Program areas at OneJustice
Pro Bono Justice Program: During Fiscal Year 21-22, OneJustice brought together more than 60 legal aid organizations, law firms and corporations to address emerging needs, highlight successful pro bono models, and strategize on the effective management and strategic deployment of volunteer resources. This included OneJustice's annual Pro Bono Conference, webinars, and strategy meetings throughout the year, which addressed topics, such as language justice and pro bono, housing pro bono opportunities, legal name change and gender marker change clinics, and hybrid pro bono work. The law firms and corporations supported by OneJustice contributed a majority of the hours donated to legal aid programs throughout California. OneJustice also offered resources, training and consulting on best practices and innovative uses of technology to expand pro bono services to underserved communities. For example, OneJustice's Remote Clinic Toolkit, developed in 2020 to help legal services organizations pivot to a remote service model, has been shared with over 120 legal services organizations across 25 states. OneJustice also partnered with rural legal aid organizations in California to develop a streamlined pro bono clinic service delivery model, with the goal of better accessing and serving client communities and engaging remote volunteers. OneJustice also provided support to legal services programs with their remote legal clinic models, including projects offering legal services to domestic violence survivors, rural and underserved communities, immigrants fleeing persecution, and small business owners and entrepreneurs in the Inland Empire. Through its Pro Bono Training Institute, OneJustice trained over 2,000 individuals from law firms, legal aid organizations, law schools, and universities on critical legal topics, including housing, asylum, and disaster relief. Since its inception, the Pro Bono Training Institute has published 169 training modules spanning 28 topics and have been accessed by more than 10,000 volunteer attorneys, law students, and legal aid staff.
Healthy Nonprofits Program: During Fiscal Year 21-22, OneJustice provided training, resources, and consultations to over 100 legal services organizations that serve more than 500,000 individuals per year, with the goal of optimizing their performance and community impact. OneJustice completed the twelfth year of its Executive Fellowship program, an intensive 10-month program on nonprofit leadership and management. OneJustice trained leaders from 28 legal services organizations in California, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, and Washington state. 50% of these leaders identified as BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+.OneJustice also provided in-depth support to many of California's largest legal aid organizations, assisting leaders statewide with management issues and sharing of best practices. In addition, OneJustice offered programming to legal services organizations across California on essential topics, such as effective data practices in homelessness prevention, program evaluation, budgeting and financial management, advancing equity in board leadership, and leadership succession planning. OneJustice co-led a California statewide working group to develop a new legal resource to help families who were unable to pay rent during COVID and had to defend themselves in small claims court. This new toolkit includes sample forms and materials in 12 different languages. Legal services organizations used the toolkit to expand services for low-income families. OneJustice also created the Small Claims CourtWatch project, with the goal of training pro bono attorneys, law students and legal aid attorneys to gather information on how Small Claims Courts administered new COVID-19 rental debt laws and procedures so families would be better prepared.OneJustice supported public policies that increase access to legal services for low-income Californians. OneJustice advocated on state and federal bills that would impact immigrant and low-income Californians who had been hit particularly hard by the pandemic and natural disasters. In addition, OneJustice advocated for the importance of legal aid with legislators.