Taskforces—The Alliance coordinates statewide work, shares best practices and tools, and identifies patterns of barriers to providing client services through seven statewide substantive law taskforces. The focus areas of the taskforces include housing, employment, consumer, immigration, education, health and public benefits, and family law. In addition, the legal aid racial justice and community development taskforces meet to provide opportunities for information sharing and education.

Ohio Training Advisory Committee (OTAC)— The Alliance formed the OTAC in 2018 to share resources and the costs associated with providing Ohio’s legal aid staff with high-quality, cost-effective training and professional development opportunities. Recent statewide trainings included:

Utility Assistance Programs for Low-Income Families

Trial Preparation: Investigative Tools and Techniques and Preparing Witnesses for Depositions and Trials (presented by Legal Aid Society Board President and OAJF Board Member David Kutik)

Trauma-Informed Lawyering for People Living with Mental Illness (presented by NAMI)

Human Trafficking: Identifying Victims & What to Do Next (presented by staff from the Ohio Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Initiative).

Amicus Briefs—The Alliance regularly collaborates on amicus briefs with one or two firms taking the lead on drafting and the other programs lending support. Recently, members of the Alliance joined a brief in support of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program and Cleveland’s lead testing rules. 

Read the full report to learn about each Ohio Legal Aid organization's impact.