A Passion for Justice

The National Defender Leadership Institute

works to secure equal justice by promoting and supporting training, mentoring, networking and development of leadership skills for existing and emerging leaders in the equal justice and criminal justice communities.

Explore the areas of:

• Learning
  
• Development
  
• Networking
  

for a wealth of helpful materials such as Best Practices, Public Awareness manuals, Assessment tools, and Recommended Reading.

A Leadership Initiative is a project, proposal, plan, or idea relating to justice in your state, community, or agency, that you could imagine initiating within the next several months.

The initiative might involve taking a new approach
to an existing project that needs an infusion of energy, or it may involve a nascent idea that you would like to shape and set on course. Your leadership initiative could be a project that is internal to your agency, or an initiative that involves contact with and support from the community. Examples of a leadership initiative include the following:

• Developing a community-outreach plan to address client reentry issues such as housing, mental health, and employment needs.
• Designing a strategy to improve communication within your office or management team.
• Establishing a community advisory board for a public defense program, or a working partnership with the local legal aid program to enhance client services.
• Creating a new training and evaluation program to improve client services and attorney performance.
• Developing a community coalition to increase public support for the right to counsel.
• Collaborating with law enforcement and law makers to address gang violence or other local community issues.

• ACCD
• NASAMS
• Defender  Trainers