The Story of a Nine-State Project
 Russell
Butler
Maryland Crime Victims Resource Ctr.
Rbutler@mdcrimevictims.org
 Sunrise Ayers
Idaho Legal Aid Services
sunriseayers@idaholegalaid.org
 Marilyn Harp
Kansas Legal Services
harpm@klsinc.org
 Mirenda Watkins
Probono.net
mwatkins@probono.net
With funding from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime
(OVC), a cooperative agreement between OVC & Maryland Crime
Victims’ Resource Center (MCVRC) created the
National Identity Theft Victims Assistance Network.
By creating a national network
of 10 coalitions, project seeks
to build field’s capacity, help
provide a coordinated
response to problem, improve
outreach & capacity of
programs to better address ID
theft victims’ rights & needs.
PART OF A LARGE &
DIVERSE NETWORK
• Arizona Identity Theft Coalition coordinated by AZ Attorney General’s Office
• Identity Theft Advocacy Network of Colorado coordinated by CO Bureau of
Investigation
• Finger Lakes (NY) Identity Theft Coalition coordinated by Lifespan
• Idaho Coalition Against Identity Theft coordinated by ID Legal Aid Services
• Minnesota Identity Theft Coalition coordinated by BWLAP
• NYC Identity Theft Coalition coordinated by South Brooklyn Legal Services
• South Carolina Identity Theft Network coordinated by SC Victim
Assistance Network
• Texas Identity Theft Network coordinated by TX Legal Services Center
• Washington Identity Theft Alliance coordinated by WA Coalition of Crime
Victim Advocates
• Wisconsin Identity Theft Network coordinated by Coalition of WI Aging
Groups
GOALS & ACTIVITIES OF THE
COALITIONS
Awareness: Community
outreach/public awareness campaigns
 Professional Education: training of
service professionals in region
Systems-Change: improved inter-agency
infrastructure, coordination, referrals
Website: identitytheftnetwork.org
Twitter: twitter.com/IDTheftNetwork
Facebook: facebook.com/IdentityTheftNetwork
RESOURCES ONLINE
Tips Learned in
Creating the Idaho
Coalition Against
Identity Theft
IDAHO COALITION AGAINST IDENTIT Y THEFT
What is it?
Who is on the
Coalition?
Most importantly,
why?
 Identity theft is a growing
problem in Idaho.
 Seniors are often particularly
vulnerable to identity theft.
 Victims in Idaho were not
being served in a coordinated
fashion
IS A COALITION APPROPRIATE FOR
YOUR PROJECT OR TARGETED GROUP?
 Are you having trouble
gaining attention to an
issue/problem/underserved group that you
think is important?
 Are you going to need
expertise from several
disciplines or from both
public and private
entities?
 Does your organization
have limited staff and
budget but your project
will have high manpower
needs?
 Have you identified a
problem but need
community information
and feedback to create
a solution?
 Are there several
groups already trying to
serve this population or
address this problem,
but they are not
working together?
STEP TWO: FIND OUT WHAT IS ALREADY
OUT THERE!
 Is there already a
coalition working on
this exact issue?
 Is there a coalition that
covers a broader topic
that could encompass
your issue?
 Is there a specific
organization devoted to
your issue?
 Have there been prior
efforts to form a
coalition around this
issue or target
population?
 Why was it unsuccessful?
 Are there coalitions like
the one you are seeking
to create in other
states/jurisdictions
that can share
resources, materials?
DETERMINE COALITION MEMBERSHIP
 Have a brainstorming
session with a small
group:
 Choose 4-8 categories that
will benefit your Coalition
 For example: Healthcare,
Education, Financial,
Businesses, Nonprofits,
Senior Service Providers, Law
Enforcement, Government
Agencies, etc.
 Under each category, list 1-5
specific organizations under
each of these subcategories:
Local, Statewide, Regional,
Federal/National
 Research membership
lists for similar coalitions:
do you see members you
missed in your
brainstorming session
 Review your list and ask if
this list covers:
representatives from your
target population,
community leaders,
groups whose
participation will be
critical to the success of
your Coalition.
DETERMINE STAFFING AND RESOURCES
Staffing
Resources
 Who will be the Coalition’s
“leader” or “coordinator”
and what responsibilities
will they have?
 How much time will the
project coordinator need to
devote to the Coalition
during development and
then on an ongoing basis?
 Will the Coalition
coordinator or a support
staf f person be available to
take meeting minutes, send
out correspondence and
emails, etc?
 Does your Coalition have
a Budget?
 Will use of project funds be
determined by the
Coordinator or by Coalition
vote?
 Does your Coalition have
a place to meet?
 If you lack a budget – are
organizations on the
Coalition willing to
donate meeting space,
printing, paper, or
postage?
