Mission Statement

Increase access to justice for lower-income and vulnerable Illinois residents through the innovative use of technology to assist and educate the public and to train and support legal aid providers and pro bono attorneys.

Vision

Illinois Legal Aid Online’s vision is to extend its role as an information resource to become a system connector:  linking potential lower income users to the available online tools and court processes, volunteers to pro bono opportunities and training, legal aid advocates to best practices and to clients.

As a proactive connector, ILAO will be a catalyst for increasing capacity, efficiency, and effectiveness of the legal aid delivery system.

Goals

Each of our five strategic goals envisions Illinois Legal Aid Online as a connector to its primary constituencies and with others, in order to increase access to justice through technology for the lower-income and vulnerable residents of Illinois:

1. Create strategic partnerships which will increase accessibility of ILAO’s online resources to lower income and vulnerable populations
2. Enhance the abilities of website users to successfully utilize ILAO resources through online tools and other supports
3. Continue to facilitate access for lower-income and vulnerable populations to courts through technology
4. Provide leadership in using technology to facilitate delivery of pro bono services, to increase efficiency, effectiveness and capacity of the system
5. Partner with legal aid organizations to integrate existing and new ILAO technology into practice to enhance services to clients

How We Do Our Work

ILAO will accomplish each of its goals through a combination of the following approaches:

• Outreach: build strategic relationships and partnerships which increase the utilization of ILAO’s online services
• Technology: promote innovation and development on behalf of users
• Content:  develop topics and formats for defined segments of the major constituencies
• Human assistance: help website visitors to maximize the value of the available information and tools, through efficient use of in-house resources, partnerships and/or volunteer support

Last update: 12/08/2009