Module 4: Additional Tools and Publications

Resources to help states and partners support civil legal aid

This module has a potpourri of additional tools to help connect a wide range of policy priorities to legal aid including via webinars, data sources and model advocacy language. Here, you will also find links to the Justice in Government Project’s publications, webinars, and media page and our COVID-19 Resources page.

Data Sources

Demographic Data

Education Data

Family Data

  • The Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse, established by the U.S. Department of Health Administration for Children and Families, conducts reviews of research on programs and services intended to provide enhanced support to children and families, including kinship navigation models. The Clearinghouse also makes their Handbook of Standards and Procedures available online.
  • The National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect provides high quality datasets, documentation, and technical support for foster care-related studies.
  • The Children’s Bureau collects case-level information from state and tribal Title IV-E agencies on all children in foster care and those who have been adopted with Title IV-E involvement. ACF publishes the annual AFCARS Report, which provides the most up-to-date national statistics on foster care and adoptions. See FY 2019’s report (released June 2020). 
  • The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System is a voluntary data collection system that gathers information from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico about reports of child abuse and neglect. The Children’s Bureau publishes the annual Child Maltreatment report on data provided by the states. See 2017’s report (released January 2019).
  • The National Youth in Transition Database collects information about youth in foster care and those who have aged out of the foster care system. As of June 2019, the Children’s Bureau has published six data briefs using findings from these surveys.
  • Annie E. Casey Family Program’s KIDS COUNT maintains data and statistics on the educational, social, economic, and physical well-being of children on local, state, and national levels.
  • Child Trends has reports and data on early childhood, education, and youth, including databanks on foster care and maltreatment.
  • National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel (NCCRC) has an interactive map with the latest civil right to counsel activities, the status of civil right to counsel law by case type (child welfare, paternity, guardianship, etc.), the efforts in which the NCCRC is involved, and the states where NCCRC has a presence in policy development.

Health Data

Justice Data

Workforce Data

Consumer Data

Courts Data

Housing Data

Federal Housing Data

Evidence-Based Best Practices

Other Resources

  • For more information about civil legal aid messaging, communications, and story-telling, go to the Voices for Civil Justice and All Rise for Civil Justice websites. The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) has collected client success stories.
  • For a more comprehensive repository of legal aid related research, go to the National Legal Aid & Defender Association’s LegalAidResearch website.
  • The American Bar Association has collected legal needs assessments.
  • The Center for Victim Research is continually adding to their Research Syntheses on the state of the field for multiple victimization types and their Library which includes a public collection of over 1,000 resources.

Model Civil Legal Aid Advocacy

Advocacy for Survivors

  • In October 2020, the Northwest Justice Project submitted comments for the DOJ OVW Task Force meeting on violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women. These comments provide model advocacy language for legal aid organizations serving AI/AN populations.

Advocacy for Families and Children

  • On August 10th, 2020 David Kelly, Special Assistant to the Associate Commissioner at the HHS Children’s Bureau, delivered remarks about the imperative to stop confusing poverty with neglect and the critical role legal representation makes for families in the child welfare system at the National Center for State Court’s (NCSC) Ensuring Justice in Child Welfare Virtual Summit. 
  • On August 26th, 2020 Allison Green, the Legal Director at the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC), testified before the Kansas Special Committee on Foster Care Oversight to highlight the growing bipartisan movement towards legal advocacy and the proven opportunities it presents to states prioritizing family and youth well-being. 

Webinars About Legal Aid and Effective Government

Employment

Combatting the Opioid Epidemic

Title IV-D and Child Welfare

Medical-Legal Partnerships

Legal Aid During COVID-19

  • The ABA Resource Center for Access to Justice Initiatives and The Justice in Government Project co-hosted a webinar on Civil Legal Aid Funding in the Time of COVID-19. The panelists included: Shubi Deoras (ABA Resource Center for Access to Justice Initiatives), Karen A. Lash (JGP), Jim Bamberger (Washington State Office of Civil Legal Aid), Patrick Cicero (Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network), and Stephanie Harris (Ohio State Legal Services Association).

NLADA Webinars

JGP Publications, Webinars, and Media

The Justice in Government Project (JGP) helps bridge the gap between what researchers can tell us and what policymakers need to know about civil legal aid. Here, you can find JGP publications, webinars, and media mentions that illustrate how civil legal aid can help advance access to justice. 

Featured Publications

Webinars Featuring JGP

Other Media Featuring JGP

  • JGP director Karen Lash was recognized in a New Republic article, “No Money, No Lawyer, No Justice”, that uncovers the inequities of the civil legal system and the individuals mobilizing to fix them. As the first executive director of the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable during the Obama administration, Lash collaborated with 22 federal agencies to advance civil legal aid as a means to enhance government program effectiveness. The JGP replicates LAIR’s strategy at the state level.
  • Karen Lash was interviewed by Law360 in a series of discussions with leaders in the access to justice field. The results of the interview, covering Lash’s work in the Department of Justice and her current work with state executive branches to improve program outcomes through civil legal aid, were published in an article titled, “Karen Lash On Finding Legal Aid Funding In High Places”.