Testimonials
Hear about PLEO’s impact from non-profit executives, arts workers, and more who have experienced empowerment from legal education, information, and advice. Have you benefitted from a PLEO program? Reach out below!
Alison Brewin, Vantage Point
"PLEO is a vital program for non-profits across BC. The small non-profits we work with (we have 590 members across 48 communities in BC), their Boards and senior staff, struggle with complex legal issues related to charitable status, employment law, the Societies Act, and many other issues and function with very limited budget. This has been exacerbated by COVID. PLEO offers free and low cost help and advice that can help solve issues before they disrupt the important work these organizations do. By bringing together law students, lawyers and others to provide education and information, PLEO helps communities and individuals in the province succeed by helping the organizations that work so hard to make BC a great place to live and work."
Vanessa Gelhar, BC Museums Association
“There is an immense variety of educational resources available online, now more than ever. During these times of change and uncertainty, we have relied on the offerings from the Pacific Legal Education and Outreach Society (PLEO). Their large collection of resources has provided answers on how to navigate new aspects of our society's operations and the legal implications that come with that. We are grateful for the high quality, reliable, easily accessible information, and look forward to future installments of the Legal Lunch & Learns. Our first virtual AGM this October was a big success and our confidence in running it stemmed from the excellent planning resources available from PLEO.”
Esther Rausenberg, Artistic and Executive Director, Eastside Culture Crawl Society
"Back in the thick of Covid lockdown (April), the Eastside Culture Crawl society (ECCS) received a call that 40 artists were facing eviction from a studio that has been part of the Culture Crawl Festival since its’ inception some 24 years ago. Artists facing evictions at any time is stressful; more so, when society was in the throes of a lockdown contributed to that strain. In most instances, evictions are related to re-development. In this case, it was due to the leaseholder unable to meet their obligations. There was an opportunity here to change the narrative of yet another eviction. The artists required legal advice in order to move forward. ECCS connected with PLEO, and was able to access the legal resources required to negotiate through this challenging situation of leases, sub-leases etc. The result, a successful outcome with artists remaining in their studios. Without the legal support and advice this would not have been possible."
Gregoire Gagnon, Executive Director, Cultural Human Resources Council
"To artists and non-profit organizations, The cultural sector is hurting for resources in all things legal. I commend Martha Rans and the team at PLEO for their efforts to alleviate some of that pressure. I salute PLEO for the passion and generosity they bring while dealing with delicate subject matter in a friendly, safe and non-threatening manner. The informative plain-language demystification makes what can be scary subject matter enjoyable."
Shawn Mitchell, CEO, Trial Lawyers Association of BC and Board Director, Three Links Care Society
"In the past year I have taken a number of PLEO-run workshops (both in person and online). What I have appreciated is that PLEO addresses topics whose importance are obvious (e.g. sexual harassment in the workplace) AND not so obvious (e.g. record keeping under the new Societies Act). The presenters are always extremely knowledgeable, invite questions and interaction with participants. For nonprofits leery of incurring legal fees, PLEO’s sessions are an affordable and practical way to address issues of concern head on."
Marina Dawson, Manager, Community & Content, CharityVillage
"As the Manager, Community & Content for CharityVillage, I’m always on the look out for great organizations to collaborate with on various resources for our Canadian non-profit audience. It was my great pleasure to work with the team at PLEO on a webinar earlier this year about running a virtual AGM. The process of sponsoring the webinar was seamless and the content was extremely valuable and of keen interest to our users who registered in droves! The session itself was full of excellent information and the resource handouts given to participants afterwards were extremely helpful. As someone who facilitates regular webinars, I appreciated PLEO’s commitment to ensuring the organization and technology was smooth and easy, and a good experience for everyone. It was also great for us to be given a few minutes at the beginning of the webinar, as the sponsor, to be able to address the participants and introduce CharityVillage’s brand and services. I highly recommend PLEO to sector organizations needing additional legal resources, and wouldn’t hesitate to collaborate with them again."
Hope Lehman, Just BE (a Black Women's Business Community based out of Oakland, California)
Martha and PLEO supported Just BE (a Black Women's Business Community based out of Oakland, California) during one of our toughest business moments. We were in need of immediate legal counsel in Vancouver, BC after embarking on an ambitious project to support our Black Women creative entrepreneurs with an online marketplace. Martha sat on the phone with us for an hour listening to our story and sharing her expertise on the Vancouver legal system, its diversity challenges, and what she would advise we do next. She then connected us to a major law firm to help us secure legal counsel! Words cannot express our deep gratitude to Martha and PLEO for making this connection. It gave us hope during one of the toughest years our community has experienced with COVID-19 and the George Floyd protests. We are deeply grateful for PLEO and the powerful work Martha does every day to support creative entrepreneurs in Vancouver and beyond.
