CLEO

What CLEO does

CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario / Éducation juridique communautaire Ontario) is a Toronto-based non-profit charitable organization that delivers legal information, training, and tools to community workers, frontline service providers, and Ontario residents, with particular focus on low-income and equity-seeking communities including Indigenous, francophone, and 2SLGBTQI+ populations. The organization operates a portfolio of digital platforms: CLEO Connect (the training and resources hub at cleoconnect.ca), Steps to Justice / Justice pas-à-pas (a step-by-step legal information website), Guided Pathways / Parcours guidés (interactive online form-filling tools covering family law, housing, wills, immigration, and CPP disability appeals), the Your Legal Rights collection of 380+ curated resources, plus a Letter Writing Tool and Live Chat support. Underlying technology is conventional web publishing and rule-based interactive questionnaires, with no AI/ML components evident in the source data.

The organization is funded primarily by The Law Foundation of Ontario and the Department of Justice Canada, and all services, workshops, and publications are provided free of charge to end users. Its go-to-market is community-led: customized workshops are delivered to groups of 10-20+ participants through partner organizations including legal clinics, community health centres, libraries, francophone associations, and Indigenous organizations across Ontario. Recent strategic activity has focused on geographic and topical expansion into northwestern Ontario (Thunder Bay and Kenora conferences with Indigenous partners in late 2025) and new subject-matter verticals including housing law, human trafficking, and AI-and-gender-based-violence content. Jessica Reekie serves as Executive Director. CLEO has 11-50 employees, a single Toronto headquarters, and Ontario-only geographic scope; revenue is not publicly disclosed.

Name

CLEO

Legal name

CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario / Éducation juridique communautaire Ontario)

Website

https://cleoconnect.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

1974

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

CLEO is a Toronto-based non-profit that delivers free legal information, training, and interactive digital tools to Ontario community workers, frontline service providers, and residents, with focus on low-income and equity-seeking communities.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Toronto

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Government Funding: CLEO is a non-profit charitable organization funded primarily by The Law Foundation of Ontario and the Department of Justice Canada. All publications, resources, workshops, and online tools are provided free of charge to users.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

CLEO is a non-profit charitable organization that develops and delivers free legal information, training, and digital tools for Ontario residents and the community workers who serve them. It operates three primary platforms — CLEO Connect (training and resource hub), Steps to Justice (step-by-step legal information website), and Guided Pathways (interactive online form-filling tools) — and delivers customized workshops to community organizations, healthcare providers, and legal clinics. All services, publications, and tools are provided free of charge.

Product overview

CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario / Éducation juridique communautaire Ontario) operates a suite of interconnected digital platforms and services for legal education in Ontario, Canada. The core offerings consist of CLEO Connect (the main training and resource hub), Steps to Justice/Justice pas-à-pas (English/French legal information websites), and Guided Pathways/Parcours guidés (interactive form-filling tools). These are supplemented by workshops, a resource collection with 380+ items from partner organizations, letter-writing tools, and live chat support. CLEO functions as a nonprofit legal education organization rather than a commercial software product, providing free legal information, training, and resources primarily for community workers and low-income individuals in Ontario.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Steps to Justice: A website providing step-by-step legal information for Ontario residents facing common legal problems
• Guided Pathways
• Justice pas-à-pas
• Parcours guidés
• Your Legal Rights

