Frontline Justice

Access to justice means making legal help available and affordable when it is needed. The purpose is to ensure everyone has the opportunity to address minor legal issues before they grow into a crisis.

But as demand for legal help grows, more access to community justice workers and financial contributions are also needed.

Last year, the D.C Access to Justice Commission’s annual campaign received donations from 32 firms, amounting to $5.83 million for legal aid groups. Through these contributions, one organization helped nearly double the number of clients served between 2024 and 2025.

Check out this article to learn more about the campaign's impact: https://zurl.co/swyDb.

This tells us that when help is accessible and affordable, people can receive the help they need and deserve. We can only expand and improve when we work together.

As Gabby Mulnick Majewski stated in the article, "I think it's important that contributions from firms and from private bar attorneys [are] not looked at as charity. These are really investments in a broader, holistic, healthy legal ecosystem that ensures that legal support and access to counsel are not only for those who can afford to pay."

🥳 We are excited to share that Frontline Justice's CEO, Nikole Nelson, has been appointed to the D.C. Courts Community Justice Worker Committee as an inaugural member!

You can read the full order of appointment at https://zurl.co/wnNah.

Committee members will help shape D.C.’s framework to ensure programs are designed with community impact at the center. They will take on the responsibility of reviewing new program applications and evaluating long-term outcomes, helping to ensure the value and accessibility of community justice worker programs rooted in the needs of the communities they serve.

We are grateful for the opportunity to support the District as it moves forward with implementing its new community justice worker rule!

We hope today you have an opportunity to reflect on the values that bring us together, and appreciate the people working every day to make their communities stronger.

Happy 4th!

🚨 Breaking News!

The California Supreme Court Directs State Bar to Collect Public Comment on a Proposed Community Justice Worker Program.

Check out more details by visiting https://zurl.co/7h5u8.

The deadline to submit a comment is 45 days from the opening date.

California has an opportunity to take a big step toward closing the justice gap. Approving a community justice worker program can help connect more people and families to trusted support within their own communities.

Existing evidence-based programs, such as Alaska’s, demonstrate the impact of trained community members in improving outcomes.

This decision has the potential to inspire change across the nation, making more pathways to legal help available.

Together, let’s shift the future of access to justice.

🚨 Breaking News!

The Montana Supreme Court issued an order for public comments to authorize community justice workers.

The deadline to submit a comment is July 19, 2026. You can read the full order at https://zurl.co/CpdF8.

Thank you, Montana Legal Services Association(MLSA), for spearheading the movement to make community justice workers accessible in the state.

At a time when legal services are often out of reach, community justice workers offer a proven, evidence-based solution rooted in trust, accessibility, and community.

Approving MLSA’s proposal increases the likelihood that more people will understand their rights, navigate systems, and connect with the resources they need before challenges become crises.

Mark your calendars so you can submit your public comment before the deadline.

Juneteenth marks June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced General Order No. 3, informing enslaved people in Texas that they were free.

That announcement came more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, which had declared enslaved people in Confederate states to be free, but had not yet been enforced everywhere.

Juneteenth also reminds us that meaningful change often takes people from many different backgrounds and roles working over time toward a shared purpose. Emancipation required enslaved people, free Black communities, Black soldiers, abolitionists, organizers, faith leaders, lawyers, political officials, Union soldiers, and ordinary citizens to act across many years, each using the tools available to them.

It also reminds us that rights are meaningful only when people have the power to enforce what the law promises.

That history connects directly to access to justice today. When people face civil legal problems involving housing, wages, benefits, safety, or family stability, rights on paper are not enough. People need help enforcing those rights for them to be meaningful.

Visit https://zurl.co/GQ9rY to learn more about our work and the mission to grow the community justice worker movement.

Access to justice means more than just facing legal challenges.

A legal problem can quickly turn into a health issue when people have difficulty accessing Medicaid and SNAP benefits.

Read more on the connection of health and justice in HealthBegins' “The Case for Community Justice Workers as Key Healthcare Partners” at https://zurl.co/LDTPW, by Nikole Nelson and Rishi Manchanda.

Imagine being a grandparent, taking in three grandchildren all under the age of 10. Finding a way to feed, house, and provide healthcare for all can be costly and difficult to obtain. Yet, when you seek help in the form of SNAP and Medicaid, you’re denied.

That’s why expanding access to justice matters. Community justice workers help people navigate these issues before they become crises, such as reviewing denial letters or guiding a person through the appeal process. That bit of help can be the difference between affording groceries and food insecurity.

Establishing medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) can play an essential role in creating opportunities for healthcare advocates to become community healthcare workers and help maintain enrollment and eligibility.

Thank you, HealthBegins, for partnering with us to build healthier, stronger communities through justice work.

Register for our next Community Café on July 1 by visiting https://zurl.co/tSsaW.

Join us for a discussion on California’s proposal to authorize community justice workers.

We will have special guests Lucy Ricca, Executive Director of the Neukom Center for the Rule of Law, and Leigh Ferrin, California Project Director at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), who will expand on the proposal's development and what approval could mean for the state.

See you all in July!