Session Highlights
The Client Track this year will consist of eight sessions that will prove to be quite enlightening, interactive, and extremely informative! Highlighted are a few new and exciting tracks that will be featured that you won't want to miss!
Clients and Board Positions
Jessica Keith
, Board Chair, Legal Aid of Wyoming
Ray Macchia
, Executive Director, Legal Aid of Wyoming
How do clients become leaders on their boards? The voices of client board members are extremely important! How do we change the culture of our boards? In this session you will hear from a team that explains not only the importance of having a client member on the board, but in an executive position on the board. You will explore the steps to become an integral part of the board, make important changes for your organization, and learn how to communicate with your board as well as donors. Our panelists are veterans at identifying and assisting change within a program. One step forward is a change for those we represent!
For Such a Time as This: Inspiring a Shared Vision
Charles V. Wynder Jr.
, Staff Office for Social Justice & Advocacy Engagement, The Episcopal Church
Rosita Stanley
, Vice Chair, NLADA Board of Directors
Inspiring a shared vision is a core leadership competency for community-based equal justice leaders. Join us for an interactive presentation of ways to enhance your capacity and effectiveness in envisioning a future and enlisting others in a compelling vision for change, transformation, justice, and renewal.
Legal Services’ Community Engagement & the Poor People’s Campaign of Today
Charles V. Wynder Jr.
, Staff Office for Social Justice & Advocacy Engagement, The Episcopal Church
Rosita Stanley
, Vice Chair, NLADA Board of Directors
Join us for an interactive workshop that discusses the role of community engagement and client-centered legal services in the age of The Poor People’s Campaign for today.
Lifting up Community Voices in State Administrate Proceedings
Patrick Cicero
, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Utility Law Project
Rochelle Jackson
, Client Board Member, Neighborhood Legal Service Association (Pittsburgh, PA)
Marsha White-Mathis
, Client, Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network
This session is designed to discuss the importance of engagement by community organizations and other community voices in proceedings before state agencies and to identify the barriers that prevent engagement and how to overcome them. While the focus will be work performed before state and public utility commissions, the techniques will be applicable to many clients seeking to be more involved in proceedings before administrative agencies in their state. The session will address questions such as: Why is democratizing utility advocacy important? How do community groups make the process more accessible to impacted voices? How do we build capacity for those who historically have been left out of regulatory proceedings to effectively intervene? The session seeks to provide a vision for a paradigm shift to a regulatory process that centers the voices of clients and the community.
LSC and the Client Voice
Julie Reiskin
, Executive Director, Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition
James J. Sandman
, President, Legal Services Corporation
An annual conversation among the client community, LSC President Jim Sandman, and LSC Board Member Julie Reiskin. This is an opportunity for discussion on policy issues that affect client board members, a place for the client community to give direct input to LSC leadership, and for LSC to report to the community on what it has been doing and how it has engaged clients over the past year. This is also an opportunity for client board members to ask questions.
Now That You’ve Become a Board Member . . . What’s Next?
Evora A. Thomas
, Senior Program Counsel, Legal Services Corporation
Too often, members are appointed to boards of directors with little understanding of the role or responsibilities they should assume. To help them in finding their voice in the position, this presentation will provide the audience an interactive opportunity to explore three aspects of board governance relevant to the client audience: board structure, client engagement, and LSC requirements. The presentation will be based on the Nuts & Bolts of Board Governance, a handbook on the basic principles of effective board governance and engagement, particularly for governing body members of LSC-funded organizations that was first introduced at NLADA's 2010 Client Impact Leadership Conference in Chicago, Illinois. The session will also address the benefits and challenges of a diverse governing body and strategies to effectively manage the differences. This presentation will incorporate recent LSC advisory opinions interpreting the LSC regulations on governing bodies, changes in the LSC Performance Criteria, and current best practices in the nonprofit governance sector.
The Importance of Reentry in Achieving Meaningful Justice
Ronald Simpson-Bey
, Director of Outreach and Alumni Engagement, JustLeadershipUSA (New York, NY)
Eddie Ellis
, ICAN Coordinator at Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth
There are many stages in achieving meaningful advocacy throughout the civil legal aid and public defense community. Early access to help and zealous advocacy can significantly increase the chances for a good outcome. The holistic identification of all needs that clients may have that drive them into the care of legal professionals is also known to be the best course of action for a sustainable resolution to legal challenges. But what happens when the “case” is closed and the client moves on to navigating through challenges like taking care of a family, securing a safe and healthy living environment, obtaining employment, and being accepted in the community? Reentry can be the most critical stage for clients. This session will explore the challenges in reentry and provide guidance in how the client community can access services, hone advocacy skills, and navigate through challenges with effective strategies and confidence.
Wills, Trusts, and Estates
Terry Hamilton
, Managing Attorney, Pro Se/Self Help Project, Lone Star Legal Aid
Description forthcoming – updated information will be posted once available
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