IMP LEMENTATIO N C AS E ST U DY In order to build legal awareness, ADRA Thailand runs three-hour “Rights and Nationality” workshops with stateless communities. Through interactive activities such as role playing, question and answer sessions, and case studies, they cover the following topics: •W  hy are nationality and legal status important? •H  ow to apply for nationality or a legal status •H  ow to prepare documents and witnesses and obtain supporting information.  or ideas on evaluating the impact of empowerment initiatives, F see 5.2 Monitoring and Evaluating Your Work. If possible, develop evaluation methods to measure workshop quality, paralegal performance, and participant satisfaction. Evaluation methods should account for literacy levels, time constraints, and other obstacles, and may use happy/sad faces or other means of giving feedback that do not require literacy skills, in addition to written feedback forms. 9.10 Closing a Case Projects should establish clear guidelines regarding when and how to close a case opened by a paralegal. Governments may establish timeframes for issuing decisions and documents, yet claims can go on for months or even years beyond official time limits, sometimes without ever obtaining a resolution, especially if public services are underfunded. In addition, clients can become unreachable. Undocumented and stateless persons are often on the move, live in no-signal rural areas, or lack a mobile phone. Closing such cases and what paralegals must do when they close a case will vary according to context and case type. When to close a case Some common standards for closing cases include: •E  stablishing a time limit. If follow up is impossible, after a certain time period with no action the paralegal closes the case. •P  reparing cases for a supranational court that requires proof that they have exhausted all domestic remedies. A case may stay open for a long time. •K  eeping a case open even after a client has received a document and making sure they have been able to exercise the rights it should give them. RELATED RESOURCE • “Know Your Rights” trainings, which projects can adapt to their field, Refugee Rights Toolkit, Asylum Access. • For an explanation of comprehensive justice, see the Spanish-language report “Justicia Integral: Mujeres refugiadas y violencia basada en género” by Asylum Access Ecuador, as well as a summary in English of the concept. 116 | •E  stablishing a checklist of actions at the beginning of each case and closing it once all actions are complete. The “Case action checklist” box provides an example.  or discussions of how to plan, monitor, and evaluate impact— F including at what stage in the case to do this, see 5.2 Monitoring and Evaluating Your Work. How to close a case If possible, clients should be notified when their case is closed. They should also be informed during intake of the timeframes for case closure. The paralegal should then update any files, both in a database or in physical records if relevant. In many contexts, projects should offer referrals to service-providers for clients who have received documentation, to ensure their effective access to rights. A C O M M U N I T Y- B A S E D P R A C T I T I O N E R ’ S G U I D E : D O C U M E N T I N G C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D OT H E R F O R M S O F L E G A L I D E N T I T Y