Meeting the challenge of providing civil legal assistance
to military and veteran households
2011 NLADA Annual Conference in Washington DC
10 strategies to improve legal aid support to low-income military veteran households
1. Ask your existing clients whether they or someone in their household is serving or has served in the military. You’ll find many have a military connection and the specific problem for which you are helping them may be just part of their overall need for service.
2. Promote staff and client awareness and use of www.statesidelegal.org and local “go to” resources (including nonprofit, law school or State funded programs that prioritize military/veteran households, as well as liaisons in local Congressional offices that handle referrals for military/veteran issues.)
3. Consider joining or encouraging the formation of local bar association initiatives to serve this client population. Talk about ways your program might be a resource with your State’s LAMP representatives at http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/helpreservists/lamphrdirectory.html
4. Talk with the attorneys in your community/State who serve as JAG officers on a full or part-time basis, so they know the types of cases to refer to your program and when they might use your staff on a consultation basis. http://legalassistance.law.af.mil/content/locator.php
5. Reach out to the local vet centers in your community – experience suggests their clients have many legal needs consistent with traditional case acceptance priorities. In the fall of 2010, LSC launched this collaboration in the mid-Atlantic region, Maine, and Arkansas. http://www.vetcenter.va.gov/
6. Look for ways to strengthen support to homeless veterans. The VA staffs Project CHALENG http://www1.va.gov/HOMELESS/chaleng.asp which partners with local agencies and provides an annual report on unmet needs of homeless veterans, including legal needs. The new VA SSVF grant program includes funding for legal services in connection with other support for homeless veterans.
7. Participate in “resource fairs” and other events serving these clients, including “Operation Stand-Down” for homeless veterans http://www.nchv.org/standdown.cfm. or “Yellow Ribbon” events (pre or post deployment) for Guard families. www.guardfamilyyouth.org/YRRP/Default.aspx.
8. See if your State or community has an active chapter of the “military and community network” – a grassroots organization designed to understand, prevent, and help deal with the lingering aftereffects of war on service members, their families, and their communities. The ME group holds local and regional meetings and sponsors training and other programs. http://www.mainemcn.org/about/
9. Check with your State Dept of Labor to identify the liaisons supporting veteran services, including job training programs and the special unemployment compensation program for returning veterans. In Maine, they sponsor an annual Veterans Resource Fair and also are willing to hand out program materials on high priority legal needs.
10. The Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunities for Military Children http://statesidelegal.org/educational-programming-children-military-families requires liaisons in the participating States. That person can be a contact point for your program’s advocacy on special education/residency and other school issues;
Drafted by Nan Heald, Pine Tree Legal Assistance, December 2011