Independent Evaluation Finds PJLC’s  Legal Services
Pilot Promising

An independent evaluation of the Peace and Justice Law Center’s CalVIP-funded legal services program finds that the model shows strong early promise, while also making clear that sustained funding is essential to realizing its full potential.

The mid-term evaluation, conducted by the University of San Diego’s Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, reviewed PJLC’s effort to provide direct legal services to people transitioning out of gang involvement in Orange County. The program was designed to test whether legal advocacy can function as a form of violence prevention by removing barriers to employment, housing, and family stability.

When PJLC originally proposed the program in 2022, the plan envisioned serving a larger number of clients through targeted legal interventions addressing issues such as gang injunctions, driver’s license holds, criminal records, and family law matters. Due to challenges in securing required funding and delays in hiring, the organization made a strategic shift and implemented the project as a pilot rather than a full-scale program.

The evaluation makes clear that these constraints were structural, not programmatic. Despite limited resources, PJLC focused on delivering high-quality, intensive legal support rather than reducing services to meet numeric targets.

The evaluation highlights that clients’ legal needs were far more complex than anticipated, often involving multiple overlapping issues, particularly family law matters and criminal record clearing. As a result, the program evolved into a high-touch model serving fewer clients but providing sustained advocacy over time.

Even at this pilot scale, evaluators documented meaningful outcomes. Legal interventions helped stabilize housing, restore driver’s licenses, protect parental rights, and resolve outstanding criminal records—changes that reduced exposure to law enforcement and supported clients’ ability to participate in lawful work and family life.

The report also notes a less tangible but significant effect: clients described gaining confidence in using lawful, nonviolent means to address problems after experiencing consistent legal advocacy on their behalf.

The evaluation concludes that PJLC’s model is viable and aligned with its original theory of change, but difficult to sustain or expand without reliable funding. High-touch legal services require stable staffing, time, and specialized expertise—resources that are essential to reaching people facing the deepest legal barriers to gang desistance.

PJLC is using these findings to refine the program and inform future funding efforts. The organization remains committed to transparency about what this work requires and to building violence prevention strategies that are effective, humane, and grounded in evidence.