Legal Aid Receives Funding Assistance to Serve the Region’s Most Vulnerable
LASP recently received a $15,000 grant from the Green Tree Community Health Foundation, as well as a $30,000 grant from the Philadelphia Foundation.
Announcement of the grant from Philadelphia Foundation was made by Andrew R. Swinney, President of the Foundation, whose Board of Managers approved the grant on March 5, 2010. The Philadelphia Foundation, a public charity founded in 1918, is Southeastern Pennsylvania’s leading center for community philanthropic engagement and is committed to improving the quality of life in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties through funds established by it donors.
LASP was one of 22 organizations that were granted funding from Philadelphia Foundation’s Basic Human Need’s Fund, a campaign which began in 2008 to help address the increasing economic challenges surrounding the basic needs of food, housing, transportation, heat and light. Legal Aid’s Don’t Borrow Trouble Campaign and Hotline particularly benefited from this financial support, as it seeks to prevent mortgage foreclosure and predatory lending practices. According to a Philadelphia Business Journal article, the $331,000 generously given by the Philadelphia Foundation to area organizations was raised by “matching each dollar it got from outside sources in the campaign and taking no administrative processing fee on the donations.” The $30,000 granted to Legal Aid will be distributed evenly among Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties at $7,500 per county.
Announcement of the $15,000 grant from Green Tree Community Health Foundation was made by Susan Hansen, Ph.D., Executive Director and CEO of the foundation, on behalf of the Board of Trustees on February 19, 2010.
This funding support will be used to help cover the operating expenses of assisting low-income and vulnerable elderly with their legal and representational issues in Montgomery County. Legal Aid has a longstanding history of helping older adult clients with their legal needs in regards to end of life issues, rising consumer credit problems, mortgage foreclosure, utility shut-offs and food insecurity.
A community health advocate, the Green Tree Community Health Foundation is a not-for-profit public charity that identifies areas of vulnerability in the communities of Northwest Philadelphia and Eastern Montgomery County and provides funding to organizations whose work addresses these needs. The foundation seeks to have a positive impact on current and emerging health issues and risks, empowering residents to access health services and value, embrace and maintain their health.