February 2012 Newsletter
Happy New Year friends of Legal Aid! Because of your support, Legal Aid was able to assist more than 1,500 people in crisis this year. Here are just a few of our accomplishments from 2011:
► Domestic Violence Services: Legal Aid Sonoma County (LASC) helped over 700 domestic violence victims and 1,100 children obtain the court’s protection from their batterers. We were also part of the successful launch of the county’s new Family Justice Center where we provide domestic violence services in collaboration with health and social service providers.
► Child Abuse Prevention Program: LASC helped over 100 children obtain stable homes and safety through our guardianship program. Before receiving our help 65%of children were exposed to physical abuse or neglect in their parents’ care. 100% reported no further abuse and neglect as a result of their guardianship. We surveyed these clients after they exited the program. Here is what we found:
-Stable Residences: 83% of children served had more stable residences than they had had before the guardianship was established
-School Performance: 90% of children served showed improvement in their school performance.
-Health: 80% of children served showed improved health, including regular medical and dental care they had not previously received.
►Housing Program: Our housing team leveraged 700 weeks of housing and over $400,000 of savings for our tenant clients. Leveraging these resources for families helps them to avoid homelessness. This in turn saves limited county resources and lessens the impact on homeless shelters.
►Volunteer Program: We continue to leverage more volunteer hours than any other similarly situated legal aid program in the bay area. Over 75 volunteers contributed over 7,000 hours of services to our clients! That equates to 3.3 full time positions.
LEVERAGE: We take every dollar you contribute and double its impact by providing twice as many service hours through our volunteers program. Those services in turn help our clients leverage their pressure resources. This translates into more SHELTER and SAFETY for our community!
Through your support, by your attendance at our events, donations to our cause and participation in our program, we are making a difference and you are part of the solution. Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to us and the vulnerable in Sonoma County.
Presidential Retrospection - by Ken Gack
Approaching the end of my two year term as President of Legal Aid of Sonoma County, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the state of LASC. I remember reading years ago the passage of time could be measured by those moments that are unique (the phases of the moon, the equinox, leap years) that we all experience, but perhaps seldom appreciate in the moment. How many of these in your lifetime? How many do you take as a moment to measure what you have achieved, or failed to achieve?
I have been on the Board of Legal Aid for about 4 years now. In times past I was a supporter, monetarily and otherwise, but at arms length, if you will. Like most of you, I was awash in work, family and all the personal challenges we face. I find it difficult to point to the moment I decided to get more involved; perhaps it was nothing more complicated than an awareness I was not doing all I could, should or ‘ought’ to do in service to those more in need.
LASC has transformed itself over the last few years. In the past we were primarily a clearinghouse of information and a provider of referral; an essential service for those in need, but far short of being a service provider. Today we provide direct assistance for those at the greatest risk: families in the turmoil of domestic violence; children faced with abuse. Our domestic violence team helps them achieve the protections afforded from the justice system. Our incredibly dedicated staff, the vast majority unpaid volunteers, assist in housing and guardianship matters.
Proud as I am of our growth, we need to do so much more. We hired Charlotte, our domestic violence attorney, 3 years ago but she only works half-time. We were the last of the Bay Area counties to have someone in that role; it should be a fulltime, fully funded position. Although we have over 70 volunteers contributing over 7,000 hours to our clients, we have no Volunteer Coordinator. We also need additional space to adequately serve our clients; we need to increase our computer, phone and IT capacity.
Our ability to better serve our most desperate county residents is the result of many supporters, large and small: our volunteers who week in and out work to lift up the spirits and heads of the downtrodden; Mike Kelly of the Walkup firm in San Francisco, who provided the seed money to establish our domestic violence counsel program; our Phone-a-thon, Golf Tournament and Lawyers with Heart volunteers, donors and participants.
Earlier this month, a private donor, in another in a long line of spontaneous outbursts of charity, made the single largest donation to LASC in its history; with it, we can fill a gaping hole in funding resulting from the reduction of fleeting government money. Don’t tell me how the 1% lack compassion.
And that brings me to you: Are you doing all you can in supporting those among us facing the hardest of times? Can you help (or help more) LASC provide for those most at risk? Please keep that thought in mind over this coming year; and thanks to all of you who continue to support Legal Aid.
Volunteer Story - by Scott Lewis
Ana Quiroz believes that diversity is the strength of our country. Ana Quiroz works to bring justice to all who contribute to our strength. Ana Quiroz works for Legal Aid. Ana was born and largely raised in Michoacan State in the country of Mexico . In 1999, when she was just 14 years old, she flew to San Francisco to visit her father for summer break with her siblings and then Sonoma County became her new home.
We here at Legal Aid are lucky to have a woman as smart, bright and caring as Ana Quiroz . Without her and many volunteers like her, Legal Aid would not have the wonderful drive and compassion for the care of others as we do today. Thanks Ana!
► Domestic Violence Services: Legal Aid Sonoma County (LASC) helped over 700 domestic violence victims and 1,100 children obtain the court’s protection from their batterers. We were also part of the successful launch of the county’s new Family Justice Center where we provide domestic violence services in collaboration with health and social service providers.
