Services

Open since June 1984, the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE) is one of seventy community legal clinics in the Province of Ontario funded by Legal Aid Ontario. ACE serves people 60 years of age and over in the greater Toronto area, and may also provide services to seniors outside of Toronto if the case is of significance to the seniors' community. ACE also works with the local community clinics across the province to provide legal services to seniors in the jurisdiction of those other clinics.

ACE provides direct legal services, public legal education, and law reform.

The direct legal services are in a wide variety of areas of law including pension problems, advocacy for seniors in long-term facilities, care homes, elder abuse, seniors pensions, and issues concerning mental incapacity. ACE complements the services already being provided by the private Bar under the certificate program of Legal Aid Ontario. ACE also assists seniors to obtain the services of the private Bar in the event that the service needed is not one that can be provided by the staff at ACE.

In the public legal education program, staff of ACE participate in conferences, do speaking engagements, and prepare written material for seniors and service providers to seniors. With an emphasis on self-advocacy, the public legal education program is directed at providing seniors with the information necessary to advocate for themselves or to identify problem areas in which they may wish to seek other legal assistance. Education programs are also directed at service providers to seniors to educate the community to recognize the rights of the seniors' population.

In respect to the law reform function of ACE, ACE staff prepare briefs, do analysis of legislation, engage in research, and engage in other work necessary to advocate for changes in legislation or policy to improve the status of seniors in Ontario.

For additional information see the ACE Brochure. The ACE Brochure is in Portable Document Format (PDF). You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print these publications. [Free Download]. If you are using a visual reader and cannot read PDF documents, please contact ACE for a hard copy of the document.