Chapter 9

Ups and Downs

A. Success Stories

After several years of talking to hotline staff across the country, we find the main ingredients in making a hotline program successful continue to be:

• Excellent Staff

• Support of staff, board, bar association, legal?aid community

• Flexibility and risk-taking

• Technology that facilitates effective, efficient service delivery

• Strong supervision and case review procedures

• Adequate funding

B. Problems and Pitfalls

Like death and taxes, the same issues continue to be the major problems:

• Inadequate funding

• Staff resistance and fear of change

• Poor choices of technology

• Difficulty in establishing credibility in the legal, social service, and funding communities

• Insufficient staffing and/or inexperienced staff

• Lack of volunteers and/or lack of effective strategies to use of volunteers