate Professor Sarah Buhler

Sir David Watson

The University of Brighton’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tara Dean, who presented the award, said: “This is an excellent international example of a community-university partnership that is making a difference. Since starting in 2008, the CLASSIC project has served an average of 1100 clients a year through its various services including a Walk-In Advocacy Clinic. It is a worthy winner.”

In 2018 CLASSIC provided legal representation to over 750 low-income clients and helped another 250 obtain government-issued identification.

A significant number of the clients accessing CLASSIC services and advice are of Indigenous ancestry. CLASSIC says it is “committed to working with Indigenous people and groups in the design and delivery of their programs. This includes working with an Indigenous elder who provides cultural competency training for students and staff, having representation of Indigenous people on its board of directors, and promoting relationships in the community through community consultation and collaborations in program design and delivery”.

Sir David Watson, who died in 2015, created the University of Brighton’s award-winning Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP) which has supported scores of partnership projects over the past 16 years. This award honours the leadership of Professor Sir David Watson in encouraging community-university engagement and continues his drive to place community engagement at the centre of the missions of universities world-wide.

The Professor Sir David Watson Award scheme, the first of its kind, is supported by an international group of networks and leaders in the field including the Talloires Network, a global network of community-engaged universities that Sir David helped to build and lead.

Sponsors also include the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement, University of Winchester and Engagement Australia which helps develop best practice university-community engagement in Australia.