Objectives:

Review of Strategic plan and current capacity of the organization

SJAC completed a strategic plan in August 2005, and the new leadership has been working to implement that plan. We focused in the short-term on a listening campaign to hear from the broader community. The organization did one to ones and small group meetings to hear from more than 200 Somalis over the past 9 months.

Our findings from the listening indicate that:

• There is limited easily available information for Somalis about how to efficiently address their legal issues in Minnesota and other States;

• People recognize SJAC as a useful resource that does make a credible difference for Somalis as work on their legal issues;

• The limited capacity of SJAC currently is what the community would like to see SJAC address in the near term;

• The development of a base of Somali legal professionals and a broader infrastructure of legal supports for the Somali community are the programmatic priorities suggested;

• Mental health issues are a significant concern, as at least half of Somali cases include un-addressed mental health conditions;

• Services to youth is an increasing priority as more Somali youth end up in the juvenile justice system and recently disclosed human trafficking of teenage girls ;

• Services to Somali elders are critical, since they are more often hidden from view and less likely to access supports.

In addition, the community endorsed the following outline of strategies to serve the Somali community’s legal advocacy issues:

1. On-going legal education to the Somali community;

2. Engagement of pro-bono lawyers to assist with specific cases as they arise, for Somali families without the means to pay for their own legal representation;

3. On-going community education on social adjustment issues, such as access to adequate health care, ensure safe housing, get employment and fair employer practices, work against discrimination, police profiling and abuse, filing correct tax returns, keeping refugee and immigrant status paper work up to date, in compliance with federal and state laws;

4. Addressing the language barriers that impede self-empowerment, quality advocacy and legal representation.

5. Working with branches of government, non-profits and businesses to help the broader community understand and relate more effectively to the Somali community.

6. Engaging Somali youth in leadership development initiatives that steer them towards positive livelihoods, promote constructive cultural and cross-cultural values, and support them in building critical civic engagement skills.

7. Advancing the capacity of the Somali community to promote its own interests in American society and become civically engaged as vital contributing members of society.

In order to address the concerns of the community, the organization
has committed to:

1. Respond to emergency legal crises with high quality advocacy services (Case Advocacy);

2. Advocate for better access of Somalis to resources, services and rights (General Advocacy)

3. Advocate for necessary policy change to better promote fairness in law and society for Somalis and all other refugees and immigrants (Policy Advocacy);

4. Provide legal education to the Somali community;

5. Media and community relations to help the broader public understand;

6. Advocate for broader representation of Somalis in the legal system and criminal justice system;

The organization provides emergency legal advocacy services, legal education to the community, educates the mainstream community about Somali legal issues, and helps the Somali community advocate for its concerns through mediation, exposing wrong doing and lastly legal process. We currently serve approximately 200 Somali families per year in the Twin Cities, and an additional 20 per year across the country.

The Board of Directors has set an ambitious pace for building organizational effectiveness. Our objectives over the next five months include: sponsoring small businesses owners education sessions to head off fraud, fight discrimination and profiling and bring the Executive Director, Deputy and Administration Secretary on full time; raise sufficient funds to support our approved 2010 – 2011 operating budget. With these ambitious goals in mind, SJAC is requesting funds from U-ionsCare to help us upgrade our capacity to serve the significant and growing legal advocacy and education needs of people of Somali origin.