State Level Advocacy

Highlighting the Importance of State-Level Advocacy

In an effort to bring some national attention to the importance of state-level advocacy in every state, Alan Houseman, Director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), is writing a report setting out recommendations for states to consider in developing high quality legal and policy advocacy at the state level. The report will emphasize that there is not one single approach that will be successful in every state; rather, states have developed different approaches depending on the following factors:

The number and mission of programs delivering civil legal aid within the state;
Amount of non-LSC funds available and the kind of restrictions they carry;
Whether there are large law firms willing to do significant pro bono work (both litigation and legislative advocacy;
The availability of public interest organizations with unrestricted funds;
Whether there are law schools willing to make resources available directly or through clinical programs; and
The existence of leaders (both volunteer and staff) who understand and support the need for state level advocacy.

Fundraising Assistance

In addition, Project staff is working with a select group of state level advocacy organizations to help them raise stable funds. Project staff has surveyed every state to determine the level of state advocacy (impact litigation and administrative/legislative advocacy) since the demise of LSC funding for state support. The surveying revealed that there are significant disparities among the states regarding the capacity to maintain these forms of advocacy. The Project is collaborating with the National Center on Poverty Law and the ABA Project to Expand Resources for Legal Services (PERLS) in this effort.

Developing National Strategies

In December, 2000 the Project convened 20 state level advocates for a day-long meeting to discuss how they can begin developing national strategies to expand funding for state level advocacy, particularly in lower-resourced states. These advocates exchanged information about foundation grants, individual donor campaigns, attorney s fees, and collaborations with non-legal advocacy groups to pursue private foundation and state and federal grants. They also discussed national foundation grants to state advocacy groups working on welfare reauthorization. The group formed a network that will meet from time to time in person and by conference call. They also started an e-mail list that is maintained by the National Center on Poverty Law.

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