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Legal Hotline Connection
March 2010
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Pro Seniors: A Hub for Senior Legal Services
Pro Seniors, Inc. located in Cincinnati, received an AoA Model
Approaches to Statewide Legal Assistance Systems Award in 2009. Since
Ohio does not have a Legal Assistance Developer, the proposal was
submitted by Pro Seniors with the support of the Ohio Department of
Aging, which houses the Office of the Long Term Care Ombudsman.
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Utah Senior Legal Helpline Launches March 1st
Utah Legal Services, with funding from an AoA Model Approaches for Statewide Legal Assistance award, launched its Statewide Senior Legal Helpline on March 1st. Utah Legal Services has operated a statewide
telephone intake system for more than fifteen years. A telephone and case management software infrastructure was already in place on which to build the senior legal helpline.
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Ten Tips for Utilizing In-House Non-Attorney Volunteers in Legal Services
Adapted with permission
from "Effective
Utilization of In-House Volunteers in Legal Services" by Jan Allen May, Executive Director,
Legal Counsel for the Elderly, MIE Journal Winter 2009
Legal Counsel for the Elderly has used in-house volunteers for 34 years
and currently has over 100. The benefits can be tremendous but
recruiting, training, and retaining volunteers requires the development
of systems to maximize their help. This column contains tips condensed
from Jan May's article.
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Older American Act Reauthorization
In 2011, Congress will consider reauthorization and
amendments to the Older Americans Act to take effect in FY 2012. Many organizations are currently having
conversations on what is working well and what areas of improvement exist. This is an opportunity to offer suggestions
on how to improve this legislation that impacts the lives of so many seniors
throughout the nation.
The U.S. Administration on Aging has been soliciting input
on how to change the Older Americans Act.
Three listening sessions were held recently in Washington, DC, San
Francisco, CA, and Dallas, TX. Persons
were allowed to speak for three minutes on their suggestions on changes to the
Older Americans Act.
Additionally,
input events have been hosted by national, state, tribal, regional, and local
organizations. If your organization
would like to host one of these events, you can pre-register your event.
Another
way that you can provide feedback is through the Administration on Aging's website.
You
can read the actual text of the current Older Americans Act here.
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Senior Legal Helpline Annual Report
We haven't forgotten!
In the next few weeks, CERA will send a link to statewide senior legal helplines for the collection of data on hotline operations for calendar year 2009. You can view the 2008 report.
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Puerto Rico Legal Hotline Manager Serves in Iraq
Benjamin Garcia up until September was the Managing Attorney of the
TeleLawyer Program at Puerto Rico Legal Services, That program
provides telephone legal advice to LSC eligible Puerto Ricans and island
residents 60 and over. The Puerto Rico hotline serving seniors was
started with a AoA Title IV grant back in 1993. In response to a CERA
communication, Benjamin let us know he won't be at EJC in
Phoenix because he has been deployed in Iraq since Octobr 2009 as a
United States Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel. We offer Benjamin our
gratitude for his service and wish him a safe and speedy return.
In his absence, Gladys Ares is managing the call center, as she has
in the past. |
The ABA/NLADA Equal Justice Conference
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AoA Announces Model Approaches Award Opportunity
On February 22, 2010, the AoA issued a Program Announcement requesting proposals for its
Model Approaches to Statewide Legal Assistance Systems (Model
Approaches) project. The grant opportunity maintains AoA's support for
state leadership efforts to develop and maintain effective legal service
delivery systems that maximize the impact of limited legal resources on
older adults in greatest need. The ultimate goal of the grant
opportunity is to protect and enhance essential rights and benefits of
older persons by utilizing the leadership of the State Legal Assistance
Developer and key project partners to create and maintain a coordinated
and cost effective statewide legal service delivery system, including: |
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This
newsletter is produced by the Center for Elder Rights Advocacy, a
partner in the National Legal Resource Center.
Other partners in this effort to provide support to senior legal
programs throughout the nation are National Senior Citizens Law Center,
National Consumer Law Center, The Center for Social Gerontology,
and American Bar Association-Commission on Law and Aging.
For questions, email CERA.
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