Community Outreach Staff Attorney - Cabrini Green Legal Aid

About Cabrini Green Legal Aid

Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA) was established in 1973 to serve the legal needs arising from the lack of opportunity, criminalization of poverty, and racial inequity experienced within Chicago"s Cabrini Green public housing community. Since then, CGLA has grown beyond a single neighborhood to become a citywide, countywide, and statewide leader in proactively filling the void of legal representation, wraparound services, legal information and resources, and advocacy exclusively for low-income individuals negatively impacted by the criminal legal system. Any engagement with the criminal legal system can greatly disrupt an individual, family, and community"s quality of life.

CGLA is distinguished among legal aid service providers locally, throughout Illinois, and nationally as having expertise in legal matters related to the direct and collateral consequences of the criminal legal system. Since 2014, we have been the sole legal aid services provider serving Cook County with the distinction of focusing exclusively on individuals and families who have been adversely impacted by the criminal legal system in all legal program areas: criminal records, emerging adults, criminal defense, housing law, and family law. We provide direct legal services, advocate for policy reforms, and provide legal information and resources to other legal aid organizations, pro bono attorneys, and the general public. We also support our clients holistically with wraparound social services from our social workers. Our policy and advocacy work is not performed as a separate entity; rather it is informed by our legal services and the lived experiences of our Leadership Council, an Advisory Group made up of former CGLA clients and community members directly impacted by the criminal legal system.

CGLA's Mission, Purpose and Vision

• Mission: We provide holistic legal services that include social support services and advocacy for individuals and communities negatively impacted by the criminal legal system.
• Purpose: CGLA exists to remove barriers to equity in the criminal legal system.
• Vision: A more just and equitable criminal legal system.

About CGLA and the Policy & Advocacy Team

Cabrini Green Legal Aid, founded in 1973, has deep roots in the Cabrini-Green area and community. CGLA is known for legal expertise and community presence, remaining one of the most respected organizations working on removing barriers to equity for people who have been impacted by the criminal legal system. As our policy work continues to grow and evolve, our philosophy is rooted in principles of racial justice, movement lawyering, and centering the leadership and expertise of directly impacted people within the community. We seek to build power together through organizing, creating and maintaining relationships, and education. Our work with CGLA's Leadership Council, Visible Voices, coalition partners, and community serving organizations directly informs our policy agenda.

Position Overview

The Community Outreach Staff Attorney works with the policy and outreach programs to provide outreach and legal education. This position is funded through the City of Chicago's Criminal Justice Legal Services Initiative (CJLSI) and is intended to provide community outreach and education to specific neighborhoods within the City of Chicago. The content of community education will be focused on the impact and options available to people with a criminal record, as well as knowing your rights in interactions with law enforcement (4th, 5th, and 6th Amendment). The Community Outreach Staff Attorney will collaborate with the Community Outreach Coordinator to design a program for youth and adults in specific neighborhoods, specifically in the far south and northern zones as defined by CJLSI. The attorney may be expected to handle a small sampling of cases related to the purposes of this grant for instructional purposes; however, the primary focus of this position is not on litigation or direct services but rather on outreach and education.

Essential Duties

• Give Know Your Rights and other presentations at events hosted by CGLA partner agencies, at various community outreach events, and to other entities, as assigned, to increase awareness regarding options available to clients to mitigate the collateral consequences that result from a juvenile or criminal record.
• Together with the Community Outreach Coordinator, identify partners, locations and times for community outreach and education events.
• Work with community leaders, including CGLA's Leadership Council and the Community Navigator, to incorporate people with lived experience into leadership roles in CGLA's community outreach and education program.
• Continue to refine CGLA's KYR presentations and materials in order to accurately reflect the law as well as to effectively communicate the concepts to a wide range of participants from diverse cultural, educational, ability and other backgrounds.
• Together with CGLA's legal and intake staff, coordinate to accurately track outreach events, individuals screened for representation, number of clients accepted, and any other specific metrics required by CJLSI.
• Continually evaluate trainings and materials for effectiveness and inclusiveness, including materials that need to be translated into other languages besides English.
• Together with CGLA's Community Navigator, identify participants who may be a good fit for CGLA's Leadership Council or other leadership cohorts for people with lived experience.
• Together with CGLA's communications team, uplift community events through social media and other platforms.

Education and Experience

• Juris Doctor from ABA-accredited law school.
• Licensed to practice law in Illinois by date of employment.
• 0 to 3 years of law practice experience.
• Ideal candidates will have personal or familial lived experience with the criminal legal system, or strong cultural competency regarding communities that are disproportionately impacted by the criminal legal system.

Required Skills

• Excellent public speaker.
• Comfortable in a wide variety of community settings and confidence in speaking with diverse groups of people from various backgrounds, especially those disproportionately impacted by the criminal legal system.
• Able to clearly and effectively communicate difficult legal concepts to a variety of audiences.
• Strong organizational skills with an attention to detail.
• Be self-driven, highly energetic and innovative.
• The ability to work collaboratively with staff, interns and volunteers.
• Ability to prioritize work, meet deadlines and produce quality results.
• Spanish language skills are considered a plus.

Supervisory Responsibility

• None

Required Hours

40 hours/week. Daily work is to be conducted between 9:00am to 5:00pm M-F, with frequent community events on weekends and evenings. Flexing hours to maintain an overall 40-hour workweek is expected.

Physical Requirements

• Sit for long periods of time.
• Speak clearly so listeners can understand.
• Understand the speech of another person.
• Must be able to work in a stressful work environment.
• The employee is regularly required to sit, walk, talk, read, see and hear. The employee is frequently required to use hands and fingers to type, handle, or feel and reach. The employee is regularly required to stand and walk. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.

Travel Requirements:

• A valid driver's license and consistent access to personal transportation is required for this position. A monthly transportation stipend is available.
• Occasional travel to events across Illinois, legislative advocacy opportunities in Springfield, and out-of-state conferences will be required.

Benefits:

We offer a generous benefits plan that includes Blue Cross Blue Shield - Health insurance, Vision Service Plan – Vision insurance, Principal Dental insurance and 100% employer paid life insurance, (EAP) Employee Assistance Program, Dependent Care and Medical Flexible spending accounts, Pet insurance, Pre-Tax Programs for parking, local transit for Ventra and Metra and UberPool, and Vanguard 403(b) retirement matching. Additionally, CGLA offers generous Paid Time-off, Floating Holidays and 15 paid holidays per year. During the summer months we celebrate Summer Fridays by closing the office early.

CGLA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages qualified candidates of all backgrounds to apply for this position.

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