2016 Annual Conference Workshop Program

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Our conference workshops are organized into these six tracks.

Board Workshops & Training Topics

Successful nonprofits are indispensable to their communities’ health and well-being. They have credibility with the people they serve and can articulate their values and the value they provide. Workshops will showcase and train others on how board members of successful nonprofits:

  • act with transparency
  • support and clarify the organization’s vision
  • use their influence and expertise to help staff achieve greater impact
  • bring diversity and inclusion to the board as a means to greater effectiveness
  • evaluate both their effectiveness as the governing body and the effectiveness of organizational strategy

Civil Legal Aid Workshops & Training Topics

The benefits from civil legal aid cover a remarkably broad range of topics, all of which advance equal justice. Events of the past few years have created a particular interest in issues that cut across the field of legal aid. To help advocates provide even more effective service, this year’s workshops will highlight:

  • using racial equity analysis to inform advocacy and affect change
  • using human rights strategies to affect change
  • drawing on data and new technologies to increase effectiveness
  • substantive strategic advocacy sessions and/or measuring their impact
  • new communications and messaging strategies
  • systemic racial injustice in policing, access to courts, court fees, community investment, and more as we reflect on increasingly visible racialized violence and the advocacy and movements emerging in response (e.g., Black Lives Matter)
  • mentoring and developing new leadership for the next generation of legal aid advocates

Client Workshops & Training Topics

The Client track this year is dedicated to the memory of Darryl Hunt. People who have been served by legal aid organizations contribute to success in their communities through service, advocacy, effective communication, collaboration, and leadership. Workshops in this category will include client leadership training, effective lay advocacy skills, communications skills training, and examples of the contributions of client leaders in their communities.

Defender Legal Services Workshops & Training Topics

Defenders are champions of justice, employing proven and innovative tactics, tools, and technologies to ensure excellence in client representation and bring attention to the critical importance of quality public defense. Workshops will provide attendees with toolkits, checklists, protocols, reports, best practices, and other tangible resources that allow attendees to put their learnings into practice. Sessions will cover the full range of topics and issues important to defenders, including:

  • Community-oriented defense
  • Holistic representation
  • Defender office and community collaboration models
  • Public defender involvement in community crises (e.g., Ferguson, Baltimore, and McKinney)
  • Procedural justice
  • Evidence-based decision making
  • Early entry of counsel & pretrial/bail reform
  • Defender-led data collection & research efforts
  • Defender office budget development & advocacy
  • Case management system implementation

Fundraising Workshops & Training Topics

Both new and experienced development staff look for tools to create, cultivate, and sustain their organizations’ fundraising programs. Sessions will range from the nuts and bolts of development work and relationship building to the best methods of reaching donors. In the difficult and competitive arena of fundraising, development staff must ensure they have gathered all “low-hanging fruit” and begin to work higher as well!

Joint/Multi Track

Some of our workshops will address topics that are of interest to more than one of the above categories or are generally applicable to many audiences, including communications, risk management, and technology.

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