April 2005

Consortium Events

The Consortium’s kick off training event for 2005 was Leadership & Justice Training II: Effective Meeting & Facilitation Skills. The training focused on how to use facilitative processes to foster creative thinking, build consensus, and improve meetings. The depth of interest was so great that two days was insufficient to cover all of what participants wanted to learn. We are following up requests to share more techniques on facilitation and maximizing meeting efficiency. Consortium programs are encouraged to contact Randi Smith at rsmith@mlri.org or 617-357-0700 x339 with inquiries about follow up to this training or any other technical support needs.

Supporting the Power of Communities

The poorest community in Lawrence fought the city over the use of federal block grant money and won the park of its dreams. Workers in Chinatown organized to obtain severance pay beyond what they were entitled to under law. In metroBoston, persons with disabilities are uniting with parents of kids in strollers to demand accessible public transportation. Parents in Southbridge, Pawtucket and the hypothetical city of Ebbington are coming together to improve the quality of their children's education.

Working with each group is a community lawyer. The lawyer uses traditional lawyering skills and organizing techniques in the service of the community to help it achieve measurable results, results that also strengthen the community and create a more just society. The Community Lawyering Training combines the power of these stories -- told by community members as well as their legal aid partners -- with a framework for community lawyering and a set of tools for establishing a practice.

For three full days last week, sixteen legal aid lawyers and a team of experienced practitioners and trainers came together to learn about community lawyering, practice essential skills, and creatively think about ways to apply this learning to their work with local communities.The training was unique in its incorporation of story telling by people from communities who work with legal aid advocates to help them make their voices heard. Guest story tellers included Ana Luna of the Arlington Community Trabajando, Taramattie Doucette from GBLS, Karen Chen of the Chinese Progressive Association, Horace Small of the Union of Minority Neighborhoods and Susan Cohen of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo, P.C., and Kirirath (A.J.) Saing of the Khmer Association of the North Shore.

The event also featured a "Fair" where a number of exciting Community Lawyering initiatives throughout the region were showcased. Guest presenters at the fair included Steve Norman from Vermont Legal Services, Sheila Casey from Neighborhood Legal Services, Annette Duke from Mass Law Reform, Faye Rachlin from LACCM, and Monica Teixiera De Sousa from RILS and Fran Fajana from MLRI who were also trainers and small group facilitators at the training. We were also joined by Camille Holmes of Center for Law and Social Policy who presented a session on Identity, Culture, Power and Difference. Marc Potvin from NLS, Cyndi Mark from GBLS, and Shari Zimble and Ellen Hemley from MLRI were also trainers and small group facilitators. Special Thanks to everyone who came out to make this event a success.

Monica Teixiera de Sousa, a participant in the 2003 CL training and a facilitator at last week's event, described her work within the community and her legal services program that resulted in the establishment of a new community lawyering practice.

And Phil Kassel, the Litigation Director at SEMLAC, was inspired to write to the staff in his program that "there is value in working with community groups that cannot be measured in terms of cases handled or legal information imparted. This value accrues when advocates and groups become partners in action that is, to varying degrees but in large part, motivated, directed, and carried out by community members with advocates' assistance (as opposed to the other way around). Not only is some particular goal pursued when work is conducted in this fashion, but the power of communities to achieve goals independently is enhanced...While we continue looking for ways to tip the balance of our work more in the direction of systemic advocacy, we should consider how we can parlay these contacts into collaborative efforts that stand to benefit clients in significant numbers. Let's ask ourselves, with respect to groups with which we are currently in touch, whether the group has an affirmative agenda we can help advance? Are there other groups we should approach?"