About Our Project:

With a strong history of delivering legal and educational services to economically vulnerable communities, North Carolina Central University’s School of Law is proposing to upgrade broadband services and deploy videoconferencing in five legal assistance facilities, while expanding access to its legal education programs.  The project aims to serve low-income residents and undergraduates at Legal AID of North Carolina offices at NCCU and at four Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Elizabeth City State University, Winston-Salem State University, North Carolina A&T University, and Fayetteville State University.  The project intends to hold legal writing seminars for undergraduates to better prepare them for law school and to increase the representation of ethnic and economic minorities in the legal profession.  The program also aims to hold introductory law classes for high school students in the region, including expanding its successful “Street Law” project and its annual Legal Eagle Law Camps in Raleigh and Durham public schools. 

This project is funded through a two-year grant of$1,978,526 from the U.S Department of Commerce’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

Our Mission:

The Virtual Justice Broadband Project also proposes to:

• Encourage broadband subscribership and train approximately 1,000 residents over the life of the project, offering approximately 4,300 hours of teacher-led training.
•  Enable low-income residents to navigate the often prohibitive paperwork and procedures associated with participating in the legal process.  The project would provide legal guidance and training to residents that would otherwise be turned away by other legal organizations.  .
•  Partner with approximately 25 community anchor institutions in North Carolina to bring access to the tools of justice to economically disadvantaged residents in various areas in the state.

 Project Partners:

• Kontek Systems, Inc.
• Polycom, Inc.
• Kompleks Creative, Inc.

Contact: 

Gregory W Clinton

North Carolina Central University

1801 Fayetteville Street

 Durham, NC 27707-313

(919) 530-7174

gclinton@nccu.edu