legal aid society’s
100TH ANNIVERSARY
ROOT TO RISE CAMPAIGN

as we stand at the intersection of our first century and our next, in a moment of great societal uncertainty, we know that for justice to rise, we must root ourselves in the communities we serve.

 

Since our founding, Legal Aid Society has fought for those marginalized by systemic and institutionalized poverty. Throughout our first century of service, thousands of Kentuckians have accessed the civil courts to pursue their American right to justice - a principal so central to our national identity, but far too often out of reach for the average person due to human-made barriers created by income, land use, technology, or status. 

In 1921, just after the Great War and right before the Great Depression, a group of civic-minded individuals (lawyers, community leaders, and suffragists) banded together and resolved to remove these artificial barriers to justice; understanding that without equal and equitable access, “justice for all,” was nothing more than a dream.

A century later, your Legal Aid Society continues to work towards ensuring that dream is a reality.  Generation after generation, we have passed the torch knowing that the justice of tomorrow requires a commitment to justice from those living today.

celebrate a century with us!

100th ANNIVERSARY KICKOFF CELEBRATION

On December 15, 2021, Legal Aid launched our 100th Year Celebration with an event at the Brandeis School of Law featuring local historian, Tom Owen, who pulled back the curtain on the Louisville of the early 20th century and the historical conditions that gave rise to our funding. Click below to stream the full event.

Want to support the Root to Rise Campaign? Contact Julia Leist.

 

COMMUNITY-BASED LAWYERING

No longer is a store-front or traditional transactional model of legal service sufficient.  To make real change in the lives of low-income Kentuckians, community-based lawyering is essential. 

We must…

  • Listen to our client communities and respond to what they are telling us they need rather than telling our client communities what we think they need;

  • Empower our client communities through legal education, self-help, and community economic development; and

  • Show up for our clients in the communities where they live, work, and play.  

ROOT TO RISE CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

Legal Aid Society’s Root to Rise Campaign will build resources so that we can put community-based justice into action.  Our Campaign goal is to raise $1.3 million new dollars to be used over five years to fulfill the following objectives:

  1. CREATE NEIGHBORHOOD-BASED SERVICES

    • Legal Aid Society will open a neighborhood office at the West Louisville Neighborhood Office at the Goodwill Opportunity Campus. This new site is located at 28th and Broadway, where three neighborhoods meet (Russell, Parkland, and California).  Three full-time advocates will staff the West Louisville campus and will build a community-based lawyering program that seeks to empower residents and to build legal solutions to resolve systemic issues.

    • Legal Aid Society will open at least one regional office (most likely in Hardin, Nelson, and/or Shelby County), working with our strategic partners to identify a location where Legal Aid advocates will build a stronger presence in the region, create trust in our client communities, and strengthen relationships with community partners, nonprofits, and other stakeholders (i.e. judges, clerks, and the local bar) to remove barriers to justice for those living in our more rural service area.

  2. STRENGTHEN OUR INFRASTRUCTURE

    Essential to a successful community-based lawyering model are the lawyers who serve and the tools they use to deliver justice. 

  • Community-based Advocacy Training: Legal Aid Society will implement a multi-year training program and attorney core-competency standards that will provide for professional development, facilitate cross-training in a variety of civil legal areas, and educate staff on community-based best practices. 

  • Improved Technology: Legal Aid Society currently uses a case management system that is ill-equipped for the modern era and a community-based model of service. While our current system is secure, it is no longer supported by the software maker and is cumbersome, hinders our ability to provide holistic and streamlined legal service, inhibits our ability to integrate contemporary technology into our client service model (like text reminders to clients or form automation), and makes outcomes reporting and data-analysis challenging, time-consuming, and sometimes impossible.  A new case management system will allow us to serve clients off-site, meet the fast-paced demands of today, and enhance our client service through technology-based pro se service.

 

more about the west louisville office

The West Louisville Neighborhood Office will be a full-service, standalone location.  Clients who seek our services in West Louisville will receive the same level of care and amenities as clients who connect with us through our main office in Downtown Louisville.  This requires an investment of material goods to furnish and properly equip the office with the technology necessary to pursue justice.  

Below is the current layout of our 1600 square foot office space. The Neighborhood Office will serve as a base of operations for our lawyers to support some of the most systematically disinvested communities in the city.  It also includes community space for listening sessions, meetings, legal education, and nonprofit neighborhood development incubation.

For more details about the Goodwill Opportunity Campus, click here.