Legal Empowerment: Scaling Alaska's Model of Community Justice Workers

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The United States Justice Gap has reached an unprecedented 92%, steadily increasing over the past decade. With this alarming trend in the US, the urgency for innovative solutions has never been more critical. When legal aid organizations band together as a cohort to pilot a new project, the impact reaches even further. Alaska Legal Services successfully applied for LSC's Disaster Relief funding on behalf of five tribally serving legal aids to support 12 new Community Justice Worker (CJW) paid positions. Join our workshop to learn directly from our cohort leadership team about the transformative impact as well as some challenges of expanding the 'Alaska Model'. Hear firsthand accounts from CJWs on the front lines, sharing their experiences and successes in delivering vital legal services in underserved communities. Discover how this collaborative effort is reshaping access to justice nationwide.

Describe the "Alaska Model", and how this approach enables lawyers to operate at the top of their license, while CJWs ensure that legal services are accessible and culturally appropriate.
Understand from cohort legal aids how a collaborative training approach has worked in their program, and where they deviate to individualized local training.
Describe how the CJW model is changing the landscape of legal aid in different regions by embedding CJWs into legal deserts, and learn to leverage community partnership to replicate.
Understand the importance of community connection, and evaluate how recruiting CJWs locally builds trust and cultural understanding.

Sarah Carver, JD

Co-Director, Community Justice Resource Center

Alaska Legal Services

Sarah Carver is Co-Director of Alaska Legal Services Corporation’s Community Justice Worker Resource Center (CJWRC). She started her legal career with ALSC as the sole staff attorney in the rural Nome, Alaska office. Since 2018, she has worked to build up the Community Justice Worker program, developing curriculum and training almost 500 volunteers in 48 communities throughout Alaska. She graduated from the Alexander Blewett III School of Law in 2010.

Nikole Nelson, JD

CEO

Frontline Justice

Nikole Nelson is the founding CEO of Frontline Justice. Prior to joining Frontline Justice Nikole was the Executive Director of Alaska Legal Services Corporation, Alaska’s only statewide provider of free civil aid. During her 25 years in the field, she worked to build community-led, people-centered justice models and to expand the scope of who can provide legal help including a groundbreaking launch of Partnering for Native Health, a Medical-Legal Partnership involving non-lawyer justice workers that won the 2019 World Justice Challenge. She also spearheaded reforming restrictions on unauthorized practice of law for justice workers in Alaska; these reforms were approved in 2022 by both the Alaska Supreme Court and State Bar Board of Governors. Nikole is a member of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense (SCLAID) and is a member of the Legal Services Corporation’s Rural Justice Task Force.

Izzy Williamson, n/a

CJW Program Manager

Project 60/ALSC

Izzy Williamson is the Disaster Relief Program Manager in partnership with the Community Justice Worker Resource Center (CJWRC) at Alaska Legal Services Corporation (ALSC). Izzy provides oversight and management to the five-state legal aid cohort with a mission to recruit new culturally appropriate Community Justice Workers throughout Indian Country. Izzy worked for DNA-People’s Legal Services for eight years overseeing the Partnering for Native Health (PNH) AmeriCorps project, a Medical-Legal Partnership collaborative starting in the Navajo Nation and expanding throughout tribal communities in the United States. Previously, Izzy served as the Elder Rights Program Manager for Northern Arizona Council of Government, as well as nine years at the Arthritis Foundation Great West Region as the Vice President of Programs.

Cody Nelson, JD

Executive Director

Anishinabe Legal Services

Cody Nelson is the Executive Director of Anishinabe Legal Services, a 501(c)(3) non-profit civil legal aid law firm providing free legal assistance to low-income Native Americans residing on or near the Leech Lake, White Earth, and Red Lake Reservations in northern Minnesota. Cody graduated magna cum laude from the University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minneapolis, Minnesota) in 2006 and commenced employment with Anishinabe Legal Services as a staff attorney shortly thereafter. He is licensed to practice law in Minnesota as well as before the Leech Lake, White Earth, Mille Lacs, and Red Lake Band Tribal Courts. Cody has performed Executive Director duties for the program for over 10 years and has provided legal services directly to program clients for over 15.

Stephanie Hudson

Hayden Ramsey

CJW

Montana Legal Services Association

Hayden Ramsey (she/her) is the Community Justice Worker for Montana Legal Services Association serving Carbon, Park, Stillwater, and Yellowstone Counties. She has lived in rural Montana for the last fourteen years. Prior to joining MLSA as a CJW, she was a community based advocate for a domestic and sexual violence services program as well as a violence prevention educator. In her previous position she had the opportunity to travel to school districts and communities all over south-central Montana promoting healthy relationships for school-aged children and ensuring all community members knew they had resources and were not alone.