The Georgia Legal Services Program received a TIG for a statewide website SMS (aka text messaging) initiative, the first of its kind in the community. GLSP is working with the Northwest Justice Project, Illinois Legal Aid Online, LawHelp New York and Pro Bono Net to provide self-help and referral resources from each state's statewide website via text message. Each of the four state partners is developing a local marketing campaign targeted to the low-income and moderate income public in a specific geographic area (statewide, rural counties, or a city) that will incorporate the SMS number. 

Each partner has elected to provide resources and referral information in a different legal area.  These areas include:

• Consumer rights in Georgia
• Immigration and domestic violence information in New York
• Expungement for juvenile criminal records in Illinois
• Drivers licence reinstatement in Washington

Users will text a keyword to an assigned SMS number and receive tailored information based on their responses to a set of questions. For example, users could text "legal aid" to the SMS number and receive a message asking for their zip code and their specific legal need. Based on that, a user would then receive tailored information and referrals. 

Project Partners