The Legal Aid Society of Rochester is restarting a program that provides comprehensive civil legal services to people who have experienced domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
A three-year, $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice will fund the Legal Aid Society's Survivors of Violence Project. The program serves residents of Monroe, Genesee, and Orleans counties. And the Legal Aid Society will partner other agencies, including Willow Domestic Violence Center and Trillium Health.
"It really is all of us together working ... to lift that victim up, and to help them make a decision that they're safe in leaving," said Carla Palumbo, the Legal Aid Society's president and CEO.
Through the survivors project, the Legal Aid Society will provide clients with legal assistance on matters such as divorce, custody, child support, and eviction prevention. The partners will provide supportive services.
By working with the other agencies, the society will be able to extend its reach into rural areas, where services are often scattered, or nonexistent, Palumbo said. It also will help the agency better reach immigrants in those areas.
And the partnership with Trillium will help the society better reach and serve the area's LGBTQ+ community.
"I think that there's more education that we need to do in that community," Palumbo said, "more sort of technical assistance and training and resource building so ... that community has the same access as other victim communities."
The Legal Aid Society estimates it will serve roughly 1,300 clients over the three- year funding term.
The nonprofit operated a similar program for about 20 years, but the federal government did not provide funding for it in 2022 or 2023.
U.S. Rep. Joe Morelle, D-Irondequoit, announced the funding Tuesday. In a news release said the funding will help the Legal Aid Society "continue this life-saving mission."
