Legal Aid Expanding its Services, Formerly Provided by CILS
Legal Aid announced this week that regional legal service provider Community Impact Legal Services (CILS) on November 30, 2009 concluded its operations as a non-profit agency, with Legal Aid continuing several key areas of CILS’s work. CILS has been a partner organization to Legal Aid since both were established in 2001. As with many small non-profits, the economic downturn of the past 18 months decimated CILS’s funding and ultimately the CILS Board of Directors decided that it would be in the best interest of the organization’s clients to spin off its work to Legal Aid and Community Justice Project, two larger organizations with greater administrative and program capacity. Going forward, Legal Aid will take over administration of the Don’t Borrow Trouble (DBT) Suburban Philadelphia Campaign and hotline focused on mortgage foreclosure prevention and anti-predatory lending. Hotline supervising attorney Nanci Hoover and staff attorney, Kesha James have been involved with the campaign for nearly five years and are committed to continuing the program’s important work with homeowners in crisis. The DBT Hotline number is 1-888-275-8843, and it is available Monday-Thursday from 9am-1pm for Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery county residents. In addition, Legal Aid will maintain the former CILS offices in Coatesville at 1003 E. Lincoln Highway (telephone: 610-380-7111). Former CILS Executive Director Carolyn Johnson will assume the role of Community Impact Coordinator working from this office. In this position, she will coordinate education and media outreach and maintain collaborative relations with community organizations. Legal Aid anticipates the change will expand its overall caseload and has added former CILS paralegal Eleanor Glasco to the central telephone intake staff to help with increased call volume. The staff of Legal Aid’s Chester County division will handle bankruptcy, housing and consumer legal cases for eligible clients and many of the community legal education requests that formerly were handled by CILS. Legal Aid will be subcontracting with the Community Justice Project, which has engaged former CILS staff attorney Robin Salvin to handle class action litigation that Legal Aid cannot handle due to federal funding restrictions. The community relationships and extensive experience of former CILS leadership and staff bring new benefits to LASP and its capacity to best serve clients. “We are pleased that this transition has preserved critical legal services within our communities, and welcome this new expansion”, Legal Aid Board Chair Elizabeth Price commented in announcing the changes. Anyone with questions about the CILS-Legal Aid transition is encouraged to call Co-Executive Directors Harvey Strauss (610-275-5400, ext 117) or Liz Fritsch (215- 781-1111) for more information.