Achievements & Lessons Learned-K: Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service

Knowledge Item: CA-Initiative Impact-99K
Major Achievements and Lessons Learned: 1994-1996

Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service

The Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service (MPAS) project trained Community Advocates throughout the state on HIV/AIDS legal issues to improve service delivery systems.

In 1999, the Evaluation and Dissemination Center asked each project to state its major achievements and the lessons it had learned from conducting the project. Those stated achievements and lessons learned are reproduced here (with minor editing) as reported to the Evaluation and Dissemination Center. The summary statements given here are those aspects of the program's experiences that the Project Director wished to emphasize.

*Achievement 1:* Provided legal advocacy services to throughout the State of Michigan.
Key Elements for Success: Motivation to avoid costly litigation by providing early intervention	Factors that Limited Success: a) Great distances sometimes traveled by program staff to provide technical assistance. b) Two-year project limited the number of cases that the staff could take on.	Factors that Ensured Success: a) Having a committed staff. b) Having a referral service to other agencies. c) Having MPAS personnel provide ongoing support, updated information, and technical assistance to community advocates. d) Developing and maintaining relationships with policy makers, providers, and representatives of various HIV impacted populations.

Achievement 2: Recruited 100 lawyers into attorney network for HIV advocacy, thus increasing referral network.
Key Elements for Success: a) Training and education for community advocates. b) Linkages with other health and human services programs. c) Agency outreach.	Factors that Limited Success: Because there is no statewide requirement for lawyers to provide pro-bono work, it was sometimes challenging to encourage other lawyers to accept discrimination cases from people with HIV.	Factors that Ensured Success: a) Having a committed staff. b) Having a referral service to other agencies. c) Having MPAS personnel provide ongoing support, updated information, and technical assistance to community advocates. d) Developing and maintaining relationships with policy makers, providers, and representatives of various HIV impacted populations.

*Achievement 3:* Increased community awareness about legal rights of people with HIV by providing training to 236 service providers and consumers.
Key Elements for Success: a) Ability of program staff to provide training on HIV legal concepts in a comprehensive, yet easy to understand manner. b) Successful outreach strategies to individuals and service provider agencies.	Factors that Limited Success: a) Getting the word out about consumer trainings took some time to gain momentum. b) Involving non-HIV specific programs to sponsor trainings or identify potential participants. c) Great distances sometimes traveled by program staff to provide trainings. d) Difficulty in overcoming myths held by people about HIV.	Factors that Ensured Success: a) Having a committed staff. b) Having MPAS personnel provide ongoing support, updated information, and technical assistance to community advocates. c) Developing and maintaining relationships with policy makers, providers, and representatives of various HIV impacted populations.

1. Lesson Learned: There is a continuing need for legal advocacy services for people with HIV.

How related to achievements: Demand for training and technical services is evidence that people with HIV still face discrimination and lack access to needed benefits.

2. Lesson Learned: Training community advocates was an effective strategy for building a statewide resource network for people living with HIV.

How related to achievements: Project trainings expanded referral networks. Community advocates increased consumers linkages to legal advocacy resources.

3. Lesson Learned: Training community advocates may not be the most effective method of providing direct legal assistance to people with HIV.

How related to achievements: As demand for legal advocacy services increased in remote areas, the role of the Community Advocates changed from a direct service provider to that of a liaison to legal counsel. There were certain cases which could not be worked by Community Advocates and required direct legal representation.

4. Lesson Learned: Impact litigation is an important but difficult method of system change.

How related to achievements: Difficult to fully implement in just two years (i.e., the length of program funding) due to the lengthiness of most legal court cases and the stress to the client of a lengthy legal process. All direct legal service provided by this project were resolved out of court.

Completed by: Lisa A. Melchior, Ph.D.
Last Updated: July 1999

Project Resource Page

Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service

Evaluation Data

Service Population Demographics

Last Updated: August 02, 2001; data through June 15, 1999; analyses conducted January 2000.

Knowledge Base Citation: The Knowledge Base and this Knowledge Item were designed and authored by G. J. Huba, Ph.D.; in collaboration with Lisa A. Melchior, Ph.D.; A. T. Panter, Ph.D.; and the staff of The Measurement Group. Cite this work as "Huba, G. J., Melchior, L. A., and Panter, A. T. (1998 - 2001). The Measurement Group Knowledge Base on HIV/AIDS Care. On the World Wide Web: http://www.TheMeasurementGroup.com."

Questions or Comments: Contact The Measurement Group.

Use of Knowledge Base Information: Acceptable Uses and Limitations.

Collaborators from Participating Projects: Cooperative Agreement Steering Committee 1999.

Participating Projects: This Knowledge Base is based on the service delivery experiences of 27 Cooperative Agreement Projects on Innovative Models of HIV/AIDS Care. These projects and the Evaluation and Dissemination Center which produced this Knowledge Base were funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) as Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) between 1994 and 1999.

Why This Evaluation was Conducted: Editorial.

More Information: Design of this Knowledge Base.

Recommended Citation Format for Web Materials: American Psychological Association Publication Manual Section, Revised 2001.

Work on the Knowledge Base and the cross-cutting evaluation was supported in part by Grant Number 5 U90 HA 00030-05 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), HIV/AIDS Bureau's (HAB) Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS). The contents of this Knowledge Base are solely the responsibility of The Measurement Group and do not necessarily represent the official views of HRSA or HRSA/HAB's Special Projects of National Significance nor may they represent the positions of the individual grantees whose projects are included in the cross-cutting evaluation.