Building Successful Justice Worker Programs:Emerging Insights from Research and Practice

America's deep access to justice crisis has long seemed intractable. But new and potentially transformative models for giving people access to legal services and to their own law are emerging around the country. Among the most promising of these are community justice workers. These are people already trusted in their communities, such as social workers, librarians, health aides, community leaders, teachers, mediators, and everyday citizens who are trained to help people understand and act on the legal challenges involved in critical life issues. These issues implicate basic needs like nutrition, health, income security, shelter, education, and care of dependents, and affect millions of Americans each year. As jurisdictions around the country explore justice workers as a potential solution, we offer ten essential insights for successful programs, reflecting discoveries from a growing body of social scientific research. This work gives useful guidance about how people understand and use law, informing the design of more accessible and effective services. It also teaches about what works in making justice workers effective at helping people with legal issues and with connecting to their own law, sustainable for both the people who work in these roles and the communities they serve, and capable of scaling up to meet the country’s currently vast unmet legal needs.