When Kendra fled a violent relationship, she and her young son joined thousands of homeless families in the NYC shelter system hoping the worst was behind them. As their stay in shelter stretched from days into years, the experience took a toll on her son, one of 60,000 homeless children who sleep each night in NYC shelters. Her son, who has autism and severe allergies, grew increasingly stressed by the shelter’s noise and overcrowding. Though his mom fought to get him help, she faced overwhelming bureaucracy. She needed a lawyer to get the resources her family was entitled to receive but there is no right to counsel for homeless families or others with most civil legal problems. That’s where the City Bar Justice Center comes in.
By the time the family found the Justice Center’s Legal Clinic for the Homeless (LCH), Kendra and her son had lived in homeless shelters for three years. Luckily, donations from supporters like you have funded LCH for over 20 years so it can efficiently recruit, train and bring pro bono volunteers to the homeless shelters. Kendra was able to find permanent housing and medical care that stabilized her son’s health, and her son is thriving in a school for kids with special needs. Kendra says, "My lawyer saved my life. She appeared when I had lost all hope."
|
|
|
Kendra’s family is among thousands of New Yorkers who struggle to navigate the legal system and secure basic resources for themselves and their families. We often see that “if you have a lawyer or an advocate, you get results. If you don’t, you’re at the mercy of the system.” Your year-end gift will guarantee that more families, like Kendra’s, receive critical legal support through the hardest times of their lives. Please give today to ensure a better future for a poor family in our city.
Your generosity changes the lives of over 26,000 of New York City’s most vulnerable residents whom we serve each year by providing them with critical legal services. Through giving, you lift families out of desperate circumstances by funding legal clinics, trainings, and the largest free civil legal hotline in New York to help people file for bankruptcy, become citizens, probate small estates and defend against debt collectors.
Will you act now to change the life of a disadvantaged New Yorker? Please make your gift today, so that together we can make this city a more equitable and just place to live for all.
We wish you a wonderful holiday season!
Executive Director
|
|
|
|
|
|
