Spring 2018 1 JOURNAL MANAGEMENT INNOVATION EXCELLENCE FOR LEGAL AID VOLUME XXXII NO. 1 SPRING 2018

SPECIAL ISSUE: ADVANCING

From the Journal Committee 2 Special Feature: Advancing Equity Is My Program Diverse? A Discussion on Implicit Bias and Diversity in Hiring 3 By Gina Polley, Esq., Deputy Chief , Maryland Legal Aid, and Brenda Marrero, Esq., Deputy Director of Operations, Community Legal Services, Inc. of Philadelphia Access to : Ensuring that Legal Aid is Accessible to Clients with Disabilities 7 By Barry C. Taylor, Vice President of Civil Rights, Equip for Equality Diversifying Our Reach — The Legal Services LGBT Gender Justice Project 11 By Jocelyn Jauregui Armand, Advocacy Director of the Health and Income Maintenance Unit, Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. Growing Our Own Future: Creating Leadership Opportunities Within 15 By Nalani Fujimori Kaina, Director, Legal Aid Society of Hawai‘I, and Nikole Nelson, Executive Director, Alaska Legal Services Corporation Building a Coalition to Address Worker Harassment 19 By Nadia Hewka, Supervising Attorney, Employment Project, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia Addressing Implicit Bias in the Legal Services Office 23 By Lauren Breen, Executive Director, Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc. Working Toward Equal Justice: Addressing the Challenges of Implicit Bias, Racial Anxiety, and Stereotype Threat for Legal Aid and Legal Services 27 By Rachel D. Godsil, Director of Research and Co-founder, Perception Institute, and Dushaw Hockett, Executive Director, Safe Places for the Advancement of Community and Equity (SPACEs) Implicit Bias Training 30 By Andrea DeTellis, Managing Attorney, and Linda Rothnagel, Director of Advocacy, Training and Volunteer Services, Prairie State Legal Services Addressing Bad Behaviors in Your Civil Justice System 34 By Nan Heald, Executive Director, Pine Tree Legal Assistance Rules of Professional Conduct Address Issues of Discrimination and Harassment 37 By Merf Ehman, Executive Director, Columbia Legal Services Transforming Culture — An Examination of Workplace Values Through the Frame of White Dominant Culture 40 By Merf Ehman, Executive Director, Columbia Legal Services The Racial Justice Institute: Bringing a Race Equity Lens to Legal Services Advocacy 46 By Janerick Holmes, Kimberly Merchant and Ellen Hemley, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law Relearning America’s History of Race — A Beginner’s List of Resources 51 Contributions from the MIE Journal Committee Crossword Puzzle: Inclusivity 55 SPECIAL FEATURE: ADVANCING EQUITY

The Racial Justice Institute: Bringing a Race Equity Lens to Legal Services Advocacy

By Janerick Holmes, Kimberly Merchant and Ellen Hemley1 Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law

Although race and poverty have been entwined transformative change, we must address not only the throughout America’s history, the link between them consequences of racism, but also the institutions and has often been ignored. Roughly 43 million people in structures that create systems designed to adversely impact certain groups while advantaging others.

