LSC Programs Submit Regional Plans

March 1, 2001

Author: Anne Erickson

Driven by the Legal Services Corporation to develop regional approaches to the delivery of legal services and to look at reconfiguring the current LSC gant structure, the LSC-funded programs in the state have been engaged in intense strategic planning for the past few years. Working as part of a broader, statewide planning process that encompasses both LSC and non-LSC providers in the state, the regional planning efforts of the LSC-funded providers have resulted in the submission in mid-March of Regional Plans to LSC for its consideration.

What follows is a summary of the plans submitted from the Eastern, Central and Western New York regions. Long Island, with one LSC funded program, is its own region and has engaged in Island-wide planning with the legal and social services community to meet the legal needs of the poor on Long Island. New York City, also its own region, has proposed to re-vamp the structure of the LSC programs within the City, where Legal Services of New York City (LSNY) currently sub-grants its LSC funds to free-standing neighborhood offices.

The "Upstate" Plans

Each of these substantial plans reflects local and regional variation. All emphasize the need for client-centered, comprehensive and integrated delivery of legal services at the local and regional levels. Each envisions a creation of new regional Justice Communities which will bring together both legal services and social services agencies to work toward meeting the complete and complex needs of the client community. To varying degrees, the plans call for Justice Councils or Coordinating bodies which will become the vehicle for overseeing the implementation of the plans. These Councils will be responsible for coordinating the delivery of services, continuously identifying emerging client needs, launching regional task forces, arranging or providing staff training, organizing regional Client Legal Education efforts, coordinating the regional approach to the use of technology to meet the needs of both clients and programs, and engaging in the ongoing statewide planning efforts.

Eastern Region

The Eastern Region covers 15 counties with a poor population estimated at 220,000. It is currently served by the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York, the Legal Aid Society of Rockland, and Westchester Putnam Legal Services. Collectively, these programs will create a new 501-c-3: the Eastern Regional Community Justice Consortium (ERCJC) which will be a regional planning, marketing and coordinating institution. The three LSC providers would remain independent programs, but would work to integrate the regional delivery of services. The ERCJC will engage in joint fund-raising and work to expand the delivery of legal services while building toward greater diversity and cultural competence. The initial board of the Consortium will include the directors of the three LSC programs, a board member from each of the programs and the director of a community organization or social services agency from each of the region’s three geographical areas. The three LSC programs will pool resources to fund a Regional Coordinator to help staff the overall effort.

The Consortium will work to engage a broad array of community partners, to create powerful regional coalitions through which the legal needs of the poor "will be addressed in tandem with social services problems." The Consortium partners will develop and implement "community access solutions," envisioned in the plan as "holistic service delivery approaches in which legal services programs, social services providers, and community organizations deliver the tailored, integrated, comprehensive services needed by the region’s low income residents."

The ERCJC will engage in aggressive regional planning centered on priority issue areas, initially Homelessness Prevention, Domestic Violence and Welfare/Welfare to Work. In each of these arenas, the ERCJC will set regional priorities and establish regional task forces, each with a team captain and each "responsible for creating the blue print for the full access delivery system, training and mentoring, and development of legal strategies." The Task Force leaders will work closely with GULP advocates to tap substantive expertise and ensure the coordination of legal work at the state level.

The partners in the Eastern Region will develop a website through which they will deliver regional and localized client education materials, share information and expertise, and coordinate the delivery of services. The ERCJC will work to expand pro bono activities and will develop an Eastern Regional Pro Bono Coordinators Network. Partnering with the courts in the region, the ERCJC will work to help the courts more effectively manage the flow of cases and make the experience for clients more user friendly.

To officially launch the Eastern Regional Community Justice Consortium and as a way of ensuring accountability and follow-up, the plan envisions a series of Public Accountability Events (PACE events). The initial PACE, the "Eastern Region Conference on Creating Full Access to Opportunity," will announce the creation of the Eastern Regional Community Justice Consortium and will engage the broader community in planning for effective, regional interventions in the three targeted substantive priority areas.

Central Region

The Central Region serves 21 counties covering almost 23,200 square miles – one-half of the land mass of the state. The region has a 1990 poverty population of 226,312 and an LSC eligible population of approximately 305,500. In addition, Legal Aid Society of Mid New York is responsible for the LSC-funded statewide migrant project serving 28,301 eligible individuals.

The regional planners have come together as the Central New York Justice Community (CNYJC), which includes the four LSC-funded providers, Legal Aid for Broome and Chenango (LABC), Legal Aid Society of Mid-New York (LSMNY), Legal Services of Central New York (LSCNY) and North Country Legal Services (NCLS), along with the Rural Law Center, the Onondaga County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyer Project, Frank H. Hiscock Legal Aid Society, and the Clinical Programs of Syracuse University College of Law. Collectively, these programs have 23 full or part-time offices throughout the region.

