San Francisco-based Legal Aid Association of California
(LAAC) recently completed a year-long Webinar series
focusing on senior advocacy issues. The LAAC Online
Training for Seniors'Advocates (LOTSA) Project, funded by
a grant from the ABA Commission's and the Borchard
Foundation's Partnerships in Law and Aging Program, delivered
hour-long, real-time Web-based seminars aimed at legal
services providers in rural and under-resourced counties
throughout California. The project also enabled other elder
law and pro bono attorneys to attend free, MCLE creditapproved,
high-quality trainings on critical issues affecting
low-income seniors.
The goals of the LOTSA project included improving
efforts to meet the civil legal needs of low-income seniors in
California through the provision of education and trainings to
legal services providers, as well as strengthening the overall
capacity of the statewide delivery systems.
As the statewide membership organization of legal services
organizations in California, LAAC provides key support
to the legal aid community through relevant and
affordable trainings, statewide coordination efforts, innovative
uses of technology, and advocacy on issues of concern to
legal services programs. The LOTSA Project aimed to provide
that much-needed support to California's legal services
community.
From September 2007 to June 2008, the LOTSA Project
offered twenty-one hour-long trainings on critical issues
relating to advocacy for senior citizens.
The trainings reached more than fifty legal services programs
in California, as well as local ombudsman chapters
from the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

During the first six months of the Webinars, the LOTSA
Project averaged 12.9 attendees per training, with a high of
28 participants during a training titled "Overview of
Foreclosures & the Mortgage Market."
During the second half of the grant cycle, attendance
increased to an average of 40 attendees per training. The season-
high record was 82 participants for a training titled
"Defending Evictions from Nursing Homes, Assisted Living
Facilities, and Other Residential Facilities."
The majority of attendees (more than 90 percent of all
participants) were ombudsman and attorneys from small and
rural legal services programs in California. An average of
three pro bono attorneys from private law firms attended each
training.
The LOTSAWebinars addressed 14 different substantive
legal topics, including a wide array of issues important to
seniors and those working with seniors, such as:
-Nursing Home issues
-Disability Rights
-Medicare
-Elder Abuse, including Elder Estate Abuse
-Immigrant Seniors
-Naturalization and Citizenship
-Foreclosures, Mortgages, and Loan Modifications
-SSI
-Medi-Cal
-Alzheimer's disease
-Elder Law 101
-Debt Collection
-Fair Housing Rights for Seniors
-Effectively Navigating Legal Resources Websites.
Local, state, and national organizations that volunteered
their staff and trainers to share their expertise included:
-National Senior Citizens Law Center
-Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund
-California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform
-Immigrant Legal Resource Center
-National Consumer Law Center
-Senior Legal Hotline
-Western Center on Law and Poverty
-The Alzheimer's Association.
Each hour-long session was held regularly on a
Thursday during the lunch hour.
The Webinars had two components-audio and visual-
that proved to be easily accessible to advocates. For the visual portion, participants watched the presentation
on their computer screen. To listen to the presentation, the
attendees called into a toll-free conference line. The interactive
trainings also allowed attendees to ask the presenter
questions.
The project team selected the WebEx platform for the
online Webinar component of the LOTSA trainings.
Participants and trainers both found the WebEx components
relatively easy to download and use. Participants
also enjoyed networking with the trainers, and the trainings
encouraged the added benefit of legal services staff
sharing their experiences with their colleagues at other
organizations.
Tips for Developing Training Content
In replicating the LOTSA Project, LAAC offers the following
recommendations for others seeking to develop training
content and establish an easy-to-use delivery system.
Develop trainings based on the needs of the
community you want to serve. Start by making a survey to
distribute among the organizations, nonprofits, and groups
you seek to serve in order to gauge the training needs of the
community. Once training needs are collected, prioritize the
highest rated topics and make your training series based on
those priorities. It is advisable to pick a broad topic-such as
housing, seniors issues, family law-and then have each
individual session involve a specific subtopic of that broader
theme.
Seek out high-quality trainers who are not only experts
in their field but good, engaging presenters. Find speakers
who have had experience presenting and have gotten positive
feedback in the past.
Set quality standards for Powerpoint presentations
and other materials. Make sure that the written materials
are in easy-to-read, outline form rather than as entire paragraphs.
Since the participants will only be viewing the computer
screen in front of them, pictures and other graphics are
important for garnering their attention and engagement.
Tips for Online Training Delivery System
If trainings are eligible for MCLE credit, make sure to keep
track of attendees' participation. The Web conferencing service
generally compiles a list of attendees and their engage