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Pro Bono Project of Santa Clara County
http://www.probonoproject.org/aboutus.html
For more information, visit their website.
The Pro Bono Project was founded in 1986 to assist the
low-income residents with cases in Santa Clara County courts by
offering access to free, highquality legal representation in
civil disputes. The Project uses volunteer attorneys, the bulk
of whose work focuses on family and consumer law.
The Pro Bono
Project is often the legal services provider of last resort.
Clients have meritorious cases but no other legal services
agency is able to meet their legal needs. Not all of the
Pro Bono Project client cases require litigation. Many can be
solved with education about legal process and procedures.
Therefore, selfhelp seminars and mediation are offered in
addition to personalized client assistance in Client Intake
Clinics and Staff Appointments. For volunteers, the Project
offers a series of training seminars with expert lawyers and
judges. The Project also provides mentors. The Project
expands the legal services available to low-income residents through skilled volunteer legal
representation. In 2002 the Project is launching a Parenthood
Project to reconnect non-custodial parents with their children.
Research shows involvement of both parents is best for the
child’s social and emotional development. Through advice
clinics, and attorney representation, the Project hopes to
improve the lives of parents and children.
The Pro Bono
Project’s 2001 budget was
$409,000. Grants and contracts funded 83%, while 1% came from
attorney fees, and approximately 16% was derived from interest
income and fundraising activity. Clients enjoyed the
benefit of more than $950,000 in
donated in-kind legal services. The staff consists of 2.65
FTE attorneys in
addition to the coordinator and a support staff of seven people
who maintain the current level of support required by volunteers
and clients. The agency must rely heavily on contributions from
the private sector – attorneys and others – to sustain and
increase its ability to serve a growing poverty population. |
