Leadership through Service
In the Leadership through Service (LTS) component, students undertake voluntary roles within the community. Students may participate in voluntary work for legal or non-legal organisations. We encourage you to choose volunteer activities close to your heart and values, or which prepare you for your future social role and contribution. Seek out what is important to you and the area or areas where you want to contribute. It need not be explicitly justice-related but have its roots in a community project for the benefit of others. That community might be a environmental, sporting, ethnic or religious group.
Students are encouraged to seek out their own volunteering opportunities within the program criteria. Full details of the criteria can be found in the Brennan Handbook via the Program Resources webpage. In summary, these criteria require that LTS volunteering:
- is unremunerated (except for reimbursement of travel etc expenses)
- does not accrue academic credit
- is for a charity or not-for-profit
- not a private law firm, unless within their pro-bono initiatives, and
- is not for a political party.
How to find an LTS opportunity
Students can find volunteer opportunities regularly posted on:
- Canvas, under Announcements
- UTS Career Hub
- Go Volunteer
- Good Company
- Ripple
- Brennan Newsletter
- Brennan Collective Facebook Group
- Charity Walks, read about Clancy's experience to learn more.
- Through SOUL, you can access more volunteering opportunities via multiple program participation. Here's a full list of SOUL's suggestions.
Why volunteer?
Students in the Brennan Program have been active contributors in pro-bono work with law firms such as Dowson Turco Lawyers. Hear from Nicholas Stewart and Vishaya Pracy below, about what the Brennan program means to students and organisations. You can read more about UTS's partnership with Dowson Turco Lawyers in the UTS Social Impact Framework.
The Brennan Program is a voluntary program run for UTS law students. The key objectives of
the Brennan Justice and Leadership Program are to instil a sense of justice consciousness, and
an understanding of the rule of law. Also, it aims to encourage people to get involved with pro
bono work, so volunteering at a number of different organisations over the course of the
program, and ultimately just develop those leadership skills that you need to enter into the legal
practise.
The Brennan Justice Program is a really great program for university students to not only learn
about social justice, but also work practically in the community on social justice projects. It is
designed to look at those issues that perhaps mainstream society isn't looking at. It might
engage students to pursue other careers that they haven't considered.
The reason I chose to study law is because I was really passionate about making the world a
better place and getting involved in what I now know to be social justice issues, and on my very
first day of law school, the Brennan Program came and spoke at orientation and I remember
feeling so inspired and in awe by listening to people like me talk about the things that I cared
about, and that really was a moment that I was like, "I need to be involved in this in whatever
capacity I can."
The program makes sense to me because at its very core, it is about making sure law students
understand social justice and the role of law in changing society. Just makes sense for a
university to work with private practise to affect social justice change. And I think the Brennan
Justice Program is all about looking more deeply at the problems that we have in society and
looking at how we can tackle those. I feel so hopeful knowing that potentially thousands of
students are going to go through this program in the future, and they are all going to find
themselves in government, in companies, in not-for-profit organisations, and from early on in
their career, they will have developed all of these social justice framework skills that they can
then use as they pursue whatever they want to pursue.
Getting to experience the human rights sector as a student before I've even started my legal
career has been incredible in terms of shaping the way that I will approach the work that I do
when I graduate. I know that I will continue to be really involved in pro bono work, and that will
be a fundamental part of who I am as a lawyer. If you're thinking about getting involved in the
Brennan Program, it is easy. We design it around you. You get to volunteer where you want to
volunteer, you get to do everything you want to do, and really do the things that you care about.
Where have Brennan students volunteered?
This list is not exhaustive, but we hope listing Brennan students' past volunteering organisations will serve as a starting point and inspiration for your volunteering journey.
- Australian Pro Bono Centre
- The Refugee Advice & Casework Service (RACS)
- Women's Justice Network
- Anti-Slavery Australia (ASA): Brennan students assist with the ASA Youth Advocate Program, a research based, student-led program inspiring UTS student volunteers to engage with the community to raise awareness about the human rights abuses of forced labour and forced marriage. Students have also assisted with various awareness campaigns such as Humanmart.
- Amnesty International
- The Wesley Mission
- Mission Australia
- Oxfam Australia including the Oxfam Trailwalker
- Capital Punishment Justice Project (CPJP) formerly known as REPRIEVE
- Justice Action
- Community Legal Centres across Australia
- UTS Peer Network
UTS Law Students' Society (UTS LSS)
Have you been an active member of the UTS LSS in previous years? Get recognised for your efforts! If you've been involved in any of the annual LSS initiatives outlined in the 2024 UTS LSS Brennan Initiative Claiming Document (PDF, 77KB), touch base with the LSS president or appropriate VP supervisor for sign-off. You can also claim for previous years, as long as you've been an enrolled UTS Law student
- Law Society of NSW
- Charity Walks and Fundraising like City2Surf. Read more about this opportunity through Clancy's experience here.