Building a Cadre of Skilled and Committed Racial Justice Advocates Recognizing the critical link between race and poverty, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law (Shriver Center), with support from a dedicated and talented national Advisory Committee, launched the Racial Justice Institute (RJI) in 2014. RJI is a Janerick Holmes (L); Kimberly Merchant (C); Ellen Hemley (R) cutting-edge national leadership program, grounded in a commitment to racial equity as an integral and essen- the United States live in poverty. This number is shock- tial part of anti-poverty advocacy. The goals of the RJI ingly high, but it is even worse when you look at how are to strengthen advocacy capacity of both individual poverty is experienced by people of color, twice as advocates and organizations and to build an ongoing many of whom live below the poverty line as whites. national network of equal justice advocates who are The racial biases that contribute to poverty take committed to and skilled in advancing a coordinated many forms and infect all systems in our society. People racial justice advocacy agenda. of color disproportionately experience discrimination Now in its fifth year, RJI has cultivated over 200 in the workplace, environmental contamination, hous- advocates from 81 organizations in 28 states and the ing discrimination, and over-policing. District of Columbia. Participating Fellows attend the And beyond overt racism, systemic biases — pref- Institute as members of racial equity teams. The first erences built into structures and institutions — are four cohorts of RJI brought together advocates from pervasive in many of our institutions. For example, many different parts of the country—from Alaska to nationally, Black emergency room patients are 50 Florida and all parts in between—who have gone on percent less likely to receive pain medication than their to serve as catalysts in bringing a race equity lens to white counterparts. American Indian/Native Ameri- the work of their respective organizations. The current can children are overrepresented in the child welfare 2018 cohort, through a partnership with Legal Services system. These systemic biases result in housing segrega- of New York City, marks the launch of a pilot model tion, mass incarceration, and a huge racial wealth gap. that aims to equip an entire organization to more To get at the root of poverty in the United States, effectively advance racial equity, both internally and we must address the root causes of racial dispari- externally. ties experienced by people of color. A race-conscious Through an intensive, six-month training program, approach is especially important for anti-poverty advo- Fellows are exposed to a core set of racial equity cates. To generate advocacy strategies that produce concepts, including implicit bias, debiasing, and Spring 2018 47

systems thinking, and tools like racial impact state- Fellows are employing tools that are empha- ments, racial disparity mapping, and communication sized in the RJI curriculum, such as systems analysis, strategies. A focus on community lawyering, an essen- racial disparity mapping, and racial impact study tial vehicle for supporting communities impacted by frameworks, to address racial inequities in their local explicit and structural racism to engage in the long- communities. Nearly half of the Fellows report that term social change work, is at the heart of the process. they have conducted research to guide their race-equity With support from skilled coaches and faculty, initiatives. each race equity team applies the new concepts and Several RJI Fellows have published reports docu- skills taught as part of RJI to racial equity issues in their menting racial bias and presented findings from their local communities. Over the years, race equity teams analyses of bias in , school districts, and commu- have worked on a wide range of projects, from advocat- nity-based organizations. For example, Antionette ing to end disproportionate representation of native Dozier (2014), her colleagues at the Western Center children in foster care in Alaska, to challenging educa- on Law and Poverty, and a coalition of advocates, tional inequities in St. Louis County, to opposing racial published “Not Just a Ferguson Problem: How Traf- profiling and mass incarceration in North Carolina, to fic Courts Drive Inequality in California,” a report ending the use of jailing people in poverty with crimi- analyzing racial disparities in traffic fees. Draw- nal fines and fees. ing on the report’s findings, Dozier’s colleagues advo- Significantly, a number of race equity teams have cated for a new state program that allowed motorists chosen to focus internally to align race equity practices with outstanding tickets to pay them off at a reduced within their legal aid organizations. These projects have amount. As a result, 4.2 million Californians, including examined internal organizational processes and capaci- a disproportionate number of Latinos whose licenses ties (e.g., client intake protocols; case selection criteria; were suspended because they could not afford the fees, and recruitment, hiring and retention of staff of color) had the right to get their licenses back. They also advo- necessary to support the organization’s capacity to cated for and achieved a change in law so that motorists engage successfully in racial justice advocacy. would no longer have their licenses suspended for fail- ing to pay traffic fines and fees. From Training to Action Jessica Feierman (2016) of Juvenile Law Center in Just five years into the program, RJI Fellows are Philadelphia authored a report that exposed the devas- already having an impact in their local communities. tating impact of court costs, fees, and fines on youth RJI Fellows are assembling and analyzing data involved in the juvenile justice system. The report and producing maps to demonstrate disparate impact substantiated the disproportionate impact of these regarding issues such as school discipline, homeless- burdens on youth of color, especially African American ness, access to housing, and court fines and fees. For young men. RJI has inspired advocates to reach out to example, Morgan Craven (2015) and her colleagues civil rights organizations, churches, and community at Texas Appleseed joined with a community partner members and to develop explicit strategies to address in a successful campaign to end suspensions for pre- racial disparities in youth fines and fees as they move kindergartners through grade 2 students, and to reduce forward in their advocacy efforts. suspensions for grades 3-5 in the Houston Independent Three-fourths of Fellows report that they have School District. adopted media outreach strategies and initiated public In a city-solicited open comment procedure, Alex education campaigns in support of race equity advo- Kornya of Iowa Legal Aid (2015) used racial impact cacy, or that they plan to do so in the near future. analysis to persuade the City of Des Moines not to pass RJI Fellows are training community actors and a proposal that would have strengthened the collat- public agency administrators and developing tools to eral consequences of a -free nuisance ordinance. support race-equity analysis in administrators’ deci- The data showed that the impact of the proposal was sion making. Training local officials, school princi- concentrated in the census tracts with the largest non- pals, teachers, and other district officials to recognize white populations; within those tracts, the ordinance implicit bias and racial inequity is another common was used 200% more frequently against African Ameri- approach to community engagement. cans. Kornya’s analysis enabled advocates to make a For example, after mapping racial disparity in persuasive case that the proposed nuisance ordinance school discipline, Candace Moore and Jessica Schneider would have a negative impact on fair housing. (both 2014 alumni) of the Chicago Lawyers Committee 48 Management Information Exchange Journal

