Deborah Gross presenting a Court Basics workshop at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

PMC Shares™ Workshops

Click here to view a schedule of upcoming workshops.

PMC Shares sends ambassadors directly into neighborhoods to lead interactive workshops of the structure of state and federal court systems. These workshops provide court users with the tools necessary to successfully navigate our judicial system. We currently offer workshops on the following topics.

  • Navigating and Understanding PA Court Basics
  • Paul Titus Criminal Court
  • Your Rights in Civil Courts Matter
  • Understanding "The People's Court": The Nuts and Bolts of Small Claims Court
  • Landlord-Tenant
  • Family Court
  • Protection from Abuse
  • You've Been Served a Jury Summons, What Does this Mean? 
  • How to Administer an Estate
  • Necessary Legal Papers
  • Bail Watch Training - Philadelphia and Pittsburgh
  • Expungement of Records and Clean Slate 
  • Veterans Court
  • Threats to the Independence of PA's Judiciary
  • Constitutional Amendments in PA
  • Judicial Ethics and Discipline in PA

A detailed description of each workshop can be via the link below.

Some of our PMC Shares workshops can be found on our YouTube channel, here.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia has one of the worst poverty rates among large cities in the United States. Considering the correlation between poverty and crime, areas with high poverty levels are also often areas with a high volume of court users. Because most legal needs of the poor go unmet, we saw a real need for workshops on the court system in the Philadelphia area. PMC Shares began in Philadelphia, where we have already reached hundreds of primarily low-income individuals. Partnerships with the Free Library of Philadelphia and community organizations have helped us have an even greater impact in the Philadelphia area.

Pittsburgh

In 2018, PMC set out to develop PMC Shares workshops and other resources to address the housing crisis in Pittsburgh. Recent trends demonstrate that the city's median rent has risen significantly, while the number of affordable housing units has declined, resulting in an increase in evictions of low-income individuals. As an organization dedicated to bettering Pennsylvania's court system and mending fractured relationships between the public and the judiciary, we felt that it was our responsibility to develop programming to address the problem. In addition to our housing workshops, we have now expanded all of our workshop topics to Pittsburgh. We also published a highly demanded Handbook on Rules and Regulations for Landlord-Tenant Relations in the Fifth Judicial District - Allegheny County. 

Further Expansion

Our ultimate goal is to offer PMC Shares workshops across Pennsylvania. PMC is constantly expanding to new communities across the state, we want to come to your neighborhood! PMC now also offers workshops in

  • Lancaster 

If you are interested in bringing any of our workshops to your area, email staff@pmconline.org

 

 If you are a Judge, attorney, or law student in Pennsylvania and would like to support this important initiative, please consider becoming a PMC ambassador.

Questions and Requests

If you would like to request a workshop at your recreation center, local library, school, place of worship, community organization, etc. or if you have other questions about the program, please contact our Director of External Affairs at mjordan@pmconline.org.