The Delaware Bar Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of four grants from IOLTA funds that will support the delivery of legal services to the underserved and education to the high school students of Delaware. The Supreme Court ordered the award of these funds that were recommended by the Foundation’s board. The grants are:
DeLegalHelpLink: A collaboration between Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI), Legal Services Corporation of Delaware (LSCD), Delaware Volunteer Legal Services (DVLS), Pro Bono Net, and Just-Tech. This project aims to create and launch online self-help resources and forms for DELegalHelpLink.org, a website that connects low-income people with legal help. The resources will focus on housing and eviction issues, which are especially urgent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
DELREC: A program developed by the Delaware Law Related Education Center (DELREC) that will offer interactive workshops on constitutional rights and criminal justice to high school students across the state. The workshops will be facilitated by defense attorneys, prosecutors, and police officers from all three counties, who will receive a stipend for their service. The program will also provide students with "Dear Officer" cards, which explain their rights when interacting with law enforcement, and other materials.
DCRAC: A pilot project initiated by the Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Council (DCRAC) that will offer estate planning, tax, and tangled-title/heirs representation to low-income families in Wilmington's East Side neighborhood. The project will involve surveying 250 households by visiting them at their homes and offering them legal assistance with their title, taxes, and inheritance issues. The project will also collect data on the prevalence of tangled title problems in the area, which affect the ownership and security of many homes and residents.
LSCD: This grant will fund the transition of LSCD's case management system from Legal Files to LegalServer, a platform that is widely used by legal aid agencies across the country and in Delaware by CLASI and DVLS. The transition will enable LSCD to streamline its data collection and reporting processes, improve its efficiency and quality of service delivery, and enhance its collaboration with other legal aid providers in the state.