• Randi Youells, LSC Vice-President for Programs, Delivers Testimony on the Status of Women in LSC-Funded Programs to the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession

• LSC Issues State Planning Evaluation Instrument

• AARP, MIE, and LSC are Seeking Projects for Inclusion in the Innovations in Civil Legal Services workshop at the Annual NLADA Conference in Seattle, Washington on November 12-15
  

• Washington State Legal Services Providers' Inter-Program Diversity Committee

Northwest Justice Project (NJP), Columbia Legal Services (CLS), and TeamChild (TC) have come together to form an inter-program, collaborative committee on issues of diversity in the workplace and client services. As part of a larger statewide effort to integrate principles of inclusion, diversity, and multicultural competence as a justice imperative, the Diversity Committee has created three workgroups that are charged with devising comprehensive strategies to educate staff about diversity in the workplace, ensure effective service delivery to diverse client populations, and create a "safe haven" for staff to address workplace diversity concerns.

• Bay Area Legal Services' Domestic Violence Survivors' Affordable Housing Initiative

Bay Area Legal Services implemented the Domestic Violence Survivors' Affordable Housing Initiative to ensure that domestic violence survivors can locate affordable housing to escape an abusive partner or spouse. BALS conducted a study of domestic violence survivors which found that access to immediately available and affordable housing is a primary need for domestic violence victims.

• Philadelphia Legal Assistance Center's "Don't Borrow Trouble Hotline"

The Farm Worker Unit of Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC) implemented the Witness for Justice Project to educate volunteers about the living and working conditions of migrant farm workers while also supporting farm workers' rights to receive visitors in employer owned labor camps. Witness for Justice was modeled from the human rights Witness for Peace program and uses volunteer observers to raise public consciousness of the poverty and hardship faced by migrant farm workers.

• ABA's "Rural Pro Bono Delivery: A Guide to Pro Bono Legal Services in Rural Areas"

The ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service and the ABA Center for Pro Bono created "Rural Pro Bono Delivery: A Guide to Pro Bono Legal Services in Rural Areas" for use by bar associations, pro bono programs, and rural legal services providers to strengthen pro bono service delivery to low-income people in rural areas. Recognizing that rural legal services providers face unique challenges in resource development, volunteer lawyer participation, and sheer distance between clients, this guide seeks to support the efforts of rural advocates in overcoming these barriers and improving delivery practices.

• How are you supporting pro se efforts in your community? The LSC Resource Library is looking for pro se projects and strategies that could be replicated by other legal services programs. In each issue of eNews, we will identify an area that we feel would be beneficial for research due to a lack of accessible information.
  

• We encourage you to submit information about projects at your legal services program. Submitting projects to LRI is easy. Complete our submission form and an LSC staff member will contact you for additional information.
  

• We strongly encourage you to make suggestions to us for future areas of inquiry. The LRI team is more than willing to research projects that are of particular interest to the legal services community. Email suggestions to: LRI@lsc.gov.