WisTAF makes second allocations in COVID-19 Legal Services grants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, August 5, 2024

CONTACT: Benson Gardner, communications and development manager, 608-620-0711, bgardner@wistaf.org

The Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation, Inc. (WisTAF) made new allocations in the state's COVID-related legal assistance program.

COVID-related legal needs remain elevated among Wisconsin's population with limited income. In the most recent study of The Justice Gap by the federally funded Legal Services Corporation, 74% of low-income households in the United States were found to have experienced at least one civil legal problem in the preceding year.

The impacts of these problems can sprawl to many areas of people's lives, threatening livelihoods, safety, and independence. The difficulty of addressing such problems when you don't have the money to hire a lawyer amounts to injustice in our legal system.

WisTAF's latest COVID-19 Legal Services grant recipients are all non-profit organizations which had previously received awards in the first round, made in 2022. They have demonstrated their ability to use additional funds to help people who are economically disadvantaged address their COVID-related legal needs.

The table below shows details of this year's grants. Funds are distributed on a reimbursement basis.

Grant Recipient	Area Served	Grant Amount
ABC (Advocacy and Benefits Counseling) for Health, Inc. is a nonprofit public interest law firm serving families throughout Wisconsin on legal issues related to health care access and financing.	Statewide	$86,425
Catholic Multicultural Center (CMC) is a social service agency on Madison’s South side. The CMC runs the Immigration Legal Services Program to help low/no income immigrants and refugees who are unable to afford the services of a private attorney.	Columbia, Dane, Grant, Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Jefferson, LaFayette, Marquette, Rock, and Sauk counties	$55,401
Center Against Sexual & Domestic Abuse (CASDA) provides free services to individuals hurt by domestic, sexual, or child abuse, as they advocate for a community effort to end violence.	Ashland, Bayfield, and Douglas counties	$4,986
Judicare Legal Aid provides civil legal assistance, information and education to low-income people, Native Americans, and others who might otherwise be denied access to justice.	33 counties in northern Wisconsin, and Native American clients statewide	$166,202
Legal Action of Wisconsin, Inc. serves low-income clients in the areas of family law and domestic violence, housing, public benefits, special education, and economic development.	39 counties in southern Wisconsin	$397,222
Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee provides family law, public benefits, landlord-tenant, consumer, municipal ordinance defense and civil rights law to low-income people in Milwaukee.	Milwaukee County	$177,282
LIFT Wisconsin (Legal Interventions for Transforming Wisconsin), a project of the Economic Justice Institute at the University of Wisconsin Law School, offers technology-driven legal assistance that clears civil legal barriers to economic prosperity for Wisconsin families.	Southern Wisconsin, some services statewide	$83,101