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bankruptcy issues , collections , foreclosure , and housing . Their outreach methods and project address the language barriers and rural service area by physically and virtually being in the communities where a large majority of the target population resides .
• Emergency Legal Responders ( ELR ) in New Orleans works to bring disaster-related legal aid to socially vulnerable groups throughout the state of Louisiana . ELR will utilize the funding to update its bankruptcy materials to more explicitly reflect bankruptcy ’ s place in the disaster timeline of need , to disseminate those materials via its social media channels and to host a free legal clinic on bankruptcy . After a disaster , the timeline of legal need follows a familiar pattern - in the first six months , people encounter unemployment issues and landlord / tenant disputes ; in six months to a year , people face insurance disputes and foreclosure issues , in the following year and for many years thereafter , people contend with flood insurance disputes ; FEMA recoupments ; succession / probate issues and bankruptcies linked to the initial disaster .
• Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati , its affiliate Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio , LLC , and its affiliated pro bono program , the Volunteer Lawyers Project ( VLP ) will use our funding to continue recruiting volunteer attorneys help lowincome consumers in Southwest Ohio in need of Chapter 7 bankruptcy who cannot afford to hire private attorneys .
• Nashville Conflict Resolution Center ( NCRC ) was founded by the Nashville Bar Association and has served the region for 22 years . They work closely with General Sessions Courts to provide free mediation for debt-related cases to relieve overcrowded dockets and to assist litigants ( primarily pro se ) in finding cooperative solutions that support financial stability for all involved . In Davidson County , NCRC staff is in court four days a week with pro bono mediators , who donate their time to resolve cases . They have mediated as many as five cases per day from the General Sessions docket and schedule other cases as required , either in person or using remote video conferencing . With the help of ACBF ’ s support , they estimate that they will provide free mediation services to at least 250 debtors and creditors over the course of the grant year , and that at least 85 % of their cases will end in a collaborative agreement .
• Veterans Legal Services , Inc . in Boston . Veterans and current service members are often targets of predatory lending and financial exploitation . Often , VLS learns of these issues after the veteran had a disabling event or exited military service and can no longer keep up with the highinterest payments . With this grant , VLS will organize and run trainings in conjunction with the BBA ’ s Bankruptcy Law Section to educate and recruit additional private practice attorneys and law students about consumer debt and finance issues unique to veterans in Massachusetts .
Michael L . Cook Grant Award . The Foundation established the Michael L . Cook Extraordinary Grant for a program that is “ such an innovative and exemplary approach to a previously under-served area of need as to justify an extraordinary grant in excess of the grant limits customarily applied by the Foundation .” The budget for the Cook Grant is $ 15,000 . This year the Committee selected a new grantee , Innovation for Justice . Innovation for Justice is a social justice innovation lab housed at
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