State Support for Civil Legal Services: Training Center

In the past 18 months, IOLA has worked with New York legal services organizations, community-based organizations, national experts, consultants and other stakeholders to further develop key considerations for Function A. This included a convening of providers and the development of Consulting Groups comprised of grantee providers that each met monthly to develop preliminary recommendations for IOLA’s consideration.

Based on these preliminary recommendations, IOLA seeks to develop a Training Center for legal services providers throughout New York State.

IOLA expects that the Training Center will be accessible to the employees and volunteers of nonprofit providers of civil legal services throughout New York State. To see the geographic distribution of IOLA grantees, please visit https://iola.org/grantees/about-iola-grantees .

This Request for Information (“RFI”) seeks to acquire information regarding the potential for a nonprofit vendor to collaboratively develop, provide and maintain various forms of legal, professional, technical and other training, using assorted formats and technology, to civil legal services organizations throughout New York State. It is anticipated, but not guaranteed, that IOLA will use the information received from this RFI to develop a future procurement for the development and operation of the Training Center.

The objectives of this RFI are to: (1) develop a general understanding of the current state of vendor capabilities to provide scalable in-person and virtual professional trainings to the staff and volunteers of legal services providers throughout New York State; (2) obtain vendor feedback regarding the structure, governance, and financial requirements of a statewide Training Center; and (3) solicit vendors’ perspectives on the future direction of a statewide Training Center for the civil legal services community.