Can Poverty Lawyers Play Well with Others? Including Legal Services in Integrated, School-Based Service Delivery Programs

Leigh Goodmark

Second year Skadden Arps Fellow at Bread for the City & Zaccheus Free Clinic

With the reduction of federally-supported legal aid, the efficient delivery of legal services to the poor becomes more critical than ever. The author explores the role of integrated service delivery programs in filling the performance gap between the demand and the supply of these services. These programs take a multi-factorial approach to the needs of their poor clients. Legal services are but one area of intervention among services such as educational support, medical care, child care, and counseling. In particular, the author discusses integrated service programs implemented through schools. The rationale for linking services through schools is the connection to low-income individuals as centers for both family and community activity.

The author makes an argument for including legal services in schools, stemming from her experience in a Washington, D.C. service center. Her analysis starts with a description of integrated service delivery and school-linked services programs. She describes some early attempts at school-based programs, including programs funded by the Ford Foundation during the 1960's. Although these historical examples did not prove to be successful, and the "full service" model for schools has been found to have problems, the author argues that the benefits from increased accessibility to legal services for the poor exceed the possible costs (due to such problems as lack of client confidentiality or lawyer independence). The author offers current examples of projects using the proposed model, as well as other examples of integrated service delivery of legal services.

Vol. IV, No. 2, p. 243 (1997)

Revised July 17, 2003 (MD)