{"id":1116,"date":"2019-02-01T13:28:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T19:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carpls1.wpengine.com\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2022-12-22T13:29:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T19:29:18","slug":"leccion-de-historia-de-carpls-con-mark-marquardt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/a-carpls-history-lesson-with-mark-marquardt\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecci\u00f3n de historia de CARPLS con Mark Marquardt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Nicole NeSmith, Development & Communications Associate at CARPLS<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Word around legal aid town is that the birth of CARPLS all started in 1989 with some scribbles on a singular cocktail napkin by a then mid-20-something named Mark Marquardt, current Executive Director of The Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois. Everyone loves the story, but Mark admits it may be a bit of an urban legend. \u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s true or not, but as far as I know, there is no napkin origin story. I\u2019m afraid this may have been lost to history.\u201d There may not be a cocktail napkin, but there is a December 1991 drawing of a CARPLS referral hub and spoke wheel<\/a>, courtesy of Terrence M. Murphy, Executive Director of the Chicago Bar Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can confirm that CARPLS\u2019 origin story was bred from countless late nights of colleagues pushing ideas back and forth, without those involved knowing they were placing the stepping stones to 25 years as a significant legal aid presence in Chicago and in the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of CARPLS emerged from some brainstorming that was a byproduct of the Illinois Legal Needs Study<\/a>, conducted in 1988 and published in 1989. \u201cThere was a team of consultants, and we traveled around the state, going into communities, talking to their leaders, social service agency folks, judges, bar leaders, etc.,\u201d Marquardt said. \u201cWe wanted to understand how well legal aid was working in these communities. We worked our way up the state and as we got closer to Chicago there was a sense of dread. There were so many legal aid programs. It was a really confusing ecosystem, both for us and for potential clients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the towns where information and referral services existed, people had a clearer understanding of what legal aid could and could not do. Two principles became clear: 1) information and referral services seemed to make a difference where available, and 2) what if they created a mechanism that could coordinate legal services in Cook County?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe main problem was that nothing like this existed in the country,\u201d Mark said. So in spring 1991, Mark and his LTF predecessor, Ruth Ann Schmitt, jetted out to DC to meet with Wayne Moore, who oversaw AARP hotlines across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe told him we have this idea to create an information referral service for legal aid programs in Chicago. He said, \u2018that\u2019s interesting, but are you going to offer legal advice over the phone?\u2019 We said no. He said \u201cif you do that, you are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, and you\u2019re wasting your time.\u2019 So that was a big moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CARPLS\u2019 creation was also due, in part, to a series of conversations with various Chicago legal aid providers. \u201cI have to say that [Ruth Ann Schmitt]\u2026deserves immense credit for her foresight and courage. This was something new and untested.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years after the Illinois Legal Needs Study was published, Mark, Ruth, and their colleagues at The Chicago Bar Foundation and the Illinois Bar Foundation were able to step away and let CARPLS take off as its own organization. On May 11, 1993, CARPLS took its first client phone call. \u201cIt\u2019s really to the organization\u2019s credit that it did prove itself within the first couple of years so that other legal aid organizations said \u2018ok, we get it,\u2019 and they really started to work together,\u201d Mark said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Future of Legal Aid and CARPLS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Mark sees the future of legal aid as one where CARPLS continues to inhabit a critical role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCARPLS is really intentional and meticulous about examining and analyzing and improving everything it does, to a degree that\u2019s almost unique among not-for-profit service providers,\u201d Mark said. \u201cCARPLS is effective and specifically cost-effective. I think the vision [to make Chicago the first city in the nation to provide anyone with a legal problem access to an attorney] is the right one, but I think it needs to be a collective vision. It will require leadership and take time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark also describes CARPLS as a master puzzle solver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery now and then, it\u2019s important to step back and look at the delivery system as a whole, look at the pieces of the puzzle, and see how you can fit them in new ways. CARPLS is really good at that,\u201d Mark said. \u201cI think there are a couple things I would hope for in the future. The A in CARPLS [meaning \u201cadvice\u201d] has been the emphasis of the first 25 years. The community could benefit from the C in CARPLS [meaning \u201ccoordinated\u201d] being the priority going forward. A deeper integration of all the components of the delivery system, that\u2019s what I see. The goal is to make the system more accessible to assisting those that need help. CARPLS is definitely an important part of that continuum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Nicole NeSmith, Asociada de Desarrollo y Comunicaci\u00f3n de CARPLS En la ciudad de la asistencia jur\u00eddica se dice que el nacimiento de CARPLS...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carpls.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}