Help a child in need of legal assistance

Amy Sikes and her daughter Ashlyn

Faithful readers might remember from our summer 2011 issue the story of Ashlyn Sikes, the Tallahassee second-grader who finished out the last school year with her best report card ever thanks in large part to four Florida State University Law students who saw to it that Ashlyn’s special education needs were met.

FSU’s Public Interest Law Center, whose managing attorney Paolo Annino supervised the students’ work on behalf of Ashlyn, is one of the 23 Children’s Legal Services grantees around Florida who depend on funding from The Florida Bar Foundation to provide free civil legal services specifically designed to address the needs of children.

The Foundation distributed $2.8 million to these legal aid programs through its Children’s Legal Services Grant Program in 2010, but had to cut those grants by 20 percent in 2011 due to declining revenue from Florida’s Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) Program. With IOTA revenue expected to remain stagnant into 2013 and 2014, possibly longer due to low interest rates, another round of cuts of 20 percent or more is expected in 2012, which will endanger the jobs of up to 10 of children’s legal services attorneys whose work is currently funded by the Foundation.

You can help soften these cuts by contributing $100 or more to the Foundation’s 2011 End-of-Year Campaign for Children’s Legal Services. Particularly during this temporary slump in IOTA revenue, your support is vital to helping retain the talented attorneys who have dedicated their careers to meeting the legal needs of Florida’s children.