Our mission at JSY Giving is to educate, foster collaboration, and support nonprofits in telling their stories, so they can achieve maximum impact for their beneficiaries. Now in our second year, we’re excited to continue this mission, helping nonprofits better serve their communities — through the power of storytelling — with the ultimate goal of making real change.
We had the opportunity to sit down with Rose Mukhar, Founder and Executive Director of Justice At Last, the only independent, nonprofit law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area exclusively serving the legal needs of survivors of trafficking, regardless of their age, gender identity, nationality or type of trafficking.
Justice at Last participated in JSY Giving’s Inaugural Pitch For Good PR Training and was named finalist in the Pitch for Good People’s Choice Awards in September, 2018.
Read on to learn more about the importance of building your narrative and the impact PR and storytelling training had on this Bay Area nonprofit.
Goals & Objectives
What specific challenges does your organization address?
Justice At Last: Justice At Last is the only independent, nonprofit law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area exclusively serving the legal needs of survivors of trafficking, regardless of their age, gender identity, nationality or type of trafficking.
The Justice At Last mission is to empower those who have been labor trafficked and commercially sexually exploited by providing access to free comprehensive trauma-informed and survivor-centered legal services, advocacy, and specialized training to help transform survivors’ lives.
The specific challenges Justice At Last addresses is ensuring that trafficked persons have legal representation and that they understand all their options so that they can seek justice on their own terms. We specialize in the areas of law that have been identified by our clients and our survivor-leader advisory council as being the most critical and least available. Our direct legal services include screening for wage theft, immigration relief, legal advocacy of crime victim’s rights, records clearance, protecting parental rights, and identity theft recovery. We also conduct specialized training to empower and inform survivors about their legal rights within the justice system.
Please share a specific initiative or campaign you implemented or plan to implement to help alleviate these challenges.
Justice At Last: Since our inception, we have been a mobile law firm to help ensure trafficked persons have access to our comprehensive legal services. We travel throughout the Bay Area to meet with clients in places where they are already comfortable, typically at a safe house or in the offices of providers where they already receive trusted services. Our travel eliminates potential hurdles trafficked persons might have with accessing representation and relieves them from the need to provide their own transportation.
As the anti-trafficking movement gains awareness, there are more resources put behind organizations like Justice At Last that advocate for survivors to seek justice on their own terms.
We recently received funding to grow and scale our team, serving even more survivors including those in rural communities.
Please share specific areas of growth and where your organization needed support for this campaign or initiative.
Justice At Last: As we grow and scale, we are focused on education and brand awareness, as there is limited mainstream knowledge behind trafficking. Effectively identifying and communicating the internal and external narrative of Justice At Last is key, as there are many misconceptions around trafficking we aim to dispel in efforts to effectively serve the survivor community.
Solution & Strategy
Please share your journey to identifying the need for external PR and storytelling counsel.
Justice At Last: We had recently launched the organization when we participated in the JSY Pitch for Good PR Training and it was immensely helpful in identifying the need for a good story. We had no idea about the importance behind effective storytelling, and the training really taught our team that it starts with the “need” behind the story and all flows from there.
What factors did you evaluate when identifying your level of involvement with JSY Giving?
Justice At Last: As with all nonprofits, we have limited bandwidth across the organization and understood that Public Relations is a key for growth. We explored JSY Giving and their offerings, as we’re taking all the help we can get!
Journey & Results
Did the JSY Giving Pitch for Good PR Training meet or exceed your expectations?
Justice At Last: The JSY Giving Pitch for Good PR Training helped us reach baseline. We previously had little understanding as a leadership team around Public Relations and the value behind it. During the training, it became clear to us the steps we needed to take in order to effectively grow and scale and building a compelling, concise story is at the foundation.
We learned a key ingredient for how to take the organization to the next level – and that builds your story!
Rose Mukhar
In which specific areas did JSY Giving Pitch for Good PR Training help your organization?
Justice At Last: The JSY Giving Pitch for Good PR Training truly helped us tell our story and really communicate the need. It’s critical to understand how to best tell a story and get the message out to the appropriate channels and JSY Giving helped us do just that!
What were lessons learned through your storytelling journey? What would you do differently in the future?
Justice At Last: We learned that we need to really define our internal narrative and get our incredible team on board before we can effectively share our mission externally.
Opportunities Made Possible
What did this experience make possible?
Justice At Last: Since the JSY Giving Pitch for Good PR Training, we have built several key media relationships, secured and promoted an industry award, and received an impactful grant opportunity. We are grateful for this experience and looking forward to continuing to build on this momentum!
Would you recommend Pitch for Good and/or JSY Giving to others? Why or why not?
Justice At Last: Yes! We got so much out of this experience and I would highly recommend the JSY Giving Pitch for Good PR Training to anyone looking to improve on their internal and external storytelling. We not only accessed key tools and resources for telling an effective story, but also received the brand awareness needed for an impactful grant opportunity. Thank you JSY Giving!
Note: Justice at Last was a finalist at Pitch for Good 2018.