NLCHP Launches Street Lawyer WIKI Site

A WIKI to End and Prevent Homelessness

This month, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP), along with 20 other national and local partners, is proud to officially launch its new WIKI, entitled Street Lawyer: Legal Tools for Economic Justice, an online resource tool that will support the efforts of advocates, attorneys, policy makers and homeless people working to end and prevent homelessness.

The Street Lawyer WIKI is different from an ordinary website in that its content is developed collaboratively by a community of editors, each of whom has expertise that needs to be preserved and made accessible to those engaged in policymaking as well as individual and systemic advocacy. Advocacy groups can now work on projects or develop and share resources in collaboration rather than in isolation.

At present, information on homelessness is spread out across national, state and local web sites, making it difficult to locate resources, with a good deal of duplication of effort.  Users will have the ability to upload and download documents themselves as well as make changes to content themselves.

The WIKI includes an advocacy manual consisting of fact sheets, Q&A, statutory materials, litigation documents, model programs, policies and legislation, and in-depth articles.  The site also provides a central location for advocates and organizations to post training sessions and events, as well as offers the latest news from partner organizations and ways to get more involved in the effort to end homelessness. Visit the site and find a list of current partners at http://wiki.nlchp.org.

NLCHP will provide an orientation to the site on October 15, 2008 for current and potential wiki partners.  Vist the NLCHP calendar of events for more information.

Thanks to the Trellis Fund, Freddie Mac, the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, Anonymous Donor, the Butler Family Fund, the Herb Block Foundation, the U.S. Human Rights Fund, Anonymous Donor, and the Waitt Family Foundation for their support of this project.