The Racial Justice Institute resources of the community including faith leaders, Continued from page 47 social service agencies, fair housing advocates and concerned citizens to engage in pre-litigation discus- for Civil Rights worked with a community organization sions with the county Fiscal Office. As a result, Legal to pass statewide school discipline reform. Together Aid helped organize the Akron Summit Community with the Transforming School Discipline Collabora- Reinvestment Coalition and a specific sub-committee tive — an interdisciplinary team of attorneys, school devoted to delinquent tax issues. The County psychologists, policy advocates, and community orga- made significant changes to its procedure for sale of nizations — they created checklists to help school tax liens that resulted in thousands of lower valued faculty fulfill the requirements of the state’s new school homes being removed from the sale process. Instead, discipline law and have provided training for parents the county is working hand in hand with Legal Aid and school personnel throughout the state. and the reinvestment coalition to offer more realistic Following the example of these Illinois advo- repayment plans, financial counseling and targeted cates, members of the 2015 Connecticut Equity Team legal assistance to save owner-occupied home owner- provided implicit bias training for school principals ship in traditionally marginalized neighborhoods. and school district officials to address the dispropor- While Legal Aid was looking into this problem prior tionate number of suspensions and expulsions for to John participating in RJI, he surmises that without students of color. They are hopeful that the learning RJI, he would not have conducted the analysis that and relationships forged during this year-long train- was the basis for the advocacy. As part of this effort, ing will solidify relationships for future school-based this work has expanded into broader community initiatives. lawyering strategies to promote economic opportunity Other Fellows advocating for educational equity in historically redlined areas. have pursued different approaches to partnering with RJI Fellows are using a common framework and community actors. For example, the 2016 team from vocabulary to fight structural oppression. In 2015, one Portland, OR, has been partnering with community year after advocates from the Public Justice Center organizations who train parent advocates to observe (PJC) in Baltimore completed the first RJI, an unarmed hearings. black man, Freddie Gray, was killed while in RJI Fellows are using race-equity tools to bring litiga- custody. As the Baltimore community rose up in tion to advance racial justice, while forming new part- protest, PJC advocates swung into action. Equipped nerships and coalitions with community members. For with the tools and frameworks they gained at RJI, PJC example, Anita Earls (2014), former Executive Director advocates responded to protesters’ needs, supported of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, helped community groups looking to advance a legislative litigate a case that led the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of agenda against police violence, and served as legal Appeals to strike down North Carolina’s voter suppres- observers to protests. PJC ultimately sued the Baltimore sion law. The ruling removed restrictions that unfairly Police Department for a mass arrest of people protest- target the types of identification and mechanisms of ing police violence, which they allege was in retaliation voting that are more likely to be used by minority for the protest content. voters. As a result, 30,000 African Americans were able to vote in the November election. Anita attributes this Reimagining Legal Services Delivery success to the community lawyering approach she and Advocates working toward race equity must begin her colleagues took to the work; community partners by identifying and acknowledging how they themselves helped advocates identify and obtain testimony from are situated within the institutions and structures in impacted voters who could personally illustrate the which they work. Historically, many legal aid profes- racially discriminatory effect of the mechanisms of sionals believe that doing anti-poverty work on behalf voting and types of IDs targeted in the . of people of color means that their organizations are John Petit (2015) and the Housing Team at addressing the racial dimensions of poverty. This view Community Legal Aid Services used mapping to limits the advocates’ capacity to get at the roots of show that the sale of delinquent tax liens en masse racialized poverty and stifles the ability to build mean- to a private company in Akron, Ohio, was dispropor- ingful alliances with people of color and community tionately occurring in African American communi- groups. When advocates are truly allied with their low- ties. He used community lawyering to leverage the income clients, their collective work is amplified and Spring 2018 49

