Background Information for Legal Aid Staff

• There is an overwhelming consensus that demographic diversity is important in the legal aid system, both as a matter of fairness and to ensure effective services for a diverse population of potential clients.
• There is currently no statewide data on available on diversity with the legal aid system in Illinois. The Illinois Legal Aid Diversity Survey will capture this data and make it available for the first time in 2021. Future iterations of the survey will collect and report this data on an annual basis.
• The diversity survey is being sponsored by the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois as part of a larger strategic effort to promote diversity in hiring, retention, and promotion. This effort is led by a Diversity & Inclusion Working Group, which is made up of representatives of legal aid programs throughout the state. (See list below.)
• The survey was designed with input from, and is being administered by, Nextions LLC, a consulting firm focused on diversity, inclusion, change management, and leadership.
• By providing data to your organization that will be used to complete the survey, you are helping to ensure that we have accurate, comprehensive data on the diversity that currently exists in the Illinois legal aid system. This information is critical to future efforts to promote and measure diversity within the legal aid system.
• The information you provide to your organization as part of its data-collection effort is confidential and will not be shared with any third-party entity. Your information will be combined with that of the rest of the PILI staff to be reported in the aggregate as part of the diversity survey.
• While your participation is important, you should only answer questions that you are comfortable answering. If you are uncomfortable providing certain types of information, you can either skip the question or select “prefer not to disclose,” which is available as an option for each question. But, every staff member must submit a completed survey even if all questions are marked as "prefer not to disclose."
• The underlying goal of the survey is to support legal aid organizations and a legal aid system in which differences are recognized and valued. While some questions may make certain people uncomfortable, others might be offended by the idea of not being allowed to share their identity and have it recognized and accepted. The Lawyers Trust Fund and the Diversity & Inclusion Working Group have tried to design the survey in a way that strikes a balance between these goals.
• Please direct any questions you may have about the survey to Michael.

Please complete and submit the survey below by Friday, February 12th, 2021 

You are being asked to complete this survey as part of an effort by the Illinois Legal Aid Diversity & Inclusion Working Group and the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois to measure demographic diversity within the Illinois legal aid community.

Please answer all of the following questions that you are comfortable answering, noting that for most questions there is an option to select “Prefer Not to Disclose.”

The information reported on this form will be aggregated and anonymized before being used to complete an organizational survey to be administered by the consulting firm Nextions LLC.