Ensuring that equal justice advocates at all levels of experience have the skills and substantive knowledge they need to provide the best service possible to their clients is a primary goal of NLADA. While NLADA provides top-notch training on a national level, many advocates have training needs that are particular to their state or region and, thus, a national training event is not a suitable forum for meeting those needs.

• Supporting local programs in their efforts to strengthen state-wide and regional training efforts and capacities;

• Maintaining a national training calendar (link to the left) to promote and facilitate the ongoing training initiatives of the equal justice community;

• Encouraging the sharing of training materials and models; and

• Developing partnerships with other national organizations who can help build the training capacity of the equal justice community.

NLADA invites the equal justice community to use our Web site as a way to share information and exchange ideas about state and regional training efforts. NLADA is happy to post information about local efforts on our Web site or link to state and regional training Web sites that you submit. Please view our National Training Calendar for additional information.

Links to Statewide and Regional Training Organizations

New England Regional Training Consortium is comprised of twenty-five legal services providers in New England who have pooled resources to support the design and delivery of training programs geared specifically to the legal services community. The Consortium wants to serve as a model for resurrecting regional training capacity and has entered into a partnership with NLADA to help move training forward in the legal services community. The Consortium is beginning to make some of their training materials available to the equal justice community.

Public Interest Clearinghouse: Located in California, the Public Interest Clearinghouse (PIC) builds and leverages the capacity of the legal community to provide civil legal aid to indigent people. The Clearinghouse fosters communication and builds coalitions across the state so that programs can share resources, and develop collaborative strategies to ensure that legal aid advocates have the tools they need to serve their clients more effectively. In that regard, the Clearinghouse explores innovative technology solutions, manages statewide websites for advocates and clients, assists law students committed to public interest work, creates training opportunities for advocates, and advocates for legal services programs.

PIC houses its sister organization, the Legal Aid Association of California . Every year LAAC organizes high-quality trainings for legal services staff around the state on issues that are relevant to legal services practice. LAAC's trainings include Family Law conferences, Directors of Litigation and Advocacy meetings, and trainings in rural areas. LAAC also maintains CALegalAdvocates.org , the on-line community for all those working to ensure access to justice for low-income Californians. This site features a statewide training and event calendar for Legal Services Staff and Pro Bono Advocates.