Training & Development

You need to be able and prepared for somebody to go out and explain how [attorneys] are supposed to be [working with] social workers. So we [did] those trainings. It was like a roadshow, training offices [so they would] understand how to use social workers.

Cara Lane Cape

Kentucky

BACK

Social workers do not learn defense social work in social work school. A commitment to training and development of your social work team will be necessary to help to support their successful integration into your office. It is important to consider how you will build community and connection among your teams.

Introductory training should include training on topics like the path of a legal case, ethics, strategic advocacy, note-taking, client-centered practice (e.g., building rapport, trauma-informed interviewing), advocating with probation and prosecutors, specialty courts, and accessing community resources.
Organize training resources centrally to help make institutional knowledge and helpful information accessible.
Some offices may not have social workers sitting in the same physical space as attorneys. In that case, it’s important to encourage intentional communication.

Interdisciplinary “training teams”

On interdisciplinary teams, this is a necessity for all team members, and for each role:

Just as clients never interact with solely one system, advocates must be equipped with a working knowledge across systems and roles.
Look into offering continuing legal and social work education credits.
For training and development, look for “bright spots” – social work/advocate/ attorney pairs who are “getting it right” and invite them to train.Consider what’s working, and how you can build on that success.

Sample Onboarding Overview

Supervision

Social workers and non-attorney advocates should receive structured supervision and support as they take on these new roles. Create opportunities for regular 1:1 supervision, group practice meetings, and peer supervision. The Management Center has excellent resources for managers and supervisors who are new to providing structured supervision.
Critical feedback is an important part of fostering professional development. In order for your holistic practice to succeed, you need to be willing to give and open to receiving critical feedback. Be ready to change course responsive to that feedback.

Shout-outs and case conferencing

Shout-outs

Shout-outs in writing or at team meetings can help to highlight the collaborative work among interdisciplinary teams, whether or not that work led to a traditional defense “win,” like an acquittal.

Case Conferencing

Communication is a core tenet of holistic defense and case conferencing among interdisciplinary advocates helps encourage seamless collaboration. Ideally, team members can gather, share information and address practical elements of representation, case theory, and mitigation strategy.

Best Practices

Create a folder with shared case documents (charging documents, discovery, interview notes, records available to all defense team members).

Draft an agenda for the case conference. An agenda might include:

Status of the legal case; last contact with client; status of contact with any family members or other people in our client’s life; what we anticipate at the next court date; update from each team member on status of the work; expectations, timelines, and next steps.
Include all team members in meetings and ensure shared understanding of case theory.
Explicitly commit to deadlines and division of labor.

Developing a Support Network

There is an expanding network of defense social workers and advocates embedded in public defender offices. It is critical to develop a network of other non-attorney advocates advancing a holistic model in PD offices. Some national networks include:

NAPD: National Association for Public Defense
NLADA: NationalLegal Aid and Defender Association Community Oriented Defender Network
BPDA: Black Public Defender Association
NACDL: National Association of Criminal DefenseLawyers
NAPR: ABA National Alliance for Parent Representation

A number of state-wide or regional defense social work networks have developed as offices have expanded their holistic practices.

Michigan, Northern California, New York City, Texas, and other jurisdictions have developed regional networks to share resources, build community, offer training and development, and strategize to better serve their clients