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                  - Home
                  - Grants                      - Project Grants
                    - Technical Assistance Grants
                    - Curriculum Adaptation & Training Grant
                    - Strategic Initiatives Grants
                    - Education Support Program
                    - Funding Toolkit 
                  - News
                  - Grantee Spotlights
                  - Priority Investment Areas                      - Court Pandemic Response and Recovery Grant Program 
                  - Grant Management
                  - About SJI                      - Board of Directors
                    - Executive Director
                    - Past Members
                    - SJI Budget 

### Supporting the Nation's Judicial System & the Public it Serves

## SJI Grantee Spotlights

FEATUREDApril 1, 2024

### 												The Housing Navigator Program											

The Good Neighbor Emergency Assistance (GNEA) and the Iowa Judicial Branch have partnered to support *The Housing Navigator Program*. The Navigator at GNEA assists their clients in finding sustainable forms of housing assistance in Story County, Iowa, with the aim of preventing homelessness.  They work with clients holistically to determine which programs offered by the state they may qualify for, and then offer help to apply for those programs.  The navigator has helped individuals apply for SNAP, CIRHA, LIHEAP, Social Security, and Medicaid, as well as rent and utility assistance through Story County General Housing Assistance.  The navigator also serves as a clearinghouse for information about job opportunities in the area, as well as other programs that they can direct clients to and offer help. They also work with various collaborations in Story County to ensure that GNEA is represented in landlord roundtables, as well as hunger, housing and transportation workgroups.A large portion of the navigator’s time is spent in administering the Emergency Rent and Utility Assistance Program at GNEA.  Much of that job involves liaising with the Story County General Assistance Program who performs a consolidated intake, working with clients on ensuring that their applications are complete, and connecting with landlords and utility companies to ensure that they are aware that assistance will be applied to the client’s account.  This helps ensures that a client will not face late fees or be evicted, while during the application for assistance process.

The focus of the Navigator position expanded from dispute mediation to a more general homelessness prevention program.  This has allowed agencies in the area to continue to work with landlords to resolve larger issues and to ensure that individuals themselves are not made homeless and can stay in their homes while assistance is being applied to their account.  The program is valued by both the tenants and the landlords.  Clients often do not get charged late fees (making it harder to pay back rent) and landlords do not have to go through the expense of evicting tenants that may eventually be able to pay rent on their own, and then re-renting the property.  The Navigator Program has accessed $219,395 in rent and utility assistance, and has spent more than 275 hours with clients helping them fill out forms, apply for more sustainable housing, food assistance and social security and Medicare.  The navigator’s work has affected 575 households, which includes 590 children, 796 working age adults and 47 senior citizens.   Their work has ensured that people remain in their homes, keep their utilities turned on, and get into programs that help them begin to take the steps toward more security in their lives.  The Housing Navigator has been essential in upholding GNEA’s mission of homelessness prevention.

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### National Center for State Courts: Rural Justice Collaborative

September 1, 2023

Rural communities face unique challenges that impact their ability to deliver fair and equitable justice. Despite these challenges, rural communities rely on their many strengths to address the needs of their residents. In 2021, the National Center for State Courts, in partnership with Rulo Strategies, launched the Rural Justice Collaborative (RJC) to showcase the strengths ... 

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### National Center for State Courts: Blueprint for Racial Justice Initiative

August 1, 2023

Leveling the Scales of Justice: Developing an Action Blueprint to Further Racial Justice in and by the Courts (known as the Blueprint for Racial Justice Initiative) The Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) issued a resolution in 2020 that called on courts to ‘intensify efforts to combat racial prejudice ... 

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### National Judicial Network: Forum on Human Trafficking and Immigration in State Courts

July 1, 2023

The National Judicial Network: A Lifeline Helping Judges Better Serve Human Trafficking Victims and Immigrant Victims of Crime and Abuse The National Judicial Network (NJN): Forum on Human Trafficking and Immigration in State Courts offers judges an opportunity for peer-to-peer learning and information sharing. Judges from all over the country who are interested in the ... 

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### “The Good Judge-ment Podcast” Training Project: Georgia Council of Superior Court Judges

June 1, 2023

The Good Judge-ment Podcast is an educational, web-based podcast for judges, lawyers, students and nerds of all kinds.  The podcast started in 2016 as a supplement to ongoing educational programming for Georgia Superior Court judges.  From that beginning, it has grown to a bi-weekly program with hundreds of subscribers and over 125 episodes.  The hosts, ... 

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### Sustainable Case Management and Evidence Adjudication Support Tools for Cases Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Government-declared Emergencies

May 1, 2023

With the certification of 64 resource judges and four court resource attorneys’ mid-summer 2022, the National Courts and Sciences Institute (NCSI) completed Phase 1 of a SJI-supported strategic initiative to discover ways to train judges and court personnel to cope with novel, changing, Covid Science in the Courtroom. Judges from 12 jurisdictions in coordinator-facilitated teams ... 

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### Eviction Data Analysis and Accessibility: Supporting Shelby County Court Data Management

April 1, 2023

During the past two years, Neighborhood Preservation, Inc. worked with the City of Memphis and Shelby County to launch the local Emergency Rental Assistance program, a $90 million program with a strong eviction prevention and legal services component. The SJI grant supported the development of court data tools to identify ERA applicants facing upcoming court ... 

 Read More**

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