Many Roads to Justice: The Law Related Work of Ford ... - UNDP

UN I T E D STAT E S 1 1 3tered women’s issues and a professor at Brooklyn Law School,says that public interest groups that work on this issue “have noway to put out ideas or distribute necessary materials to lawyersaround the country.” A public education strategy, she suggests,thus also requires linkages with the academic community, as wellas with students—the next generation of social change activists—in order to develop and refine cutting-edge thinking and betterframe public debate.Over the last two decades, some grantees have had to create acommunications infrastructure from the ground up, with highstart-up costs for personnel and computer technology. Othero rganizations have focused on intergroup coordination as a way toleverage resources and visibility. Some groups have “reinvented”themselves to adapt to the changing political climate. Still othergroups have recast their membership structure as a way to furtherpublic education. No single group has taken all of these steps, andno single approach is necessarily the most effective. This sectionlooks at the innovative efforts of three grantees—LDF, A m e r i c a n sfor a Fair Chance, and the Wo m e n ’s Legal Defense Fund—toovercome some of the limitations of litigation and to influence thebroadest possible public.C reating a Communications Infra s t r u c t u re. During the 1990s, LDFhas focused on rebuilding its communications capacity to respondto the new political climate. Former LDF head Greenberg recallsthe early days of the civil rights movement: “The NAACP h a dhundreds of thousands of members. It sent out the word throughC r i s i s magazine, and bulletins, and newspapers. LDF lawyers metregularly with lawyers in every city imaginable. Especially in theblack community, the lawyers were the leaders.”During these earlier years, training programs and fellowshipshelped LDF to “spread the word” by allowing it to cultivate newcivil rights attorneys and to foster a network of community-based,cooperative lawyers. Institutional capacity dwindled, however, asresources shrank. By the 1980s, budget cuts forced LDF to closeits Division of Legal Information and Community Services,which collected and analyzed data, produced studies and investigativereports, organized state coalitions, and collaborated with