Providing Legal Services In the Era of COVID-19
Non-profits in NYC have been deeply affected since COVID-19 shut down the city. How would the non-profits to transition from in-person services to remote services? Many organizations didn’t have plans in place or even enough time for staff to gather files, important documents, and become operational right away. Some people (clients and staff) thought the shutdown would be temporary and we would all return to regular services in a few weeks. Offices shut down around March 12, today is May 5th and we’re still not in our offices. What does the future hold? Well, we don’t really know. The only thing we can do is to reinvent ourselves and adapt to provide as many services as possible to our clients for as long as we can.
I work with several non-profits in New York City providing immigration legal services to clients from all over the world. Once the city shutdown I helped them transition to remote services. I’ve been working remotely for several years and I was able to draw upon my experience to help them. I prepared simple procedures for them to follow in terms of client communication, logistics, delivery of services, mail, supervision etc. It took a load off staff and gave them a blueprint to follow in the first weeks.
Today is May 5th and staff have settled into routines, are actively helping clients, and promoting services on various social media outlets. They’ve come a long way in a short time period. It’s hard operating with uncertainty. Uncertainty when we’ll return to our offices; when USCIS will reopen; how the economy will fare; how the immigration legal system will look like in the future. But the most important thing is to keep going. If an individual qualifies for an immigration benefit, file the application; put that person in queue and in a position to gain the benefit he/she is applying be that citizenship, permanent resident status, DACA, work visa.
By Paula Forero - Twitter @pforeronyc
Reprinted with permission from the Top Legal Management blog.