Community Navigator Fellowship Program
Families experiencing poverty are inadequately supported by our justice system, which is severely under-resourced and inherently complex. Nearly 9 out of 10 families do not get the legal help they need. These unaddressed legal issues act as barriers to housing, health, and economic stability. As a result, many people do not access existing legal protections and trust in the legal system is low. Legal Link’s Community Navigator Fellowship Program works to change this by embedding legal support in community-based organizations.
Developing the skills to confidently and effectively act as a legal navigator takes time, practice, and mentorship. Through the one-year Community Navigator Fellowship Program, Legal Link trains and supports staff at partner organizations to be fluent in community-based legal navigation. The Program increases the skill and capacity of frontline providers, expands the legal ecosystem into community-based settings, moves the needle on poverty-related outcomes, and promotes participation in our legal system as a means to strengthen accountability and equity.
Navigator Fellows:
- Consistently identify legal issues
- Connect clients to relevant legal resources
- Support clients working through legal processes.
To evidence our impact, we carefully track the increasing legal capability of the Fellows and the impact of their work on clients’ poverty-related outcomes.
In our pilot year of the Fellowship Program we are partnering with longtime partners from the Legal First Aid Program: Homeless Prenatal Program and Compass Family Services.
Meet our 2020 Community Navigator Fellows
CLARK WININGER
Bilingual Case Manager, Compass Family Services (Family Resource Center)
MONTEZ BROOKS
Case Manager, Compass Family Services (SF HOME)
OSCAR APARICIO
Housing Specialist, Homeless Prenatal Program (Supportive Housing)
TRACI COOK
Lead Housing Specialist, Homeless Prenatal Program (Supportive Housing)
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