If you'd like to be removed from our mailing list, please unsubscribe

To view this email online with graphics, click here
send-friend-btn

Florida Bar Foundation logo

The Foundation Docket
October 2011

Florida Bar Foundation convenes children's legal services grantees


Former foster youth Ashtavia Maddox gave a powerful charge to

Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente and Ashtavia Maddox

45 children’s legal services attorneys gathered September 15-16 in Orlando.

“Stay empowered,” she said, urging the group to continue to help ensure the legal rights of thousands of low-income and foster children in Florida.

The 20-year-old, who grew up in Florida’s foster-care system and is now a foster-youth advocate, said without her legal aid attorney she doesn't know where she would be.

“It’s important that we have you guys,” Maddox said. “My attorney worked around the clock for me.”

For the sake of children like Maddox, advocates from more than 20 legal aid organizations convened for the 2011 Children’s Legal Services Conference, sponsored by The Florida Bar Foundation.  Presentations and panel discussions covered topics ranging from children’s health care and developmental disability rights to juvenile justice reform.

Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente, the keynote speaker, called on children’s advocates to be change agents.
 
Read more

Street Law Project empowers homeless women

Several Miami-Dade women who were once

Pictured left to right: Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. attorneys Anna Frusciante and Margaret Zehren; Linda Leali, attorney with White & Case LLP in Miami and board member of Florida Association Women Lawyers (FAWL) Miami-Dade Chapter; Eleventh Circuit Court Judge Rosemary Barkett; Kristy Johnson, attorney with Carlton Fields in Miami and past president of FAWL Miami-Dade Chapter; and Deborah Baker, attorney with Lipscomb, Eisenberg & Baker, PL  and Miami-Dade FAWL treasurer.

homeless are now on their way to a better financial future thanks to the Lotus House Street Law Project, a pro bono partnership between Legal Services of Greater Miami and the Florida Association for Women Lawyers (FAWL) Miami-Dade Chapter.

Using just over $11,000 out of their $915,585 Florida Bar Foundation general support grant, LSGMI attorneys Anna Frusciante and Margaret Zehren created a project through which LSGMI staff attorneys and pro bono attorneys from FAWL so far have taught 50
women at Miami’s Lotus House, a transitional facility for homeless women, how to put their financial houses in order.

Read more

Foundation kicks off North Florida Fellows Campaign
Foundation board member Phil Kabler
Phil Kabler


The Florida Bar Foundation is rolling out a series of fellows
campaigns across the state that will educate prospective donors about how the Foundation makes an impact in their communities.

The North Florida Initiative, the most recent fellows campaign, began in September and is calling on lawyers in counties north of I-4 to become Fellows — core supporters who pledge $1,000 to The Florida Bar Foundation Endowment Trust. The pledge can be paid over five years, or 10 years for nonprofit, government, and young lawyers.


“The Florida Bar Foundation funds legal aid organizations throughout the state, including those in North Florida,” said Phil Kabler, a Foundation board member and attorney with Kabler Moreno in Gainesville. “Whether it’s a foster child being shuffled from school to school in Panama City or a person seeking safety from an abusive relationship in rural Alachua County, there is, at the heart of the matter, a civil legal issue that will most likely be effectively addressed by a legal aid organization financially supported by the Foundation.”

Read more

More than $1 million in Foundation grants awarded

During its Sept. 16 board meeting in Orlando, The Florida Bar Foundation provided more than $1 million in grants for its Legal Assistance for the Poor and Improvements in the Administration of Justice grant programs.

Read more

Our Mission

The mission of The Florida Bar Foundation, a charitable organization established in 1956 by Florida lawyers and the Florida Supreme Court, is to provide greater access to justice.


Fellows Pledge button

If you'd like to be removed from our mailing list, please unsubscribe