Reinvigorating Florida's
Legal Services Community Executive Summary Legal services in the State of Florida is a network of law firms committed to the principle that low income people need client-centered energetic affirmative advocacy to assist them with the important legal issues that they face and that access to justice is a basic human right. Through the use of a combination of legal assistance programs, we provide comprehensive legal services and strategies to address the civil legal needs of the indigent population of Florida. We seek creative solutions that empower our diverse client community. We strive to involve our clients as full participants in resolving their legal problems, treating them with dignity and respect. We value collaborations with other community organizations in order to break the cycle of poverty and improve the quality of our clients' lives. We believe that our clients' legal problems, whether simple or complex, require access to skilled advocates who are sensitive to client needs and who are able to address the critical issues faced by low income people. Florida Legal Services Community Vision Statement Over the last two years, the Florida legal services community has been involved in a dynamic and comprehensive planning process which has engaged the talents, thoughtfulness and creativity of scores of people across the state -- including legal services staff and program directors, community representatives and clients, bar leaders and others -- who care about Florida's system of justice for low-income people. The planning process has been guided from the beginning by the goal of "energetic affirmative advocacy" which emerged originally in response to the perception by some that the Florida legal services community had become less able to provide the kinds of advocacy that would help "break the cycle of poverty" and significantly "improve the quality" of low-income clients' lives. Regardless of whether or not there had been a real or perceived diminution of energetic affirmative advocacy, there was general agreement that the delivery system itself needed to be examined in light of significant new challenges facing low-income people as well as the impact statewide of funding cuts and restrictions on programs funded by the Legal Services Corporation. The planning process was also a response to LSC's requirement that legal services programs engage in state planning. Articulated more fully in the Florida community's core values, "energetic affirmative advocacy" embraces such elements as client-centeredness, empowerment, commitment to excellence, equal access to justice, innovation, collaboration and partnership (a complete list of the core values is included in the State Plan document). These values are both the inspiration that has driven the Florida community's planning process and the standard against which all of the state planning recommendations have been measured and against which implementation will ultimately be evaluated. The State Plan represents the first phase of the state planning process which included study and evaluation by working committees of seven key areas of legal services delivery including client access, collaboration, legislative and administrative advocacy, resource development, technology, training and technical assistance and vision. These recommendations and the final Plan into which they have been consolidated embody the collective efforts of close to eighty individuals serving on the seven working committees as well as members of the Oversight Committee and Project Director Association which each had input during the study and evaluation process as well as into recommendations contained within the final Plan. The Plan also represents staff and field program input received through a pre-planning survey during the summer of ‘99 as well as comments on the draft State Plan report circulated this past summer. The Oversight Committee (comprised of members of The Florida Bar Foundations' Legal Assistance for the Poor Grant Committee and representatives from The Florida Bar's Board of Governors, the judiciary, local bar associations, project directors, and a client) will have ultimate responsibility for approving the final State Plan. Building upon the significant strengths of the Florida legal services community, the Plan includes both measures which simply fine-tune what is already working effectively as well as those that represent significant changes in how the legal services delivery system is organized. The underpinning of all the recommendations is the notion of collaboration which recognizes the interdependency and connection within and between LSC and non-LSC-funded programs as well as among the extended community of advocates, social service providers, community groups, bar associations and others. Regionalization of legal assistance programs is one of the most essential components of the State Plan. The regionalization plan calls for creation of six regions in the state in which programs within a region will reach agreements on minimum core services to be provided to clients as well as agreements on other important areas, including how client intake, brief advice, case selection and referral systems are carried out. This particular recommendation flows directly out of the Florida community's commitment to ensuring client access to services regardless of where they live or what particular challenges they face by way of, for example, language or mobility. The Plan also includes a number of initiatives to strengthen state support including creation of two new statewide positions to support technology and training/technical assistance as well as specific directives about what the role of these new coordinators will be. The Plan also calls for the development of a new structure of issue-driven task forces to support statewide advocacy on substantive issues facing clients. Believing strongly that the configuration of Florida's legal services programs must be able to support the commitment to a statewide comprehensive and integrated delivery system, the planners identified two distinct but complementary values that are reflected in several of the committees' recommendations and that must be in place to ensure successful implementation of the State Plan. These include, on the one hand, the value of local presence and connection to client communities and institutions such as local bar associations, community groups and funders and, on the other hand, the values of statewide effectiveness and accountability. While the planners believe that the current configuration of legal assistance programs best supports the maintenance of deep ties and connections to local client communities and institutions, they also recognize that simply maintaining the status quo will not move the Florida community closer to realizing its core values and vision. The regionalization plan for client intake and core services with substantially enhanced state support and community education represents a significant restructuring of the existing legal services delivery system and reflects the complementary values of local connection and statewide effectiveness. The Florida legal services community believes that such an approach will both improve state integration and coordination, and will continue Florida's success in developing local partnerships. The Florida legal services community recognizes that a state plan cannot end with development of the state planning document. The planners believe that the hard work of turning these recommendations into reality will take place incrementally and over an extended period of time. To that end, the planners have developed an implementation plan in which the same thoughtful and inclusive process which characterized the study and recommendation phase will be continued. The plan will be "kicked off" at a statewide meeting in February, 2001. The meeting, to be attended by staff, client representatives and board members from across the state, will provide a platform for engaging the larger legal services community by sharing the core values, vision and specific initiatives contained within the State Plan. Finally, the Florida community, with direct involvement and oversight by the Bar Foundation, will carefully monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the entire State Plan, especially those aspects of the Plan related to configuration. In sum, the planners are confident that by building on
the shared values and broad areas of agreement contained within the State Plan, the
Florida legal services community will be able to realize the goals and objectives of
enhanced client-centered energetic affirmative advocacy throughout the state. |