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Planning: Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning Process

Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles - 020041

Abstract Number: 020041

July 2002

In 1999, Legal A id Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) began a strategic planning process to identify and address the critical legal needs of their community. LAFLA began the strategic planning process by involving a diverse group of staff to identify LAFLA's mission and core values. Through this process, LAFLA determined that their mission "is to promote access to justice, strengthen communities, combat discrimination, and effect systemic change through representation, advocacy, and community education." LAFLA identified its core values as "1) equality, 2) dignity, 3) actions and results, and 4) client needs drive our work." Once the mission and values were identified, LAFLA brought in outside "experts" - community advocates, teachers, social service providers - to explore the following "cross-disciplinary themes" in order to gain new insight into the social, economic, and legal predicaments for low-income residents in Los Angeles.

  1. Preserve Safety, Stability and Health
  2. Protect Human and Civil Rights and Privileges
  3. Protect and Create Economic Opportunities

To explore these issues, LAFLA sought input from community members who work with, advocate for, or serve low-income individuals in Los Angeles. Consequently, LAFLA brought together a large number of outside experts, which included local educators, social service workers, legal service providers, and academics. A primary goal of this strategic planning process was not only to identify client needs but also to discern trends of low-income individuals thereby better preparing LAFLA to respond to the emerging needs of their client community.

LAFLA considered the following factors when determining their priorities and their service area's critical legal needs:

  • The extent that the problem is widespread and systemic.
  • The extent to which the problem particularly affects communities or subgroups of the poor.
  • How critical and urgent the problem is to an individual or group: the extent it involves matters of immediate subsistence, survival, health, nutrition, shelter or safety.
  • The extent that the problem exacerbates dependency, inequality, subordination or misery.
  • Whether the problem is amenable to enduring solutions: the extent to which legal services can contribute to eliminating or alleviating the conditions that cause or aggravate poverty.
  • Whether the problem affects vulnerable populations such as children, elderly and disabled.
  • The extent that the problem is particularly acute within LAFLA's service area.
  • Whether the problem involves client subgroups that face barriers to the legal system or have not been adequately served by LAFLA.
  • The extent the problem can be effectively addressed through legal advocacy or advice.
  • The extent to which the legal need can be addressed by fostering self-reliance on the part of, and solutions determined by, clients.
  • The existence of other legal resources better able to address the problem.
  • Whether the legal need can be addressed in partnership with other community resources.
  • Whether the legal need results from recent changes in the law, economic shifts, or new demographic factors.
  • LAFLA's experience and expertise in dealing with the problem.
  • The limits of LAFLA's resources.

By addressing the following concerns, LAFLA determined their clients' most critical legal needs through a community building process which brought people together from the community to identify the substantive problems low-income people face. LAFLA's community outreach during their strategic planning process led to a number of benefits in understanding both the needs of their client community as well as the ability to meet these needs in a more coordinated and integrated effort.

Contact Information:

Bruce Iwasaki
Executive Director
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
1102 S. Crenshaw Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019
Phone: (323) 801-7990
Fax: (323) 801-7945
BIwasaki@lafla.org

Additional Information:

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