Louisville Bar Foundation

Legal Aid Society - Veterans Legal Assistance Program - Legal Aid Society has a long tradition of serving the civil legal needs of low-income individuals and families in Metro Louisville. It has targeted its services in recent years to assist veterans with civil legal needs relating to their service or impacting their ability to lead healthy and stable civilian lives. LBF funds will support a medical-legal partnership (MLP) with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Robley Rex VA Medical Center (Louisville VAMC), and the University of Louisville, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law (Brandeis School of Law) This strategic partnership brings attorneys and law students together with Louisville VAMC medical professionals, integrating legal assistance into healthcare services to address socio-economic determinants that are negatively impacting the health and wellbeing of low-income veterans.

Catholic Charities of Louisville - Fee Waiver Program: Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services helps low-income refugees and immigrants living in Kentucky obtain legal assistance. The LBF grant will allow refugees and immigrants solve immigration and/or employment status issues so to achieve or maintain financial stability and economic independence.

Access Justice - Expungement Clinics: Since 2014, Access Justice has provided free legal services through weekly or monthly clinics to low-income individuals and families throughout metro Louisville. With a network of over forty volunteer attorneys and with an office in the Portland neighborhood, Access Justice's legal clinics educate participants on how to resolve a broad range of legal problems. LBF's grant will provide funds to allow Access Justice to reach and serve individuals in need of expungements.

Legal Aid Society - Technology for West Louisville Office: In 2022, Legal Aid Society will expand its presence and services in West Louisville by establishing a neighborhood office at the Goodwill Opportunity Campus. The neighborhood office will bring poverty-law expertise and community-development together by providing individual legal representation to West Louisville residents and connecting with grassroots, aspiring nonprofit organizations who are working in the area to assist these organizations in community development and identify the legal avenues and solutions available to them to promote long-term change. The LBF grant will fund the purchase to technology to equip the West Louisville office.

Family & Children's Place - Child Advocacy Center: The Child Advocacy Center at the Family and Children's place is the only facility of its kinds in Kentucky providing services to child victims up to age 17 with compassionate, coordinated intervention and investigation of children sex abuse. The LBF grant will be used to pay expenses for a highly trained forensic interviewer to record a child's testimony and for lab kits used to gather and preserve evidence for later use at trial in prosecuting child sexual offenses.

Mothers Esquire - Printing/Marketing of "My Mom, the Lawyer" - Mother's Esquire is a local non-profit with a national network of over 7,500 members advocating for policies that promote gender equity in the legal profession and practices that encourage retention of attorney talent during caregiving years. LBF funds will support the printing and marketing of "My Mom, the Lawyer" - a book written for and designed to help children understand the legal profession and the varied roles that mothers play with in the profession.

Kentucky Refugee Ministries - Immigration Legal Services: Kentucky Refugee Ministries provides legal services to immigrants who have resettled in the Louisville area. Many of these immigrants need to file applications with U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services for permanent residence status or to petition for asylum. The LBF grant will provide partial fee subsidies for immigrants who cannot afford to pay the entire cost of preparing and filing these documents.

CASA of the River Region - Advocacy Academy: CASA provides advocacy services to children with active cases in Family Court. To increase the number of volunteer advocates. CASA must continually train and provide education. The LBF grant will support CASA's Advocacy Academy" program and increases its number of trainings to boost volunteers' advocacy skillset and the understanding of interrelated child welfare, justice and medical systems.

Louisville Bar Association/Legal Aid Society - Volunteer Corps: In partnership with the Legal Aid Society, the LBA seeks to simplify the pro bono process for both volunteers and those seeking legal assistance. The partners will establish a single "Volunteer Corps: which will be a one-stop-shop for both volunteers to access pro bono opportunities, and for potential clients and community groups to learn about and request pro bono assistance. The partners will create a pro bono website which will be the advertised place where attorneys can go to offer their services and where members of our community can seek pro bono assistance. LBF grant monies will help in the design and maintenance of this one-stop website.

