1. Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/071 Cultural Competence in a Hotline Presented at the Self Represented Litigants Conference, San Francisco 5/07 Claudia C.Johnson Bay Area Legal Aid, Legal Advice Line, Oakland

2. Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/07 2 Characteristics High volume On the phone communication No visual, body language, only voice queues Staff has strong" soft skills” and good listening skills Forces advocate to not assume anything High adherence to protocols/routines

3. Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/07 3 Local language statistics Speak another language at home San Francisco: 46% Marin: 19% Napa: 25% San Mateo: 41% Alameda: 37% Santa Clara:45%

4. Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/07 4 Percentage of population <200% Alameda 33% Santa Clara 18% San Mateo 16% Napa 23% San Francisco 26% Contra Costa 19% Marin 16%

5. Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/07 5 Cultural Competency tips/Hotlines Need to have double or triple coverage for each language, one person is not enough Need to monitor queues by language/skill Need to review cases and guard against providing less services/lower quality due to language difficulties LEP calls will take longer, that is ok Need to have access to on demand interpretation services (Language Line)

6. Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/07 6 Tips Manager needs to routinely discuss with staff difficult conversations Try to identify groups that are not doing well with intake protocols, ask why? Talk with staff about how different groups react to intake protocol to identify training needs Program needs to collect language data, track it and use it in staffing/resource allocation decisions

7. Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/07 7 Institutionalizing Cultural Competency Review data and Identify gaps Seek help, seek training: a) Community groups b) Other nonprofits working with same pop c) Staff from similar background d) Reading literature: medical/public health/interdisciplinary approach Include in Orientation of new staff and evaluation of all staff

8. Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/07 8 Be prepared to be open minded When a conversation fails, or the interaction is non productive ask yourself why? Be non-judgemental, don’t be too harsh on self or client Identify next steps and what you can do differently the next time, Listen to the speaker. Sometimes in the way they tell you the story you will see what their objectives are. Don’t stereotype

9. Legal Advice Line, Bay Area Legal Aid, Self Help Rep Conference San Francisco 5/07 9 Must read Bryant, Susan “The Five Habits: Building Cross-Cultural Competence in Lawyers”, 8 Clinical L. Rev. 33, 2001