By Erica Norris, PBI Intern
The PBEye has been reporting on recent developments as jurisdictions authorize Community Justice Workers (CJWs) to address specific access-to-justice issues. Our latest blog series focuses on the implementation of CJW programs in three jurisdictions, beginning with Alaska, which implemented the original CJW model. Stay tuned for future pieces in this series covering implementation in Delaware and Texas.
Alaska’s CJW model was implemented under the supervision of Alaska Legal Services Corporation (ALSC) to provide community members with assistance on select legal matters. Since its inception in 2019, the program has continued to grow and has expanded the legal areas in which CJWs can practice in the state.
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What are Community Justice Workers? CJWs are nonlegal professionals who attend training to develop the skills and knowledge to provide select legal services to other community members. As members of the community, CJWs bring valuable lived experiences and a deep understanding of their clients’ circumstances, equipping them to serve and support them as they navigate the legal process and access resources. |
Community Justice Workers in Alaska
Alaska faces a significant access to justice gap, where the number of people who need legal services is larger than the number who receive them. According to ALSC, there is one attorney for every 10,000 Alaskans eligible for their services, creating barriers to accessing benefits, housing, and family safety. Overall, 170,000 Alaskans cannot afford legal services for their civil legal needs, and for every person ALSC has helped, it has turned away someone else. These issues are compounded by Alaska’s status as a legal desert, driven by its geography and vast distance between communities. In Western Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region, which is 58,000 square miles, there are only five attorneys, including one civil legal aid attorney.
To mitigate the justice gap, ALSC, Alaska Pacific University, and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) partnered to create the Community Justice Worker Program. Taking inspiration from ANTHC’s accomplishments in expanding healthcare access in rural Alaska through Community Health Aides, ALSC created CJWs. ALSC determined that CJWs could complement the work of their staff and pro bono attorneys by assisting with SNAP and other public assistance benefits, unemployment benefits, debt collection defense, estate planning, domestic violence protective order advocacy, and Indian Child Welfare Act cases. Across 47 communities in Alaska, the CJW Program recruited and trained CJWs to help underserved communities.
To reach more individuals and expand services, ALSC recommended a practice waiver that would allow CJWs to provide legal services to people who would not otherwise have access. In Alaska Supreme Court Order Number 1994, the Court adopted Bar Rule 43.5, effective on November 29, 2022, allowing CJWs to provide legal services under the supervision of ALSC. Under this rule, ALSC must supply quarterly reports to the Alaska Supreme Court and the Board of Governors about the number of clients served by CJWs and the outcomes of those matters, any complaints regarding CJWs, and termination of CJWs.
In 2023, ALSC received a million-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation as part of its CIVIC Innovation Challenge to continue developing its CJW program. In 2025, the Legal Services Corporation granted ALSC more than $370,000 to expand the use of CJWs to help survivors of domestic violence.
Training
Under Bar Rule 43.5, CJWs must be supervised and trained by ALSC. Partnering with Alaska Pacific University, ALSC developed a training program where prospective CJWs complete online, self-paced courses through the University.
To begin training, individuals must complete a prerequisite ethics course to establish a foundation for navigating ethical issues while maintaining professionalism and integrity. Once the introductory ethics course is completed, CJWs can choose specialized courses to enroll in based on the areas of legal need. These courses cover the tools necessary to understand and tackle specific legal issues. Examples include training and education on estate planning, SNAP benefits, disaster-related legal assistance, and eviction defense.
In addition to the self-paced classes, ALSC offers a 10-week Domestic Violence Protective Order (DVPO) training program for people who volunteer or work at domestic violence or sexual assault agencies. The course consists of one-hour weekly Zoom meetings. This program combines live instruction, court observations, self-paced learning, and a mock trial to prepare participants to provide limited-scope representation in domestic violence protective order cases.
Once training is complete, the executive director of ALSC submits an application, with proof of course completion and the scope of practice, to the Alaska Board of Governors on behalf of the CJW. The Board of Governors then grants the CJW a waiver to provide legal services.
Impact of Community Justice Workers
Because Alaska was the first state to implement a CJW program, it can provide valuable data on the impact of such programs. According to the Research Brief: Analysis of the Social and Economic Impact of the Alaska Community Justice Worker Program (2021-2025), from 2022 to 2024, the number of cases CJWs worked on increased by 1,575%. The ratio of CJWs to pro bono attorneys changed as well, increasing from CJWs working on one case for every five cases by pro bono attorneys, to CJWs working on about four cases for every one case by pro bono attorneys. CJWs quickly expanded legal services to communities in need.
The Research Brief further showed that SNAP cases were among the highest-volume cases CJWs took on, and in 73% of the CJW cases, clients successfully received SNAP benefits. CJWs helped recover $23.6 million in SNAP benefits in more than 1,400 cases, securing benefits for 2,800 people and 850 households. Securing resources for individuals and families also has had broader community impacts, including an additional 14.5 million dollars in benefit to the communities where beneficiaries live. In addition to SNAP cases, CJWs completed 180 wills for indigenous and low-income clients. These legal documents protect Indigenous lands, culture, and communities, and give clients a choice on how they want their affairs organized. CJWs therefore helped preserve the rights of communities that experienced systematic harm.
Because of Alaska’s large size and dispersed population, placing CJWs in the community allows them to meet people where they are and reduce barriers to accessing legal services. In fact, most people CJWs work with live outside the three big metropolitan areas, helping to address Alaska’s legal desert. Of the people CJWs served, 60% were Alaskan Native or Indigenous Americans, 7% were veterans, 26.5% were disabled, and 11.9% experienced partner violence. CJWs’ close ties to communities built relationships of trust that otherwise may not have existed with lawyers or the courts.
Early research of the Alaska CJW program found that every $1 invested in the program through a federal disaster legal assistance grant, led to approximately $25 in public benefits. Expanding access to legal help through CJWs has a meaningful impact on both individuals and the broader community.
Continuing the Work
Alaska’s creation of the CJW program spurred a national movement to serve underserved communities through alternative methods. Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. have passed or proposed rules to authorize CJWs to help mitigate access to justice issues throughout the United States.
Alaska’s CJW program has shown that CJWs can have a tremendous impact on communities and that their work is sustainable. In Alaska, CJWs have been working with communities for several years, with ALSC training more to reach more people. On August 21, 2026, ALSC’s Community Justice Worker Resource Center will host a Zoom webinar providing an Intro to Alaska’s Community Justice Worker Program to increase awareness about the program and maintain transparency. Other jurisdictions considering a CJW program may wish to study the successful implementation of Alaska’s model.