RECRUIT COALITION MEMBERS
Invite Letter
Other Recruitment
 Create a list based on
your brainstorming
session
 Acquire addresses or
email addresses
 Draft an invite letter that
explains:
 Announce formation of
the Coalition at other
meetings, groups you
participate on
 Send out a press release
 Post information about
the first Coalition
meeting on your website
and in your organization’s
newsletter
 It never hurts to have
refreshments available,
at least for this initial
meeting!
 What the problem is
 Why the Coalition is needed
to address the problem
 How the Coalition can
benefit members
 Details of the first meeting
 How to get more info
WORK OUT THE DETAILS
 How often will your
coalition meet?
 What are your
expectations of coalition
members?
 What activities will your
coalition engage in,
especially during its first
year?
 Should a needs
assessment be done?
 Would your coalition
benefit from assigning
additional leadership
positions?
 Would your coalition
benefit from developing
subcommittees?
 How do coalition
members prefer to
receive information and
updates from you?
MISSION, GOALS, OBJECTIVES
 Develop a mission
statement – sets out
the purpose of your
coalition
 Goals: General
outcomes you hope to
produce due to your
Coalition’s work
 Objectives: Specific
outcomes as a result of
specific action items
 Idaho Coalition Against
Identity Theft
MORE ON MEMBERSHIP
 Once you have recruited
some members, send out
a second invite letter
touting existing members
 Consider size of your
membership – should be
small enough to be
manageable, but large
enough to have diverse
views represented at
each meeting and given
realties that not every
member can attend each
meeting.
 Keep members involved
SUSTAINABILIT Y
 Brag about Coalition
accomplishments
 Make sure members know:
 1) Specific things they can do
to help the Coalition
 2) Ways in which the Coalition
benefits them as a member
 Have regular meetings
 Have an agenda
 Respect people’s time
 Encourage participation of all
members
 Distribute minutes or meeting
summaries
 Develop action items with
specific deadlines
 If coalition starts to lose
direction or focus, can do
another round of strategic
planning to create new
goals or objectives as
needed
 If budget is small or
nonexistent, create action
items that are realistic
given funding restraints
 Want to ensure you have
accomplishments you can
brag about! See above!
MISTAKES TO AVOID
 Don’t have one person
doing all the work
 Delegate!
 Ask coalition members to give
reports on their assigned
projects/tasks periodically
 Don’t overwhelm your
members
 Emails
 Responsibilities/Requests for
help
 But . . . Also don’t give
them the chance to tune
out
 Use surveys or agency
updates to keep folks involved
 If the nature of your
membership changes,
you may need to change
goals, objectives, and
subcommittees
 Stay informed and keep
your coalition members
informed – keep in the
forefront of their minds
why your issue is still so
important
 Share media stories
 Have a member of the
target/affected population
come speak at a meeting
WHY COALITIONS WORK
 You educate key community members about the specific
nature and dynamics of an issue that they may only have
a superficial understanding of
 You raise awareness of your issue or target population so
that Coalition members start addressing it at their home
agencies/organizations as well
 You access manpower and resources that you may lack at
your individual agency
 You can accomplish a lot with limited time and resource
commitment
 You identify gaps in community services by seeing who is
not at the table
 You can gain credibility and media access for your cause
through your coalition
Questions?
SUNRISE AYERS
IDAHO LEGAL AID SERVICES
SUNRISEAYERS@IDAHOLEGALAID.ORG
208-345-0106
ID THEFT COLLABORATIVE
 NITVAN/MCVRC, Kansas Legal Services & Pro Bono Net
created & launched online assistance resources for
identity theft victims. Creates letters that mirror the
letters the FTC created.
 Kansas Legal Services & NITVAN/MCVRC—developed the
interviews
 Pro Bono Net/LawHelp Interactive provides the back end to
serve the interviews, and worked with partners to come up
with a set of staging pages & FAQs to create in the LSC
funded statewide websites.
 Pro Bono Net & NITVAN/MCVRC are doing outreach to
attempt to get these forms posted in all 50 states.
3 ID THEFT FORMS BEING SHARED
NATIONALLY USING LAWHELP INTERACTIVE
 Identity Theft Interactive Forms
 Letter to Creditor - Use this interactive interview for
responding to someone collecting a bill that is in your name,
but a bill you did not authorize.
 Letter to Debt Collector - Use this interactive interview for
responding to a company or law firm that is a debt collector,
or collecting a bill that is in your name but you did not
authorize.
 Letter to Credit Bureau - Use this interactive interview to
create a letter to a credit bureau, seeking investigation and
removal from your credit report of items that are the result of
identity theft.