► Child Abuse Prevention Program: LASC helped over 100 children obtain stable homes and safety through our guardianship program. Before receiving our help 65%of children were exposed to physical abuse or neglect in their parents’ care. 100% reported no further abuse and neglect as a result of their guardianship. We surveyed these clients after they exited the program. Here is what we found:
-Stable Residences: 83% of children served had more stable residences than they had had before the guardianship was established
-School Performance: 90% of children served showed improvement in their school performance.
-Health: 80% of children served showed improved health, including regular medical and dental care they had not previously received.
►Housing Program: Our housing team leveraged 700 weeks of housing and over $400,000 of savings for our tenant clients. Leveraging these resources for families helps them to avoid homelessness. This in turn saves limited county resources and lessens the impact on homeless shelters.
►Volunteer Program: We continue to leverage more volunteer hours than any other similarly situated legal aid program in the bay area. Over 75 volunteers contributed over 7,000 hours of services to our clients! That equates to 3.3 full time positions.
LEVERAGE: We take every dollar you contribute and double its impact by providing twice as many service hours through our volunteers program. Those services in turn help our clients leverage their pressure resources. This translates into more SHELTER and SAFETY for our community!
Through your support, by your attendance at our events, donations to our cause and participation in our program, we are making a difference and you are part of the solution. Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to us and the vulnerable in Sonoma County.
Presidential Retrospection - by Ken Gack
Approaching the end of my two year term as President of Legal Aid of Sonoma County, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the state of LASC. I remember reading years ago the passage of time could be measured by those moments that are unique (the phases of the moon, the equinox, leap years) that we all experience, but perhaps seldom appreciate in the moment. How many of these in your lifetime? How many do you take as a moment to measure what you have achieved, or failed to achieve?
I have been on the Board of Legal Aid for about 4 years now. In times past I was a supporter, monetarily and otherwise, but at arms length, if you will. Like most of you, I was awash in work, family and all the personal challenges we face. I find it difficult to point to the moment I decided to get more involved; perhaps it was nothing more complicated than an awareness I was not doing all I could, should or ‘ought’ to do in service to those more in need.
LASC has transformed itself over the last few years. In the past we were primarily a clearinghouse of information and a provider of referral; an essential service for those in need, but far short of being a service provider. Today we provide direct assistance for those at the greatest risk: families in the turmoil of domestic violence; children faced with abuse. Our domestic violence team helps them achieve the protections afforded from the justice system. Our incredibly dedicated staff, the vast majority unpaid volunteers, assist in housing and guardianship matters.
Proud as I am of our growth, we need to do so much more. We hired Charlotte, our domestic violence attorney, 3 years ago but she only works half-time. We were the last of the Bay Area counties to have someone in that role; it should be a fulltime, fully funded position. Although we have over 70 volunteers contributing over 7,000 hours to our clients, we have no Volunteer Coordinator. We also need additional space to adequately serve our clients; we need to increase our computer, phone and IT capacity.
Our ability to better serve our most desperate county residents is the result of many supporters, large and small: our volunteers who week in and out work to lift up the spirits and heads of the downtrodden; Mike Kelly of the Walkup firm in San Francisco, who provided the seed money to establish our domestic violence counsel program; our Phone-a-thon, Golf Tournament and Lawyers with Heart volunteers, donors and participants.
Earlier this month, a private donor, in another in a long line of spontaneous outbursts of charity, made the single largest donation to LASC in its history; with it, we can fill a gaping hole in funding resulting from the reduction of fleeting government money. Don’t tell me how the 1% lack compassion.
And that brings me to you: Are you doing all you can in supporting those among us facing the hardest of times? Can you help (or help more) LASC provide for those most at risk? Please keep that thought in mind over this coming year; and thanks to all of you who continue to support Legal Aid.
Volunteer Story - by Scott Lewis
Ana Quiroz believes that diversity is the strength of our country. Ana Quiroz works to bring justice to all who contribute to our strength. Ana Quiroz works for Legal Aid. Ana was born and largely raised in Michoacan State in the country of Mexico . In 1999, when she was just 14 years old, she flew to San Francisco to visit her father for summer break with her siblings and then Sonoma County became her new home.
When she attended Petaluma High School, she was struck with the way that she gravitated to people who were more like her and those who spoke her language even though she was surrounded by people of many races and backgrounds. Because her English skills were limited, she felt the pinch of defacto segregation, only capable of speaking to people who spoke her language and then, largely, looked much like her.
To many, such isolation by language would push them from achieving a maximum life goal. Ana turned her language to her strength. The more she integrated into school, the more she began to appreciate the power of diversity, the power of different points of view to solve problems. Ana explains that she began to learn her community.
As she graduated from high school, Ana explains that many Latinos are not encouraged to seek higher education. She was, however, and immediately enrolled at the Santa Rosa Junior College . From there, her educational journey lead her to Sonoma State where she graduated with a degree in psychology in 2008.
Her career goal is not only to get an advanced degree as a Marriage Family Therapist, her goal is to help herself and others achieve multicultural competence. Ana’s bright personality draws herself to volunteer here at Legal Aid by working in the SAFE Program and doing intakes in Legal Aid’s domestic violence programs. It is at Legal Aid, the heart of volunteerism, that Ana explains that Multi Cultural Competence is not about learning another’s culture so much as it is appreciating how one’s culture contributes to the strength of a community, a city and a nation.
Ana proves her commitment weekly as she meets with her Diversity Research Team at the SSU or acts as mentor for women and families who seek help with the complicated legal world through Ana’a eyes and heart.