The Unintended Benefits of Innovation: - The Legal Health Check-Up Revisited

The more collaborative connections with community organizations made by the community development specialist “changed the very nature of the clinic and how it connects with communities.” The following case provides an illustration of how a person with a legal need came to the attention of the clinic and the new approach for assisting the person. [...] The straight line referred to in the preceding paragraph was the realization based on the LHC experience that stronger connections with the community had to be developed, leading to the hiring of a community development officer and the collaborative partnerships for assisting clients represented by the example below. [...] They arise from a continuous process of engagement with the community in which the needs of the users or clients of their service are expressed by organizations through dialogue with the clinic and the clinic responds with service that matches the requirements of the organizations. [...] They are products of the capacity and resources of the clinic and of the needs and the characteristics of the community. [...] The phase 2 pilot study showed that community organizations were sometimes referring people to the clinics without completing the LHC, although the referral came as a result of the use and influence of the LHC in the organization.