Products and services

• CLEO Connect Main training, tools, and resources hub for community workers, providing workshops, lesson plans, tip sheets, and legal information resources. It serves as the primary portal for accessing CLEO's training offerings and educational materials.
• Steps to Justice Online legal information website providing step-by-step information on common legal problems in Ontario. Includes practical tools, resources, letter-writing templates, and courtroom illustrations to help users navigate law-related issues.
• Guided Pathways Easy-to-use online interview tools that explain legal processes, help people fill out forms (family law, housing law, elder abuse, wills and powers of attorney, work permits, CPP disability appeals), and identify next steps like filing forms with the court.
• Justice pas-à-pas French-language version of Steps to Justice, providing the same legal information, tools, and step-by-step guides for French-speaking communities in Ontario.
• Parcours guidés French-language version of Guided Pathways, offering interactive online tools in French for filling out legal forms and understanding legal processes.
• Your Legal Rights Resource Collection A collection of 380+ legal information resources produced by organizations across Ontario, covering abuse, criminal law, debt, consumer rights, education law, employment, family law, health, disability, housing, human rights, immigration, income assistance, and more, including webinars, tip sheets, toolkits, and guides.
• Steps to Justice Workshop Customizable workshop teaching community workers how to use Steps to Justice/Justice pas-à-pas to find reliable legal information. Covers site navigation, Guided Pathways tools, letter-writing templates, and referral resources. Available in English and French, typically 60-90 minutes online or in-person.
• Guided Pathways Workshop Workshop teaching community workers how to use Guided Pathways to support clients with legal issues. Covers family law, elder abuse, wills and powers of attorney, work permits, housing law, and CPP disability benefits. Typically 60-90 minutes online.
• Building Legal Help Skills Workshop Workshop building skills for community workers to support clients with law-related questions and problems. Covers detecting potential legal problems, finding reliable legal information, giving legal information and support, using CLEO resources, and referring people to legal advice. Available in English and French.
• Health-Harming Legal Needs Workshop Workshop for healthcare providers building knowledge and skills to help low-income patients address health-harming legal needs related to housing, income support, family violence, and unsafe working conditions.
• CLEO Publications Printable legal information resources and publications available for free order through the CLEO website, covering various areas of Ontario law, for community workers and organizations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Training workshops available in multiple formats (60-90 minutes online, up to 3 hours in-person) for groups of 10-20+ participants
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Ne-Chee Friendship CentrecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 October 2025Co-host of the 'Helping clients with legal problems' conference in Kenora on October 21, 2025. Indigenous community organization.
• Legal Aid OntariocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 October 2025Co-host of the Kenora conference. Provincial organization providing legal aid services.
• Northwest Community Legal CliniccoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 October 2025Co-host of the Kenora conference. Community legal clinic serving northwestern Ontario.
• BeendigencoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 October 2025Co-host of the 'Helping clients with legal problems' conference in Thunder Bay on October 7, 2025. Beendigen is an Indigenous family healing agency providing culturally appropriate programs for Aboriginal women and children experiencing abuse.
• Kinna-aweya Legal CliniccoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 October 2025Co-host of the Thunder Bay conference. A community legal clinic serving the Thunder Bay area.
• Lakehead University Community Legal ServicescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 October 2025Co-host of the Thunder Bay conference. University-based legal clinic providing legal services.
• Newcomer Legal CliniccoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 October 2025Co-host of the Thunder Bay conference. Provides legal services to newcomers in the Thunder Bay area.
• Thunder Bay Multicultural AssociationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 October 2025Co-host of the Thunder Bay conference. Organization supporting multicultural communities in Thunder Bay.
• Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 June 2025Co-host of the Housing Law virtual conference in June 2026. CCHR is a charitable non-profit dedicated to ending discrimination in housing and promoting human rights in housing.
• Collège BoréalminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFrench-language college in Ontario hosting CLEO workshops for francophone community.
• Association des francophones de la région de York (AFRY)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFrancophone organization in York Region hosting CLEO workshops.
• Centre francophone du Grand Toronto (CFGT)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFrancophone community organization in Toronto and Mississauga hosting CLEO workshops.
• TAIBU Community Health CentreminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity health centre in Scarborough hosting CLEO workshops.
• Toronto Public LibraryminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPublic library system in Toronto hosting CLEO workshops for the community.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Éducaloi: Quebec's primary community legal education non-profit, providing plain-language legal information, training, and tools in French. Most direct functional peer to CLEO, operating under a parallel mandate in a different province and language context.
• People's Law School (AccessPro Bono Society of BC): British Columbia non-profit delivering plain-language legal education, self-help guides, and public legal information to residents. Closest English-language provincial analogue to CLEO's Steps to Justice model.
• Justice Education Society of BC: Non-profit providing public legal education, court and tribunal support programs, and resources to help people navigate the justice system in BC. Comparable mission and training-for-community-workers delivery model.
• Ontario Justice Education Network (OJEN): Ontario-focused justice education non-profit providing legal education programs and resources, particularly to youth and community organizations. Shares CLEO's geographic focus and community capacity-building mandate.
• Public Legal Education Association of Saskatchewan (PLEA Saskatchewan): Saskatchewan non-profit offering plain-language legal information, resources, and public legal education. Direct functional peer delivering similar resources to the public in another Canadian province.

Regional players

• Legal Aid Ontario: Provincial legal-aid organization serving low-income Ontarians. Closely related to CLEO through shared funder relationships and overlapping community-clinic networks, though it delivers direct legal services rather than education.
• Pro Bono Ontario: Ontario non-profit coordinating pro bono legal services for low-income individuals and communities. Operates in the same access-to-justice ecosystem as CLEO with overlapping partner clinics.
• Community Legal Aid Society of Calgary: Alberta community legal aid non-profit providing legal information, clinics, and outreach to low-income Calgarians. Comparable model of community-rooted legal information and education in a different province.
• BC Legal Services Society: British Columbia's legal aid provider, producing significant public legal information and self-help materials. Comparable mission of making legal information accessible to low-income residents in another jurisdiction.

Others

• Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR): National non-profit dedicated to ending discrimination in housing and promoting human rights in housing. Already a co-host with CLEO of a Housing Law virtual conference (June 2026), making it a direct ecosystem partner in the legal-information space.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CLEOConnect
• YouTubevimeo.com/cleolegalrights
• Facebookfacebook.com/CLEOLegalRights
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cleo-legal-rights

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CLEO