The central region proposes the creation of two LSC-funded programs by merging Legal Aid of Mid New York and North Country Legal Services and merging Legal Services of Central New York with Legal Aid of Broome and Chenango. According to the plan, this "will create two complimentary organizations of equal size and resources that will continue to collaborate on efforts to deliver high quality services in the central region." The new configuration, combined with on-going regional strategic planning, "will create two non-profit law firms that can continually expand their institutional competency to deliver high caliber legal services to help stabilize the lives of clients who have been marginalized in society, helping them to achieve dignity and control of their lives."

To help oversee plan implementation, ensure accountability and coordinate activities, the Central Region Justice Community Council will be created and will include Project Directors, staff, board members, clients and representatives of non-LSC providers.

The regional partners will jointly develop a web site to enhance client access to services and legal education and to help bring staff together for training and education. The CNYJC will also explore the use of video-conferencing for staff training and client legal education. Recognizing that current resources do not allow for "one-lawyer-one-client" delivery of services, the CNYRJC will increase the use of self-help clinics and create a clearinghouse of self-help materials. Pro bono efforts will also be expanded.

The Central New York Justice Community also envisions the creation of five practice groups in: Housing, Welfare, Disability, Domestic Violence/Family, and Education. According to the plan, each practice group will be convened by one of our most experienced and respected lawyers in the substantive area. The practice groups will set their own agendas based on current needs and ‘best responses.’ The practice groups will bring new practitioners into constant contact with our most experienced lawyers without regard to geographic boundaries and provide opportunities for mentoring. Regional staff will continue to be active in the Task Forces convened by the GULP in order to tap statewide expertise and coordinate statewide responses to emerging client issues.

Western Region

The Western Region covers 19 counties from Chemung west to Lake Erie and from Lake Ontario south to the Pennsylvania boarder. The region is currently served by five LSC programs: Southern Tier Legal Services (STLS), Monroe County Legal Assistance (MCLAC) which includes Legal Aid of the Finger Lakes (LAFL), Oak Orchard Legal Services (OOLS), Niagara County Legal Services (NCLS) and Neighborhood Legal Services (NLS, Buffalo). In total, the western region has 24 legal services providers, including two volunteer lawyer programs, a number of unrestricted programs, including Farmworker Legal Services, the Public Interest Law Office of Rochester, and the Western New York Law Center, and the main office of the Greater Upstate Law Project. Indeed, as noted in the plan, the region "has what is probably the richest array of civil legal services providers in any largely rural area in the United States."

The plan envisions the five LSC programs becoming three, with Southern Tier and Chemung Legal Services combining, MCLAC, LAFL and OOLS becoming one grantee and Niagara Legal Services merging with either MCLAC or Neighborhood Legal Services. Even under a reconfigured system, local programs would maintain their individual program names and identities in order to protect and expand local fund raising capacities and continuity of local services.

The region proposes the creation of a Western New York Legal Services Coordinating Council, an Advisory Board, five substantive law task forces, four regional committees, and regional staff to be based with the LSC recipients and at GULP. The Coordinating Council will consist of the Board chair and directors of each of the three newly configured LSC grantees, the directors of the four affiliates (the merged LSC programs) and the director of GULP. It will be responsible for setting policy, identifying regional need, preparing strategic plans, hiring the regional coordinating staff, overseeing the preparation of work plans for the task forces, monitoring progress, ensuring coordination with the other regions and conducting periodic evaluations of regional efforts. The Advisory Board to the Council will be comprised of representatives of other regional legal services programs, human services agencies, staff attorneys and the Regional Coordinator. It will assist the Council in identifying current and emerging legal needs confronting the poor in the region and on developing local and regional service collaborations.

The "heart of the community" will be the regional task forces through which front-line staff will interact, identifying priority needs, offering training and mentoring opportunities, and undertaking coordinated, joint advocacy efforts. The initial Task Forces will be in Domestic Violence, Disability Law, Public Benefits, Housing and Education. Recognizing that the DV and DAP Task Forces currently coordinated by GULP and PILOR already have a strong regional focus, the plan calls for creating a more regional focus to the Benefits Task Force, re-instating the Housing Task Force and creating a new Education Task Force. In addition to helping coordinate legal work, the Task Forces will work to expand training opportunities for legal services staff, community agency staff and the non-LSC funded programs in the region.

The Council will work to expand pro bono efforts, further engage law students, and more aggressively use lay advocates to help meet client needs. On the technology front, the region will expand ProBonoNet to serve more private attorneys throughout the entire region. The community will continue to build on the work of the regional technology committee which has been in place for many years. The groups will monitor the progress of the Community Legal Intake and Referral Project to see if expansion to the entire region would be feasible.

Next Steps

Again, this provides but a summary of the regional plans. These plans will now be reviewed by the Legal Services Corporation which will decide whether or not to accept the reconfigurations proposed. The Corporation is expected to announce service delivery areas in April; these areas will determine how federal LSC funding will be distributed in New York. The Corporation could accept the program boundaries proposed by the programs after several years of intense regional planning, or it could simply draw its own geographic lines, carving the state into new and different service areas.