Fordham Law School’s A2J Initiative and its National Center for Access to Justice released a new report that shows how legal aid organizations can better use data and track impact.
“We realized there had never been a comprehensive analysis of the issues involved in tracking clients’ outcomes, but rather that such information was available only piecemeal,” says David Udell, executive director of the National Center for Access to Justice at Fordham University School of Law and co-author of the report, “Tracking Outcomes: A Guide for Civil Legal Aid Providers & Funders”.
Relying on interviews with experts in the field, the new report lays out how legal aid organizations can create and leverage existing and new datasets to better understand the needs of clients. The report also suggested ways to improve their work and better explain legal aid’s value to others, like philanthropic funders.