How to Boost your LTS with Australian Red Cross Lifeblood
Donate blood through the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood Team
Ready. Set. Give!
People from all walks of life need blood. Some need it to get them through a serious event in their lives, like cancer or difficult pregnancy. Others have medical conditions which mean they need blood products regularly to stay alive or be healthy.
There are a few ways you can help.
Give Blood throughout the year. You can claim 3 LTS for giving blood or 5 LTS for plasma each visit with the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood Service. If you’re eligible, you can give blood every 12 weeks, that’s 12 LTS per year and bonus hours if you donate 3 or 4 times per year!
Join the UTS LSS Lifeblood team and donate in a group. Throughout the year, the UTS LSS and Brennan Administration team collaborate by organising a blood donation booking together. By putting your name down on the EOI: Group Blood Donation form, you can stay updated on the group event.
At the start of each session, we'll email all students who submit interest to confirm participation. Once we make a group booking, you'll need to log in and select your individual timeframe. If you're no longer able to donate, that's ok! You can join in next round and fill out the EOI form again.
Coming along in a group provides students an opportunity to meet one another and be supported if its their first time. We hope to see you there!
New to giving blood or plasma? Here’s what you need to know.
Am I eligible to give blood? Here’s what the Australian Red Cross says.
- Give blood or plasma on campus. That’s right, at UTS!
Check out the UTS Australian Red Cross Society Facebook page for upcoming Blood Drives. - Donate at a local Donor Centre near you.
To claim LTS hours per visit, take your best selfie at the time of blood donation and upload this to UTS CareerHub for 3 LTS hours. Email us for bonus point queries.
Before you give blood, please ensure you are healthy enough to do so. Visit the Red Cross webpage on the Covid-19 pandemic.
Please note: you can Join the UTS Law Lifeblood Team at any time. Each blood donation will count toward the team tally.
Don’t wait. Get involved.
How to log LTS hours via Career Hub
All new volunteer work should be submitted to the Program Administrator for prior approval for credit via email. Please provide the name of the organisation, the nature of the organisation's activities, and the description of your proposed role. Approval is not needed for LTS opportunities advertised on the Brennan Collective.
Once you are ready to claim your voluntary hours towards the Brennan Award, fill out the relevant details in the 'Leadership through Service' digital form located in your Brennan Justice and Leadership Program workflow on CareerHub, once signed up to the program.
Before filling out this online form, you and your LTS supervisor must complete and sign the Confirmation of Service form as you will be required to upload it at the end of the digital form as evidence of your service and hours completed.
Members of the Brennan Program not familiar with CareerHub, claiming should watch the below video and get in touch with our team if further advice is required.
Hey Brennanites. It’s Jennie Siow here, and I’m currently completing the Brennan Program like all of you!
In this video, I am going to demonstrate how to claim your ROJ points and LTS hours for the Brennan Justice and Leadership Program. It’s super easy.
Once you sign into CareerHub, you’ll notice the Brennan Program is under this dashboard tab here. Click on this and it takes you to your Program progress. This is my current progress. I signed up about 6 months ago. It’s worthwhile reading the Brennan emails and handbook, as there is quite a lot you can claim for with the LSS, Brennan and general social justice events you may attend. Now. Let’s show you how to claim. First, I’m going to talk about how to claim your ROJ points.
Step 1: Look for the appropriate category. To know which category your contributions fall into, check out the Brennan Program Handbook.
Step 2: Each category features this blue wording, which is the form you need to complete and submit to get the points – click the blue wording.
Step 3: Fill in the appropriate details like I am doing in this example for an LSS event (we call this an external event).
Step 4: Click ‘submit’. Or click on ‘save draft’ if you’re planning your claims out and would like to upload it later for approval. Keep in mind, that if you register and attend a Brennan Program event (one run by the Brennan Team, your points will be automatically accrued. So no need to claim!
Next, I’m going to show you how to claim your LTS hours. You can claim these as you go, with different organisations, submit hours in once a year, or at the end of your service. Whatever you prefer.
Step 1: Have your Confirmation of Service Form filled by your supervisor. This can also be a photo of the signed off form by yourself, or you and your supervisor can use Adobe to sign this digitally. This is a very common approach.
Step 2: Click on the blue wording - ‘submit Brennan program LTS claim form hours logged’
Step 3: Fill in the appropriate details.
Step 4: Upload your Confirmation of Service Form
Step 5: Click ‘submit’. Click on ‘save draft’ if you would like to upload it later
And that’s it! Told you it was easy right? If you have any questions though, just shoot the Brennan Team an email, and they’ll sort you out. They’re super helpful. Their email is: brennanprogram@uts.edu.au.
Till next time!