STATES LINKING TO THE ID THEFT FORMS
 Arizona
 Arkansas
 Florida
 Georgia
 Idaho
 Kansas
 Maryland
 Minnesota
 North Carolina
 New York
 Oklahoma
 South Carolina
 Texas
 Washington
Find the up-to-date list of
online assistance in your state:
identitytheftnetwork.org/victim-assistance
WHAT IS LAWHELP INTERACTIVE?
A national server available to legal non
profits to create, post, and then serve
online interviews that create legal
documents in an easy, friendly way
A training center, and a best practices
engine
WHAT IS LAW HELP INTERACTIVE?
Advocates or
selfrepresented
litigants
answer
questions
during an
interview.
A personalized
document is created
from the answers.
The
answers
can be
saved and
reused.
ONLINE FORMS/LAWHELP INTERACTIVE
 Since 2005, LHI has served over 2.2 million interviews
and assembled over 1.3 million legal documents.
 On a daily basis, LHI generates approximately 1,194
legal documents per day, and serves approximately 2,
343 interviews (HD and A2J Author) per day.
 7, 280 documents were emailed through LHI by its
users in Q1 2013
 Top five states continue to be: New York, California,
Texas, Illinois, and Kansas
 Move to increase remote work flows
LHI FORMS UTILIZATION 2012
Number of Interviews
150,000-above
100,000-150,000
50,000-100,000
25,000-50,000
10,000-25,000
5,000-10,000
1,000-5,000
500-1,000
250-500
1-250
STEP BY STEP GUIDE
TO FIND THE BONA FIDE
INFORMATION/REFERRAL WEBPAGES
 All states have a Legal Services Corporation approved
webpage
 The webpages are a portal to free, quality legal
information
 http://www.lawhelp.org links you to any of these
websites for the US
 http://identitytheftnetwork.org/victim assistance/resource-map has a nice map of
resources available for ID theft per state
TO FIND MORE ABOUT HOW TO CREATE
ONLINE FORMS USING LAWHELP
INTERACTIVE
Claudia Johnson, cjohnson@probono.net
Mirenda Watkins, mwatkins@probono.net
http://www.probono.net/lhi LHI Resource
Center
For courts-to find about licensing directly to
LHI, Adam Licht alicht@probono.net and
Claudia Johnson cjohnson@probono.net
HOW TO GET THE
STAGING PAGE FOR
YOUR USE?
harpm@klsinc.org
Kansas Legal Services
Marilyn Harp
STAGING PAGE CONTENTS
What is Identity Theft?
Identity Theft is the largest consumer
complaint filed with the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) annually. If you have been
the victim of identity theft, it could mean
someone has used your name to:
 make purchases,
 get credit cards
 rent an apartment or
 obtain utilities without your permission.
STAGING PAGE
How Might it Impact Me?
 Even if you are able to resolve a financial identity
theft issue with your bank, this use of your name and
credit history can result in you getting collection
letters for things you did not purchase.
 It can also result in unfavorable entries on your credit
report, causing you problems in getting credit or
paying a higher interest rate.
 Becoming the victim of an identity theft can be a
complicated and frustrating time in your life .
STAGING PAGE
What Can I Do?
 The Federal Trade Commission has created letters (in
this booklet) that consumers can use to notify a debt
collector or credit bureau of the theft of your
identity.
 To use the letters, you must first report the crime of
identity theft to the police. You do not need to know
the name of the person who used your identity. You
show the police the debt collection letters or other re
the victim of this crime.
STAGING PAGE
 Forms
 Letter to Creditor
 To use the interactive interview for responding to someone
collecting a bill that is in your name, but a bill you did not
authorize, you will need a copy of the bill in hand when you start
the interview.
 You will also need to provide a copy of your proof of your identity.
 Click below to use the interactive interview for a Letter to a
Creditor, directly collecting their own bill. This might be a credit
card statement you received that contains charges you didn’t
make or authorize. It can be any situation where your credit or
identity was used without your permission .
Letter to Creditor – Identity Thef t
STAGING PAGE
Letter to Debt Collector
 To use the interactive interview for responding to a
company or law firm that is a Debt Collector, or
collecting a bill that is in your name but you did not
authorize, you will need a copy of their letter in hand
when you start the interview.
 You will also need to provide a copy of your police
report and proof of your identity, by copying these
and putting them in the letter. Click below to use the
interactive interview for a Letter to Debt Collector.
Letter to Debt Collector – Identity Theft
STAGING PAGE
Letter to Credit Bureau
 To use the interactive interview to create a letter to a Credit
Bureau, seeking investigation and removal from your credit report
of items that are the result of identity theft, you will need a copy
of your credit report in hand when you start the interview.
 You can obtain a free copy of your credit report from each credit
bureau here. (https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp )
You do not have to pay for a copy of your credit report. One credit
report from each company is available to you free each year.
 You will mail the letter and attachment, a copy of your credit
report with the incorrect items circled, a copy of the police report
you made of the identity theft and proof of your identity with the
letter.
