Module 3: State Examples

Executive branch policymakers increasingly appreciate how partnering with legal-aid and self-help service providers support state and federal goals of fiscal responsibility, effective social services, and improved outcomes for the people they serve. Many examples are included in the Grants Matrix and more still in the materials below.

This module helps you think about how to approach the myriad opportunities for state government partnerships with legal aid and includes some sample materials prepared by state partners. Depending on your state and its policy goals, you can focus on 1) a specific issue relevant to policymakers and legal aid – for example, helping people with a criminal record get a second chance to succeed – which can tap several funding sources, or 2) a specific federal pass-through funding source that allows spending on legal aid and its role in advancing a particular policy goal.

Start With the Issues

Arizona’s Priorities: Domestic Violence, child support, opioids, and second chances

Leaders of Arizona’s Access to Justice Commission prepared these mini-briefs for meetings with state policymakers to discuss how legal aid reduces barriers to employment, helps with re-entry, and keeps Arizonans working:

Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, and Oklahoma’s priorities: Help victims of crime related to the opioid crisis

Civil legal aid programs in Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia received funding from the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime (DOJ OVC) Enhancing Community Responses to the Opioid Crisis: Serving Our Youngest Crime Victims grant to launch projects that help children and their caregivers affected by the opioid crisis. These projects will work collaboratively with schools, law enforcement, health and social service providers, and other community partners. Building on this endorsement by the federal government – i.e., DOJ OVC recognizes that child victims of the opioid crisis need legal aid – several of these grantees are exploring ways to expand these services statewide with funding sources.

Hawaii’s priorities: Increase collaboration and identify programs that would produce better outcomes by embedding legal aid

The Hawaii Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable is a pilot project of the Department of Human Services, Access to Justice Committee, and the Hawaii Justice Foundation. The roundtable seeks to increase collaboration and efficiency across state departments, identify programs that would be more effective, efficient, and produce better outcomes by adding legal services to the supportive services provided, and leverage federal funds to increase access to legal aid for Hawaii’s most vulnerable.

Focus on a Specific Funding Source

NLADA Project to Advance Civil Legal Aid Collaborations (PACC) Case Studies