About Our Legal Clinic

Welcome to our website!

Don Valley Community Legal Services is an amalgamated corporation of two great grassroots, not for profit, legal clinics – East Toronto Community Legal Services and Flemingdon Community Legal Services. Both legal clinics assisted clients in their community for years.

East Toronto Community Legal Services was originally incorporated as Riverdale Socio-Legal Services in 1978. The clinic’s name was changed to East Toronto Community Legal Services in 1984 to reflect the expanded catchment area. On April 12, 2019, it officially got approval as an amalgamated corporation with Flemingdon Community Legal Services.

Flemingdon Community Legal Services started to help clients in their community in 1980 and was incorporated as a not for profit corporation in 1983. On April 12, 2019, it officially got approval as an amalgamated corporation with East Toronto Community Legal Services.

The amalgamated corporation, Don Valley Community Legal Services, continues the work of both clinics, but now under one umbrella. Don Valley Community Legal Services is funded by Legal Aid Ontario and governed by a local board of directors to ensure the clinic’s work is guided by input from the community. The clinic is one of many community legal clinics under Legal Aid Ontario and it is very important that clinics have local boards to help direct the work they do as each community is different.

Our clinic honours the value of our board members, general members and other volunteers. As a volunteer, you may be asked to assist with community fairs and information tables or other valued services. We have a Community Services Committee that meets monthly and provides community consultation to the board.

Our Board and staff members are listed on separate pages. Please visit the membership page for information on how to become a member or volunteer.

Our website provides information on the types of services and the areas of law that we provide to our clients and we hope that the information is helpful. Please visit our “How We Can Help” page for more details.

Click here to view our brochure.

Give us a follow on Twitter @DonValleyCLS and Facebook.

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge our presence on the traditional territories of the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg, Attawandaron and Leni-Lunaape, particularly the Mississaugas of the Credit. The place now called Ontario is home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and operate in this land. We respect that we operate our services under The Toronto Purchase Treaty No. 13 (1805). We also recognize and acknowledge that we are in the Dish With One Spoon territory. This is an agreement between the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Anishinaabeg and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the land and waters of the Great Lakes region.

Zero-Tolerance Policy for Abusive Behaviour towards Staff

Don Valley Community Legal Services is committed to providing a work environment in which all our staff are free from workplace harassment and violence, and treated with respect and dignity. We have a zero-tolerance policy for abusive behaviour towards or in the presence of our staff, and we reserve the right to immediately deny service if our policy is violated.