ATJ Board Communications Committee

Mission

The mission of this committee has been to create a statewide communications plan, to identify and articulate a common mission of our stakeholders in the messages disseminated to the world. The Communications Plan was completed and approved by the Access to Justice Board in 2004. Thus the current task of this committee is to disseminate and implement the plan, and at every stage to inform, train, seek input from and gain participation and acceptance from stakeholders. We have created a cohesive consistent message about who we are and what we do and why we do it, with our values clearly stated. Under the continued guidance of this group, and hopefully professional communications staff, we should be capable of responding to events that unfold in our world (e.g. funding crises, etc.). Our ongoing approach should remain consistent with the national approaches toward a consistent message about legal aid.

History

This group was originally a subcommittee of the Joint Media Committee of the Access to Justice Board and the Council on Public Legal Education. This group was formed to move forward a more intense media strategy including a branding initiative for the civil legal aid provider community. Michele Storms (Access to Justice Board, Northwest Justice Project) and Amanda Brothers (formerly of LAW Fund) both attended national media trainings put on by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. Barbara Clark (Legal Foundation of Washington) also attended a national session and brought back the broader idea and concept of a communications plan as the foundation for branding and other efforts. The group also noted the importance of full communication and participation of all stakeholder/partners. Because of the collaboration and coordination amongst our many equal justice partners, we were able to develop a name and a brand for our community: the Alliance for Equal Justice. We have developed a message, tagline ,motto and logo. Had it not been for the feedback and participation from this community we could not have had such great success.

Next Steps

This committee has presented numerous workshops at annual Access to Justice Conferences, ATJ leadership committee gatherings and ATJ Board meetings. We have talked about how to deliver a unified statewide message about civil equal justice for all. Participants have included staff and board members from volunteer lawyer programs, specialty legal services providers, staffed legal services providers, courthouse facilitators, county law librarians, members of the judiciary, members of the Access to Justice Board, representatives from the state's law schools and more. Throughout all our efforts, the community has given its full support to the concept of creating a statewide "platform brand" to deliver our message.

Our next steps are to implement our Communications Plan. A written implementation plan is in draft form and we are already working on many of the projects included within the plan. We recently adopted a logo which is being used by most Alliance members. A current goal is to hire either a staff person or contractors to carry out various portions of the implementation plan, for example website development, brochure development and creation of media resources. Additionally we will continue to work with the national organizations engaged in communications planning efforts.

Getting Involved

We hope to have maximum involvement from the access to justice community in completing this effort. If you are interested in joining the committee or if you have questions about this effort please contact Michele Storms.

Committee Chair:

Michele Storms (Chair), University of Washington