The Healing Place - Peer Mentor Program: Many of the clients who come to the Healing Place for addiction recovery are involved in Jefferson County's court system. The Peer Mentor Program at the Healing Place enlists men and women who have completed the program to serve as role models and mentors for those newer participants. These peer mentors provide one-on-one counseling and support. In particular, peer mentors help participants comply with court dates, court orders and other issues related to the Justice system. LBF funds will support the Peer Mentor Program as it increases the chances of a participant's successful recovery and the efficient resolution of court issues.

Louisville Bar Center - Gender Equity Committee (Lactation Room): The LBA's Gender Equity Committee has developed plans and is overseeing the renovations of existing LBA space at the Jefferson County Judicial Center to provide a lactation suite for nursing mother attorneys and court staff. This area will offer nursing mothers a clean and private space to facilitate nursing needs. While most of the renovation costs are being donated, LBF funds will cover needed supplies and furnishings to complete the suite.

Children's Law Center - Holistic Education Law Program: CLC provides advocacy services on behalf of students in the educational setting. CLC staff and legal volunteers identify sources of education-related problems, work with the children and guardians, and engage school officials to address students' needs and monitor outcomes. LBF funds will support advocacy and problem-solving efforts from CLC to ensure that special-needs children get appropriate educational services, allowing them to make academic progress toward graduation and meaningful employment.

YouthBuild - Legal Assistance Case Management Services: YouthBuild helps young adults (18-24 years old), often with prior involvement with the court system, obtain GEDs, secure employment and enroll in college or vocational programs. As a result of YouthBuild's intensive interventions and programming, only 11 percent of its participants re-offend, compared to national recidivism rates trends where over 50 percent generally re-offend. YouthBuild's case managers provide individualized support to participants to accomplish this success. LBF funds will assist case managers in identifying legal issues for participants and linking participants with legal resources to avoid and resolve issues that could lead to court involvement.

University of Louisville School of Law - Ackerson Law Clinic Mediation Program: The Ackerson Law Clinic at the University of Louisville's Brandeis School of Law offers students who have completed initial course requirements the opportunity for practical experience by representing clients under the supervision of clinical instructors. The Mediation Program allows students to apply their mediation skills to assist low-income clients on issues which traditionally complicate and delay judicial resolution of Family Court disputes - custody, visitation, child support. LBF funds support this program designed to help the underserved population, to improve the efficiency of Family Courts, and to enhance the practical skills of law students.

Kentucky Resources Council - Removing Economic Barriers for Environment Justice: The Kentucky Resources Council advocates on environmental issues that adversely affect the health or quality of life of low-income communities. KRC provides legal advocacy without charge to non-profit community groups who would not otherwise be able to afford representation on these issues. LBF funds will support a series of educational workshops that equip volunteer aw students and attorneys to assist groups in Metro Louisville on issues such as zoning proposals or violations, noise, odor, or dust issues, and permitting decisions.

YMCA Safe Place - LMPD Field Release Program: The YMCA Safe Place program works in close collaboration with the Louisville Metro Police Department to offer an alternative to a youth detention facility. When a youth is arrested and LMPD is unable to locate a parent, rather than leaving he youth at the detention facility where the youth could be exposed to more serious criminal elements, LMPD may release the youth to Safe Place staff who will contact the parent and provide targeted case management and family support. LBF funds will support the intervention and case management by Safe Place staff which significantly decreases the chances that at-risk and low-level offenders will enter the juvenile justice system.

Legal Aid Society - Greenwald Family Legal Aid Internship Program: The Greenwald Family Legal Aid Internship Fund at the LBF is a memorial fund to honor Murray J. Greenwald, Peggy Hirsch Greenwald, and Brooke Greenwald Cohen. Each year the Fund provides a stipend for a University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law student to work at the Legal Aid Society and to be educated on the practical aspects of the law. The goal of the internship is not only to provide needed support for the program, but is a meaningful way that the Greenwald family can pass on their passion for public service to the next generation of lawyers.

Louisville Bar Association - Judicial Poll: The LBA's Judicial Integrity and Independence Committee conducts polls of Jefferson County attorneys to provide feedback on candidates in non-partisan judicial races. This information can assist voters in making informed choices in judicial elections. The LBF grant will support the LBA's use of an academic polling lab to create the judicial poll and to accurately and fairly tabulate the results which will be shared with the public in advance of the primary and general elections in 2022.