by Martha Bergmark
In recent weeks, we’ve noticed an exciting uptick in the number of media pieces that cite civil legal aid programs and advocates as sources. Now we have an opportunity to improve our messaging and how we are portrayed in the media.
In recent weeks, we’ve noticed an exciting uptick in the number of media pieces that cite civil legal aid programs and advocates as sources. In the past month alone, we’ve seen more than 25 examples – in outlets that range from elite national publications like The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, The Nation, and USA Today, to prominent state and regional outlets like Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Philadelphia Inquirer, to local outlets like Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Charlottesville Newsplex, The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA), East Bay Express (Oakland, CA) and CT Post (Connecticut), to broadcast outlets like WREG-TV (AR), KPLU (WA), and WBUR (MA). Issue areas covered in this one-month sampling are as varied as fair housing, access to health care, evictions, predatory lending, nursing home abuses, social security disability, truancy, and the civil legal aid delivery system itself.
These examples and more can be found in the searchable clips collection on the Voices web site. We hope you’ll check them out and join us in congratulating your colleagues for this significant achievement!
Now that we’re getting cited more often as sources, we have an opportunity to improve our messaging and how we are portrayed in the media.
To best elevate your work and the work of our entire sector, we’re looking for more and better of the following three ingredients. These three elements will help you to educate the public and key influencers about civil legal aid. We’re eager to work with you to achieve them, so let us know if we can help you prepare your talking points for an upcoming interview.
- Our brand. The words “civil legal aid” should appear, preferably very early in the piece. If your organization’s name includes the words “Legal Aid,” that’s helpful. But even better is the inclusion of a qualifier — for example, “ABC Legal Services, a civil legal aid organization.” You should ask the reporter to describe your program using these words, and you should describe yourself as a “civil legal aid” lawyer. A good time to ask for this is at the end of the conversation and/or in a follow-up note right after. It’s perfectly OK to press the reporter on this point and ask her to request this of her editor. We find that this works about half the time, and here’s a good example: Why Is It So Hard for Corinthian Students to Get Their Promised Debt Relief?
- Description of how civil legal aid figures in the story. Most people still don’t know what civil legal aid is or why it matters, so it’s helpful for the story to include descriptive language (again, including those words, “civil legal aid”) about our role and impact. Before you speak to a reporter or write an op-ed, it’s important to ask yourself, why is legal help crucial to people in this situation? Why is someone better off because of this help, and what happens to people who don’t get it? Your prepared talking points can weave this in. Here’s a good example: Health Care Decision’s Effect on Virginia.
- Solutions and actionable next steps. Yes, civil legal aid advocates are knowledgeable experts about our clients’ legal problems and issues that confront our communities, and this is often why reporters turn to us for comment on just how bad a situation is. But we shouldn’t miss the opportunity to inject the important role of civil legal aid in addressing the problem and to propose the solutions we recommend. So it’s good to consider how your program and programs like yours are making a difference – advocating for policy change, providing legal assistance in specific kinds of cases – that can yield tangible benefits. Reporters are particularly interested in programs or initiatives that are new and targeted. Here’s a good example: Better Strategies Sought to Curb Domestic Violence.
To get in on the action, let us know if we can help you do your homework in preparation for a media interview. And make sure you’re on our JusticeVoices listserve – sign up here and check the box for “email discussion list.” You’ll receive about one email per week soliciting your participation in the stories we’re working on. And don’t forget to check out the clips collection on our website – it’s great fodder for developing your own story ideas to share with us.