In an effort to attract more volunteer attorneys, CARPLS has made a major change to its training program by making a portion of it available online. CARPLS relies heavily on our volunteer staff, which donates approximately 4,000 hours of time annually on our hotline.

"We have typically offered this training five times a year, and we required volunteers to attend an in-person, four-hour substantive law training here at CARPLS," says Leslie Wallin, volunteer coordinator. "If a volunteer couldn't make that session, he or she would have to wait another two months to volunteer."

Now the coursework - which focuses on family, consumer debt and landlord-tenant law - is available via the CARPLS website in a series of slide and video presentations that potential volunteers can review on their own schedule. Attorneys also receive CLE credit for taking the online course.

"With our online, on-demand training, volunteers can be trained at their convenience. We hope this will allow a lot more volunteers to conveniently join the CARPLS team," Wallin says.

Potential volunteers still must attend two live sessions at CARPLS' headquarters where they learn about our case management software and hotline techniques and procedures and practice taking client calls.

Barbara Watkins was one 17 attorneys who participated in the online training launch in April.

I didn't mind being a "guinea pig" for the new on-line training at all," says Watkins, who now does a weekly stint on the hotline.

"The staff had clearly put a lot of effort into developing the programs and I found that it worked very well. Really, having the PowerPoint slides with embedded videos was almost the same as being in a live presentation, but with much greater flexibility. I was able to stop when I needed to and easily go back to it when I was ready to. I printed out the slides and made notes from the presentations, so it worked out just fine."

Know someone who is interested in volunteering with CARPLS? Contact Leslie Wallin at 312.421.4427 or [email protected].