Eastside Legal Assistance Program

Through an amendment to the King County 2010 budget, the King County Council has restored funding for domestic violence programs including ELAP’s Domestic Violence Legal Aid Program. During these difficult economic times this decision by the Council recognizes the critical needs of women and children suffering from abuse. Further violence and homelessness will be averted for many victims because of the Council’s decision to restore critical legal aid.

ELAP will be able to continue in 2010 advice clinics for survivors of domestic violence, provide brief services, direct representation, self-help workshops and consultations for obtaining protection orders and addressing custody issues.

ELAP would like to thank the many supporters of legal aid to low-income survivors of domestic violence for giving testimony on the essential nature of ELAP’s services. You made this possible!

ELAP also thanks the King County Council for hearing our pleas to restore this critical and essential funding, at time when it is most needed.

The letter from the Alliance for Equal Justice is included below:

Dear Friends,

We have some good news - the Alliance for Equal Justice legal aid programs that were zeroed out in the King County Executive Budget had their funding nearly fully restored! Eastside Legal Assistance Program, Solid Ground's Family Assistance Program, the Unemployment Law Project, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and the King County Law Library all received funding at roughly last year's levels. Unfortunately, TeamChild did not see their 25% cut restored, but 75% of their funding was protected.

All in all, this is a positive result for the Alliance and the people we serve. Thousands of families struggling to survive poverty in King County will get legal assistance to protect their basic needs. We appreciate that the County Council recognized the critical services provided by legal aid programs, but we are also cognizant that many other important services (many of which serve our clients) did not have their funding restored.

THANK YOU to all of you who took action on our alerts, testified at the hearings, or wrote letters and made phone calls in support of legal aid funding. We could not have done it without your help!

Sincerely,

Eastside Legal Assistance Program,

Solid Ground's Family Assistance Program,

The Unemployment Law Project,

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project,

TeamChild,

The King County Law Library, and

The Equal Justice Coalition