creates a ripple effect toward building sustainable local Supporting the Work: The Racial Justice Network movements. From RJI’s inception, the Shriver Center recognized Using the knowledge and skills gained in the RJI that racial justice training was just one part of a longer- program, Fellows are transforming their legal aid term strategy to engage legal aid advocates in a coordi- programs and organizations. Some RJI Fellows are nated racial justice agenda. Also critical was ensuring establishing race equity teams to introduce racial equity that, after the official training program ended, alumni principles and tools to within their organizations’ advo- could continue to learn and work together. Race equity cacy efforts, structures, and procedures. In collabora- work requires practical tools to support and amplify tion with their colleagues, RJI fellows are reviewing efforts, but also benefits from the relationships Fellows and instituting new policies for recruiting, hiring, and create and build with others doing the same work. advancing attorneys of color and have begun to recruit The Racial Justice Network provides RJI Fellows additional people of color to their Boards of Directors. with a forum for ongoing learning, peer-support, They have introduced new case review procedures to information sharing, leadership development, and include race equity analysis. They are training staff in joint advocacy on racial equity issues at the local, their organizations about structural racism and implicit state, regional and national levels. Over the last four bias and race-equity tools. They have secured grants to years, Fellows have stayed connected through periodic hire staff to pursue their racial justice initiatives, and webinars, online meetings, a listserv and bimonthly they are building the capacity of others in their states newsletter, and joint-advocacy workgroups that focus and regions to engage in racial justice advocacy. on specific issues. Currently, the Racial Justice Network After advocates from six legal aid programs in sponsors two workgroups: one for advocates working Ohio attended the 2015 RJI, they organized a statewide on education equity issues, and another focused on conference to bring what they learned to the larger strategies for moving organizations to adopt internal Ohio community. The now-annual Ohio Racial Justice changes necessary to support racial justice work in Symposium brings together 100+ legal aid advocates to their communities.2 In late June, the Shriver Center will learn about advocacy tools, such as racial impact state- host in Chicago the first national convening of the all ments, debiasing techniques, and mapping. The sympo- RJI Fellows. sium and related work is building Ohio advocates’ capacity to do race-focused work. The Road Ahead A Michigan team of RJI Fellows is launching a By connecting anti-poverty advocacy to racial statewide racial equity project this fall. The current justice, RJI is transforming legal aid. Only when advo- phase is about engaging stakeholders, including policy cates are equipped with a race equity vision can they influencers, to share strategies, identify resources, and begin to understand how their clients’ experiences better collaborate moving forward. The fall training will connect to a system or practice that disproportion- establish a statewide resource center around race equity ately harms people of color that can and should be issues. Hosting a targeted audience of legal services dismantled. attorneys, members of community organizations and Racism requires advocates to perform thoughtful community advocates will provide a holistic brain trust, systems analysis to be strategic about how to allocate which seeks to mitigate systemic inequity. resources and build community capacity to effect Illinois-based RJI Fellows are among the advocates change. While there is still a long way to go to achieve who have formed Illinois Community of Advocates racial equity, we are continually heartened to hear of for Racial Equity (ICARE), a group aimed at increas- the many ways that RJI alums are putting their learning ing the capacity of legal advocates to advance racial into practice. equity. ICARE has trained and provided resources for hundreds of Illinois advocates with a desire to bring 1 Janerick Holmes helps engage equal justice advocates a racial justice lens to the work. Through a mix of across the country through online trainings, such as the online and in-person forums they are providing practi- Racial Justice Training Institute (RJTI). He also works cal strategies and tools to advocates across the state. to support collaboration through the RJTI Network, a Recently ICARE hosted a race equity affinity group growing cadre of more than 200 advocates committed to session during a statewide legal advocates conference advancing a coordinated racial justice advocacy agenda. to describe how race equity issues impact Illinois, the Prior to joining the Shriver Center, Janerick worked as client community, and the legal profession. a Communications Associate at the Mississippi Center 50 Management Information Exchange Journal

