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Developing Partnerships in a Digital Word

Developing Partnerships in a Digital Word. 2011 TIG Conference January 13, 2011. Christine Mandiloff, Montana Legal Services Association Vince Morris, Arkansas Legal Services Partnership Marc Theriault, Legal Aid Society of Louisville Liz Keith, LawHelp Program Manager. Partnership themes.

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Developing Partnerships in a Digital Word

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  1. Developing Partnerships in a Digital Word 2011 TIG Conference January 13, 2011

  2. Christine Mandiloff, Montana Legal Services Association • Vince Morris, Arkansas Legal Services Partnership • Marc Theriault, Legal Aid Society of Louisville • Liz Keith, LawHelp Program Manager

  3. Partnership themes • Making connections • Finding common ground • Defining roles and expectations • Weaving in technology • Sharing resources (or the lack of) • Sustaining partnerships (or letting them go)

  4. Context • Montana Legal Services is the only statewide provider of free legal services to low to middle income Montanans. • Montana is huge, has a sparse population, is primarily rural. There are not very many private attorneys. The 2005 Montana legal needs study showed that many Montanans’ legal needs aren’t met. This mirrored the conclusions of the Legal Services Corporation’s “Documenting the Justice Gap” study released in 2005. • The legal community in Montana became aware of the problems and decided to do something about it (helped by Chief Justice Karla Gray). Therefore, MLSA enjoys being on the same page regarding promoting access to justice.

  5. MontanaLawHelp.org • TIG grant • General legal information and referral web site • Partners include MLSA, Pro Bono Net, State of Montana Bar, State of Montana Supreme Court, State of Montana Law Library, Montana Justice Foundation. • Community buy-in: Led to collaboration with Montana Credit Union Network. • Formalized partnerships. Stakeholder committee. Meetings. MOU. • Formalization has mellowed. MLSA still solicits and gets input from stakeholders, meets periodically with legal partners to collaborate and to maximize resources, avoid replication or problems.

  6. MontanaFreeFile.org (I-CAN) • TIG grant • MontanaFreeFile.org promotes I-CAN and other free tax filing services and tax help. • Legal Aid Society of Orange County, Montana returns • Partners include MLSA, Pro Bono Net, Credit Union Network, MT Dept. of Revenue, Opportunity Link Inc., and Rural Dynamics Inc.

  7. Eastern Montana LiveHelp Kiosk Project • TIG grant • Promotes and expands LiveHelp in rural Eastern Montana through 3 kiosk sites. • Partners are MLSA, Pro Bono Net, State of Montana Law Library, State of Montana Supreme Court Office of Court Administrator. • Formalized partnerships. Meetings. MOU with project sites.

  8. Lessons Learned • Start with people who are already convinced. Seek out pre-existing access to justice organizations or committees. It’s likely others are interested in the same thing. Work with allies to persuade others. • Use data to support your arguments. • Define roles and expectations. Everyone should know who is doing what, when, and why. Avoids replication, minimizes problems, increases sustainability. Formalization to some degree is a must, especially when you are first working together. • If your organization is best suited to lead the effort, do it. Don’t be shy. Establishing leadership initially, with input and agreement from partners, is most effective for certain projects.

  9. Lessons Learned • Educate partners as to the benefits of technology. Don’t assume they already know. Invite them to trainings, demonstrations. Take the time to show them how technology can be useful. • Emphasize collaboration so that scarce resources are maximized. No one has enough money or time. Demonstrate how collaboration can help save both. • Sustaining the work of partnerships demands communication. List servs and shared databases are good ways to maintain partnerships without face-to-face meetings. • Ineffective partnerships seem to fade away. But you must be willing to deal with ineffective partners who wish to continue collaborating.

  10. Lessons Learned • There are benefits as well as detriments to partnership. • If you make nice in the sandbox the other kids will usually want to share their toys with you. In other words, partnering opens up access to resources that you would not have available to you on your own. • Working in partnership sometimes means you will need to explain why you want to do something on your own, or with other partners. You must learn how to set expectations and communicate your intentions so that if you do this your actions are not seen as a betrayal. • Making sure that goals are the same is essential. Sometimes goals seem the same . . . But they really aren’t.

  11. Questions? Contact: Christine Mandiloff Community Legal Education Attorney Montana Legal Services Association406/442-9830 x 31 cmandilo@mtlsa.org

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