CIVIC-PG Track B: Bridging the Rural Justice Gap: Innovating & Scaling Up Civil Access to Justice in Alaska

在美国，资源不足的农村基础设施，包括保健、就业和教育，使个人面临民事法律问题的高风险。然而，许多农村社区几乎没有律师，而且在获得司法支持方面往往忽视了生活在农村地区的人们面临的根深蒂固的障碍，如距离或不稳定的宽带。研究表明，这些“农村法律沙漠”使个人无法满足民事法律需求，如债务催收、家庭暴力和驱逐，几乎没有机会实现公正的解决方案。这种情况的后果是巨大的，特别是在阿拉斯加，每10,000名贫困的阿拉斯加人中只有3.52名法律援助律师。阿拉斯加的一个新项目可能会提供一种模式，以一种更可持续、更符合文化的方式解决农村司法差距。2020年，制定了一个以社区为基础的司法工作者（CJW）计划，以培训已经融入阿拉斯加农村社区的社区卫生工作者，以便在各机构和法院系统之间提供正式的法律宣传、非正式援助和监督。该项目具有双重前景：它是一种可复制的交付模式，并将提供技术和监管方面的创新，使其他民事法律服务能够满足广泛的未满足需求。项目团队寻求STEM领域以及医疗保健和法律领域代表性不足的群体的充分参与和知识。第一阶段活动的更广泛影响和第二阶段试点的愿景包括：1)扩大农村诉诸司法的区域模式；2)转变国家努力，解决诉诸司法的危机；3)促进法律和经济赋权；4)通过与民间机构、部落和州政府以及学术界的合作，加强农村基础设施建设。项目组成员包括阿拉斯加州法律服务局执行主任、以证据为基础的司法救助政策专家和农村司法救助问题首席研究员。研究人员将与一个咨询委员会合作，该委员会由具有地区部落、州和机构观点的成员组成。第一阶段的活动将侧重于建立关系和区域知识，引发更多的公民优先事项，并确保为第二阶段试点制定全面、快节奏和可操作的计划。这将通过安克雷奇和三个“中心”社区的面对面和远程会议进行，这些社区是数百个不同部落村庄的接入点。该项目将借鉴并促进有关法律赋权和法律能力、诉诸司法和农村地区的各种理论观点。它将解决相关学术领域持续存在的“农村忽视”问题，并强调不同农村个人在理解农村法律沙漠影响方面的专业知识。该项目是对公民创新挑战项目（track b）的回应，旨在弥合基本资源与服务和社区需求之间的差距，是国家科学基金会、国土安全部和能源部之间的合作项目。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Under-resourced rural infrastructure, including health care, employment, and education, put individuals at a high risk for civil legal problems in the United States. Yet many rural communities have few if any attorneys, and access to justice supports often neglect entrenched barriers for people living in rural areas like distance or inconsistent broadband. Research shows that these "rural legal deserts" leave individuals with unmet civil legal needs like debt collection, domestic violence, and eviction with little chance of achieving a just resolution. The consequences of this are enormous—particularly in Alaska, where only 3.52 legal aid attorneys are available for every 10,000 Alaskans in poverty. A new program in Alaska may offer a model that will address rural justice gaps in a more sustainable and culturally responsive way. In 2020, a community-based justice worker (CJW) program was developed to train community health workers already embedded in Alaska’s rural communities to provide formal legal advocacy, informal assistance, and monitoring across agencies and court systems. The program holds dual promise: it is a replicable delivery model and will provide innovations in technologies and regulation that enable other civil legal services to meet widespread unmet need. The project team seeks the full participation and knowledge of underrepresented groups in STEM fields as well as healthcare and law. The broader impacts of the Stage 1 activities and the vision for the Stage 2 pilot include: 1) scaling up a regional model of rural access to justice; 2) transforming national efforts to address the access to justice crisis; 3) contributing to legal and economic empowerment; and 4) enhancing rural infrastructure via partnerships across civic agencies, tribal and state governments, and academia.The project team includes the Executive Director of Alaska Legal Services, an expert on evidence-based access to justice policy, and a leading researcher in rural access to justice. The researchers will partner with an Advisory Committee comprised of members with regional tribal, state, and institutional perspectives. Stage 1 activities will focus on building relationships and regional knowledge, eliciting additional civic priorities, and ensuring a comprehensive, fast-paced, and actionable plan for the Stage 2 pilot. This will occur via in-person and remote convenings in Anchorage and in three "hub" communities that are access points for hundreds of distinct tribal villages. This project will draw on and contribute to diverse theoretical perspectives on legal empowerment and legal capability, access to justice, and rural places. It will address the persistent "rural neglect" of relevant scholarship and underscore diverse rural individuals’ own expertise in understanding the effects of rural legal deserts. This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program—Track B. Bridging the gap between essential resources and services & community needs—and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.