The Racial Justice Institute Addressing Implicit Bias Continued from page 49 Continued from page 26

for Justice. Janerick can be reached at janerickholmes@ create a gap between what people value (e.g., racial equal- povertylaw.org ity) and what people do (e.g., racial discrimination). As the first-ever Racial Justice Network Direc- His research focuses on (1) learning how implicit biases tor, Kimberly Merchant leads and provides strategic change; (2) understanding the consequences of implicit oversight for the annual Racial Justice Training Insti- bias for behavior; and (3) developing interventions to tute (RJTI), as well as its expanding alumni advocacy reduce the impact of implicit biases on behavior. network. Kimberly comes to the Shriver Center with 4 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/business/starbucks- twenty years of experience practicing law. Most recently, racial-bias-training.html she served as the Director of the Mississippi Center for 5 From the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings Justice’s Educational Opportunities Campaign, where, College of the Law, Bias Interrupters Project. among other initiatives, she spearheaded efforts to http://biasinterrupters.org/wp-content/uploads/Identify- disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. Kimberly can be ing-Bias-in-Performance-Evaluations-Worksheet.pdf reached at [email protected] Ellen Hemley is Vice President of Advocate Access to Justice Resources and Training at the Sargent Shriver National Continued from page 10 Center on Poverty Law. Prior to joining the Shriver Center, she served as Executive Director of the Center 8 www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/ for Legal Aid Education and Director of Training at 9 28 C.F.R. § 36.303. the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. Ellen can be 10 28 C.F.R. § 36.301. reached at [email protected]. 11 “The Braille Literacy Crisis in America,” National Federa- 2 This latter workgroup is a collaboration between the tion of the Blind (2009), www.nfb.org/images/nfb/docu- Racial Justice Network and the Legal Impact Network, a ments/pdf/braille_literacy_report_web.pdf dynamic collaborative of advocacy organizations in 33 12 www.acb.org/large-print-guidelines states and the District of Columbia, also hosted by the 13 42 U.S.C. §12112(b)(5). Shriver Center. 14 www.eeoc.gov/facts/accommodations-attorneys. html#fn_2_; see also, www.americanbar.org/content/dam/ aba/administrative/mental_physical_disability/Guide- lines_on_Reasonable_Accomodations_for_Lawyers_for_ Disabilities.authcheckdam.pdf 15 www.askjan.org 16 www.askjan.org/media/atoz.htm

Board of Directors Journal Committee

César Torres, Chair Catherine Carr Jan May, Chair Jon Laramore Northwest Justice Project Philadelphia AARP/Legal Counsel for the Elderly Indiana Legal Services Eric Mittelstadt, Vice Chair Amy Johnson Shawn Boehringer Joann Lee Utah Legal Services Arkansas Access to Justice Commission Maryland Legal Aid Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles Adrienne Worthy, Secretary Jon Laramore Lauren Breen Patrick McIntyre Legal Aid of West Virginia Indiana Legal Services Neighborhood Legal Services, Inc., Washington State Alliance for Buffalo Equal Justice Steven Pelletier, Treasurer Yvonne Mariajimenez Northwest Justice Project Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Catherine Carr Margaret Moores Angeles County Philadelphia Legal Services of Greater Miami Mary Asbury Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati Jan May Merf Ehman John Tobin AARP/Legal Counsel for the Elderly Columbia Legal Services New Hampshire Jennifer Bentley Michigan State Foundation Michele Storms M. Victor Geminiani Patricia Pap ACLU-WA Hawai’i Appleseed Center for Law Management Information Exchange Jacquelynne Bowman and Economic Justice Greater Boston Legal Services Betty Balli Torres Texas Access to Justice Foundation