In rural Alaska, the going price for a loaf of bread is easily $10. A pack of water costs upwards of $60. A flight out of Alaska is easily over $1,000. Even just traveling within Alaska to Anchorage, the most populated city in the state, is more than $500 roundtrip.  

Sara Freeman was on food stamps when she first moved to Alaska. She understands the stigma of public benefits in a small community that prevents people from seeking help. She also knows Alaska’s major backlog in processing food stamp applications and recertifications has made the process of securing benefits almost insurmountable without help. She has seen her neighbors go into severe debt to get enough food to feed themselves. 

Today, Sara is a community justice worker serving about 19 native villages in rural Alaska, mostly helping people access public benefits. Alaska was one of the first states to make exceptions to its laws that require anyone providing legal help to be a licensed attorney—and with good reason. Alaska is the only state in the U.S. that doesn’t have a law school. There aren’t nearly enough lawyers to assist the population and the ones that do come into the community usually don’t stick around longer than a year or two. 

Meanwhile, the need for routine legal help in Alaska is staggering. Sara has seen people go months delayed on their benefits – which has unfortunately become the norm. 

“If you’re trying to resolve these issues, it’s pretty much impossible unless you’ve got someone who has your back and knows how the appeal process works already and can walk you through and help with it.”   

For Sara, Alaska’s food stamp error rate of over 50%— the highest in the nation—is more than a statistic. It plays out over and over again in real life. One woman Sara met at a local shelter didn’t even know she had a legal issue until Sara discovered that the reason the woman suddenly stopped receiving SNAP benefits was because of an agency error. Sara helped the woman file several appeals and the agency finally agreed to reopen her case. Sadly, this scenario is not new. Sara has worked with others in her community on similar cases, in some instances restoring thousands of dollars in benefits. 

As a former holistic defense paralegal in the Alaska Public Defenders agency and an AmeriCorps client service navigator, Sara has considered law school in the past. But even if she left her home and went into debt to pursue a law degree, Sara knows there is no program that would prepare her for the nuances of providing legal help in Alaska’s unique social landscape. Her relationships with her clients are premised on a mix of Sara’s expertise, but also a sense of trust in her as a familiar face and long-term member of the community. 

“Some of my Alaska Native clients have a strong distrust for the justice system as a result of feeling they’ve been treated unfairly by it. They are inherently skeptical of pursuing legal options—even if it may be the only way for them to get the help that they need. It helps that they know me, which can make the overall experience less intimidating.” 

While Sara wishes that she could do even more for her clients, she appreciates the community justice worker model because of its ability to expand the accessibility of legal services for everyday people.  

“People have rights and part of my job is letting them know what those rights are. For me, this work is about making justice more equitable for people, for my neighbors.”