Reaching out with research

The autonomy of the researchers and the measures taken to assure confidentiality will be critical to gaining the participation of service users. [...] The mapping process will have to develop multiple ways to identify and encourage the involvement of people who can provide experiential evidence about the access to justice process and the effectiveness of available services. [...] In the spring of 2003, the Executive Director of the BC Law Courts Education Society shared the fledgling idea and the draft funding proposal at a Civil Justice System and the Public (CJSP) Partner Symposium. [...] Subsequently, with the agreement of the BCSHC collaborators, the project became a case study for the CJSP project, with the CJSP Research Coordinator becoming a member of the BCSHC committee. [...] The purpose of the mapping exercise was to provide an “access to justice” map of the network of services providing assistance to self-representing litigants at the Vancouver and New Westminster Courthouse and to identify service gaps in relation to SRL issues, challenges and needs.