Thursday, June 2, 2011

Inauguration Blog

Welcome to the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society's blog for the office of Petersburg.  Not only is this CVLAS Petersburg's first blog, this is also my first blog. The easy decision was deciding to create a blog.  The harder decision is what to write in the blog.  What do people talk about in these things? 

I guess I'll start with a brief description of what CLVAS does.  CVLAS is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing civil (as opposed to criminal) legal services to low income individuals.  There are 3 offices: Petersburg, Richmond, and Charlottesville. CVLAS provides a wide range of services including consumer law, bankruptcy, family law, and landlord tenant law.  For more information please visit our website at http://www.cvlas.org/.

CVLAS relies heavily on federal grants to survive. But like most federally funded projects, CVLAS has been facing budget cuts.  Luckily we have Steve Dickenson our fearless director to help get through these tough times.  Steve has already begun working feverishly to raise private donations to make up for the federal funds being cut.  Steve has arranged a matching grant through the Cameron Foundation.  Any money that is raised will be matched by the foundation.  CVLAS is working on some events to raise awareness for CVLAS and news about those events is forthcoming.  In the meantime if you would like to donate money or your services (we are always looking for volunteers) please get in touch with us.  Anything would help, whether it be an hour of your time or even a $1 (which really equals $2 since Cameron will match it).

Legal aid provides a very valuable service to the local community.  The great thing about America is we believe that everyone should have access to the judicial system and a chance to have their day in court.  Legal aid allows for those without the economic means to pay for a private attorney to have their day in court.

Finally, just want to give a shout out to all the other interns in the Richmond and Charlottesville offices: Tom, Kati, Catherine, Maggie, Jake, and Hillary. Keep on keepin on.  I promise the rest of the blogs will be less informative and boring.




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