Minnesota State Bar Foundation

Areas of emphasis in giving grant money include legal assistance to the disadvantaged, improvements in the administration of justice and law-related education.  The following grants were approved in September 2015:

All Parks Alliance for Change:  $3000 to support our statewide tenant hotline, legal rights workshops and legal guides, including the ongoing work to reach out to the significant Latino resident population with translating and interpreting services. 

Advocates for Human Rights:  $3000 to support their Refugee and Immigrant Program which provides free legal services to indigent asylum seekers in Minnesota.

Bricker Lavik Community Law Firm:  $3000 as start-up funding for a community-based law office where graduates of William Mitchell College of Law and Hamline University School of Law will learn from experienced attorneys and from each other how to build and operate community-centered and culturally sensitive law practices that serve clients who face barriers to accessing legal services.

Call for Justice:  $3000 to continue their "Greater MN Legal Liaison Program" which educates greater Minnesota social service agencies, churches and other nonprofits on statewide legal resources that assist low-income Minnesotans in legal need.

Dispute Resolution Center:  $1500 to help provide free and low-cost alternative dispute resolution services to lower-income individuals, families, and communities in the East Metro Area.

HOME Line:  $3000 to hire an additional halftime Spanish-speaking tenant advocate to help with the growing need for tenant hotline services to tenants who only speak Spanish.

Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota:  $3000 to provide comprehensive immigration legal services to low-income immigrants and refugees and to conduct legal education and outreach in diverse communities.

LegalCORPS:  $1000 as general operating support as it pursues its initiative to begin to better serve immigrant, American Indian and other entrepreneurs of color in Minnesota.

Legal Rights Center, Inc.:  $2000 to support the Legal Rights Center's ability to provide comprehensive, problem-solving, assistance to its low-income representation clients, in conjunction with outreach that enables wide community access to justice and ADR cases.

Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance (Minneapolis):  $3000 to fund one to two work-study law clerks during the 2015-16 school year to assist the Housing Discrimination Law Project with providing legal assistance to low income clients who are victims of discrimination.

Minnesota AIDS Project:  $2500 to support the activities of MAP Legal Services, which provides a full range of legal assistance to individuals affected by HIV throughout Minnesota and seeks to expand its services by establishing additional medical-legal partnerships.

Neighborhood Justice Center, Inc.:  $1500 for their expungement program.

Peace and Hope International:  $2000 to support the Park Avenue Legal Clinic which ensures access to justice for hundreds of low-income metro and surrounding area residents struggling with legal issues regarding immigration, employment, family law and other issues, providing essential legal advice and services through volunteer lawyers, intake workers and interpreters.

THE REPORTERS, INC.:  $1000 to help produce a feature-length documentary (for air on PBS) that will explore and investigate the extent and damage of wrongful convictions in the United States, based on false accusations, law enforcement and criminal justice system biases, and racial injustice.

Tubman:  $2500 to support free legal representation, in-depth pro se assistance and legal advice in family law cases for low-income people in the Twin Cities metro area, primarily youth and adults who have experienced domestic abuse, sexual violence or exploitation.

Women in Need Depending on Other Women:  $3000 to support legal advocacy services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in Carlton, Kanabec and Pine Counties in East Central Minnesota.

Please visit our website (www.mnbar.org/public/minnesota-state-bar-foundation) to learn more about the Minnesota State Bar Foundation.