Our Mission and History
Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS), seeks a VISTA member to expand the reach and impact of www.lawhelp.org/la among rural Louisiana residents. This Web site is Louisiana's online resource for free legal information aimed at low-income people. SLLS administers www.lawhelp.org/la.
Established in 1979, SLLS is Louisiana’s largest public interest law firm. SLLS provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people across a 10-parish area, which includes New Orleans. Like SLLS, most Louisiana legal aid providers based in urban areas and sizable towns.
Yet many people who need legal services live in more remote areas. That is where www.lawhelp.org/la can live up to its potential. Even small towns have Internet resources that rural residents can use to get information about their rights and to find out where they can seek legal help. SLLS plans to deploy a VISTA member to improve access by rural people to www.lawhelp.org/la.
The mission of SLLS is to provide high-quality, effective legal representation to the greatest number of people in need. The organization’s present geographic scope is the product of a 2003 merger with New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation. The merger doubled the program’s service area. The program’s attorneys help clients with a wide range of practice areas, including consumer, housing, employment, public benefits and family law.
In addition to serving clients out of the program’s four offices, located in New Orleans, Covington, Hammond and Marrero, SLLS attorneys and staff offer help to those in need of legal advocacy at neighborhood legal clinics and other outreach centers. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita compounded the legal problems of Southeast Louisiana’s low-income population. SLLS has played a critical role in helping those displaced by the storms, helping those who returned to the area to rebuild their lives, and helping those trying to return.
How Technology Helps Us Help Others
The Internet has greatly expanded the ability of SLLS and other legal services providers to reach out to those in need. In 2007, www.lawhelp.org/la scored over 200,000 page views. As noted above, SLLS is the statewide administrator for www.lawhelp.org/la.
Louisiana's LawHelp site is part of LawHelp.org, a nationwide network of legal information Internet sites that provide free legal information for low-income people. LawHelp.org received a Webby Award for Best Law Site of 2007. SLLS is also the Louisiana administrator for www.probono.net/la, the state’s Web site for public interest lawyers and advocates.
The LawHelp site allows SLLS and other providers of legal services to the poor to reach out to many more individuals than those who actually walk through the office door. Louisiana’s LawHelp site covers 14 areas of the law, including resources for senior citizens, the disabled, schoolchildren, and members of racial and ethnic minorities.
A VISTA member would enable SLLS to increase the penetration of its website resources in rural areas. SLLS envisions that this VISTA member would establish partnerships in rural areas by training librarians and public interest advocates in community centers regarding the resources available on www.LawHelp.org/la. More importantly, the VISTA member would train librarians and community advocates in remote areas to demonstrate the sites to others. The trainings could be accomplished in person and virtually through Internet seminars and phone conferences.
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