 Click below to use the interactive interview for a Letter to a
Credit Bureau. Letter to Credit Bureau – Identity Theft
STANDARD A2J
STARTING SCREEN
Notice:
This is
for
ALL
STATES
SIGN UP??
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
TRANSITION TO DOCUMENT
DOCUMENT
Business
Fraud Depar tment OR Billing Inquiries Depar tment
222 West Kaplan
Topeka, KS 66603
RE:
123435
Dear Sir or Madam:
I am writing to dispute a fraudulent charge on my account in the
amount of
$200.00
04/03/12
posted on
I am a victim of identity thef t, and I did not make this charge. I
request that you remove the fraudulent charge and any related
finance charge and other charges from my account, send me an
updated and accurate statement, and close the account (if
applicable). I also request that you cease repor ting the inaccurate
information to all of the nationwide credit
DOCUMENT – THE REQUEST
Please investigate this matter and send me a written
explanation of your findings and actions.
Sincerely,
My name
DOCUMENT – PAGE 2 - 4
STATISTICS
Letter to Credit Bureau
47 users
Creditor letter
112 users
Letter to Debt Collector 47 users
in 14 states since during 2013
HOW TO GET THE
STAGING PAGE FOR YOUR
USE?
harpm@klsinc.org
Kansas Legal Services
Marilyn Harp
Ideas for Training and Engaging
Pro Bono Attorneys on Your Issue
WHY ICAIT CHOSE TO FOCUS ON PRO
BONO ATTORNEYS
 Limited attorney staff
 Significant legal needs
 Lack of training in this
area of law
 Nature of the work was
well-suited for shorter-term
pro bono commitments
 National support and
resources
 Engaged key attorneys in
the community on our
issue
PREP WORK
 Find partners
 Choose speakers
 Find helpful resources and
handouts
 Develop your training
agenda
 Get CLE credit
 Develop a pro bono pledge
 Market the training
 Determine how you will
connect potential clients
with pro bono attorneys
DURING AND AFTER YOUR CLE
 If possible, have the
CLE session recorded
 Make sure all
attendees sign and turn
in their pledges
 Leave plenty of time for
questions
 Give a specific contact
person for follow -up
questions
 Explain how the client
referral process will
work
 Specifically explain
what type of work they
can expect to do on
these cases
 Hand out a survey
 Follow up via email to
provide additional
support and materials
after the CLE and to
specifically address any
questions or concerns
raised on the survey
responses
BUMPS IN THE ROAD
Problems
Solutions
 Post-training, attorneys
still don’t feel comfortable
taking a case on their own
 Mentor(s); clinic, discussion
board or listserv; follow -up
CLE
 Not enough client referrals
in the weeks following your
CLE
 Start promoting the
availability of pro bono
attorneys and doing client
intakes in the months
leading up to the training
 Lack of interest, low
registration for the CLE
 Consider adding an ethics
component, provide lunch,
try to get a local judge as a
presenter
SOME GENERAL TIPS
 If available, provide
other supportive
services to your pro
bono attorneys
 Recognize their work
 Make them see their
role as part of a
larger initiative
 Don’t forget to reach
out to law students
and retired attorneys
too!
COMING SOON!
NITVAN ONLINE TOOLKIT
Coalition Highlights – what worked/what didn’t
Downloads for other collaboratives & victim
service agencies/organizations nationwide:
Printable Outreach Material
 Brochures
 Website Material
 PSA Scripts & Audio and Visual Samples
Quick Tip Sheets
Ready-To-Use Forms
Sample MOU’s
Training Slides, Instructor Manuals, &
Worksheets
COMING SOON!
NITVAN ONLINE TOOLKIT
We’d like to know what
would be beneficial to you
to include in the toolkit!
CASE STUDY
How Can We Best Serve Vulnerable
Populations with Limited Budget and
Personnel
Objective: Develop a proposal for your
Executive Director of how your
organization could address issues of
identity theft for vulnerable populations in
your area.
CASE STUDY
Budget: $10,000
Staff Time: 10-15 hours per week
Choose a target population
a. What info do you need to get started.
b. Strategy for assessing needs and service gaps?
c.
Key community partners?
d. Would you utilize coalition building, technology, or pro
bono attorneys?
e.
3 month project goals
f.
Long term project goals
CONTACT INFO
Russell Butler
Rbutler@mdcrimevictims.org
Merry O’Brien
merry@mdcrimevictims.org
Sunrise Ayers
sunriseayers@idaholegalaid.org
Marilyn Harp
harpm@klsinc.org
Mirenda Watkins
mwatkins@probono.net
identitytheftnetworks.org
This presentation was produced, in part, by the Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center, Inc. under award
# 2010-VF-GX-K030, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S.
Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this
document are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies
of the U.S. Department of Justice.