Justice Within Reach Affordable Civil Legal Aid

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Executive Summary

Justice Within Reach Affordable Civil Legal Aid is a nonprofit in Georgia that gives low-income residents a lawyer when they face a serious civil legal problem such as an eviction, a family emergency or a denied benefit. We provide free advice and representation to people who qualify, run a weekly clinic and a phone line, teach self-help workshops and recruit volunteer attorneys.

Most low-income people who face a civil legal problem face it alone. Private attorneys cost hundreds of dollars an hour, courts are confusing and deadlines are short. A lawyer or even clear guidance can change the outcome.

With this grant we will serve about 200 clients in Year 1 from 1 office. Every client has attorney-client privilege and confidentiality, and we do not promise any case outcome. We do not handle criminal cases. We promise skilled, ethical help and respect for every person.

Our Year 1 budget is about $248,500, growing to about $455,000 by Year 5 as we add sites, coaches and participants. Each year's budget is planned to balance, with a small surplus each year. We have 5 staff in Year 1 (an Executive Director and Managing Attorney, a Staff Attorney, a Paralegal and a part-time Intake Coordinator) and 9 by Year 5.

We are asking the Peachtree Justice Foundation for $80,000 for the Staff Attorney and interpreter and translation services. Our other income and startup support cover the rest. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this proposal, and we do not promise any result beyond what we describe.

Company Description

Justice Within Reach Affordable Civil Legal Aid is a nonprofit organization in Georgia. We are a registered charity with a volunteer board of directors, a written conflict-of-interest policy and a yearly budget the board reviews.

Our mission. Justice should not depend on the size of a person's bank account, and every person facing a serious civil legal problem should have a lawyer.

What we do.
- Provide free legal advice and representation to low-income residents in housing, family, benefits and consumer matters.
- Run a weekly intake clinic and a phone line.
- Offer self-help workshops on eviction, debt and family court procedures.
- Recruit and train volunteer attorneys to take cases with our support.
- Provide interpreters and translated materials.
- Partner with courts, libraries and community groups to reach people early.

Our values. Respect for every participant, honesty with families and partners, safety first and a place for everyone who wants to belong.

What we do not do. We provide legal services only to people who qualify under our income guidelines and only in the case types we handle. Every client has attorney-client privilege and confidentiality, and we explain the few limits. We do not promise any case outcome. We do not handle criminal cases. We follow the rules of our partner sites and our insurer.

How we got here. A group of attorneys, a paralegal and a court clerk began holding Saturday clinics at a library to help people who showed up in housing court without a lawyer. More came each month and many cases needed more than advice. We kept simple records of who we helped and what happened. This proposal asks for support to move from Saturday clinics to a steady program with paid, trained staff and the materials to match.

Problem & Opportunity

Most low-income people who face a serious civil legal problem, such as an eviction, a family emergency or a benefit denial, face it without a lawyer.

Cost. Private attorneys charge hundreds of dollars an hour, and a family facing eviction cannot afford even a first meeting.

Access. Courts are confusing, deadlines are short and many people do not know their rights.

Safety and trust. Clients and funders want skilled, ethical lawyers and clear protection of confidential information.

Missed benefits. Without a lawyer, people lose homes, benefits and custody they might have kept.

What we hear.
- A tenant says she received an eviction notice and did not know she could respond.
- A judge says most people in front of her have no lawyer.
- A mother says she lost a benefit because of a form she did not understand.
- A volunteer lawyer says two hours of her time kept a family housed.

We do not claim that a program can solve every challenge. We believe that a lawyer on your side, or even clear guidance, can change the outcome of a legal crisis.

Products & Services

Justice Within Reach Affordable Civil Legal Aid gives low-income residents facing serious civil legal problems a safe, welcoming place to understand their rights and be heard.

How the program works.
1. Intake. People call our phone line or come to a weekly clinic, and staff screen for income and case type.
2. Advice. Attorneys give legal advice and a plan for next steps.
3. Representation. Staff attorneys and volunteer attorneys represent eligible clients in court and agency hearings.
4. Workshops. Self-help workshops teach people how to handle eviction, debt and family court matters themselves.
5. Language access. Interpreters and translated forms are available at every step.
6. Referrals. Clients who need other help are connected with social services.
7. Follow-up. We check in with clients after a case to see how things turned out.

What a typical session looks like. Participants arrive and check in with a staff member, settle in together, work on the day's activity in small groups and finish with a short talk about what went well. Staff praise effort, correct mistakes kindly and make sure no one is left out.

Staff. Our attorneys are licensed and in good standing, our paralegals are trained, and all pass a background check and are paid for their time. Volunteer attorneys receive training and support.

Access and fairness. Programs are free. Services are free for people who qualify. We welcome every eligible client and offer help in English and Spanish.

Market Analysis

Who we serve. Low-income residents in our service area facing civil legal problems in housing, family, benefits and consumer matters. Eligibility is based on income guidelines our board sets, case type and merit, and no one is turned away without a referral or self-help information.

How we estimate need. We cannot count every young person who could benefit, so we plan from what we can see. In our Saturday clinics we served more people than we could represent and kept a waiting list. Judges and court staff told us that most people in housing and family court have no lawyer. For Year 1 we plan to serve about 200 participants at 1 offices. By Year 5, with more staff and sites, we plan to serve about 520.

Where participants come from.
- Courts, clerks and self-help centers.
- Libraries, clinics and community groups.
- Social service agencies and shelters.
- Clients who tell a friend.

Who else benefits. Families keep homes and benefits. Courts run more smoothly with represented parties. Landlords and agencies benefit from clearer, fairer outcomes.

What the numbers mean. Every number here is a person who was heard in court with a lawyer beside her. We keep our early counts modest and honest so we can do the work well.

Competitive Landscape

What young people can find today, and how we are different.

1. Private attorneys. Skilled and costly. We serve those who cannot pay.

2. Legal aid organizations. Strong and overwhelmed. We add capacity.

3. Court self-help centers. Provide forms and information, not representation. We partner.

4. Online legal forms. Convenient and risky without advice.

5. Pro bono programs. Valuable and uneven. We coordinate.

What makes us different.
- Free legal advice and representation for eligible clients.
- A weekly clinic and a phone line.
- Self-help workshops.
- Interpreters and translated forms.
- Volunteer attorneys supported by staff.

Why this gap matters. Existing programs do good work, and most serve people who can already pay or who live close to them. The people we serve are the ones left over: they live in the wrong neighborhood, have the wrong schedule or have no one to ask. We are built to reach them.

We have spoken with courts, bar associations and other legal aid organizations to make sure we are filling a gap and not duplicating services. Their letters of support are in the attachments.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How young people and partners will find us.

Reaching young people.
- Courts and self-help centers. We will share flyers and a named contact.
- Libraries and community groups. We will hold clinics and workshops.
- Social service agencies and shelters. We will give staff a short referral form.
- Local media. We will share clear information about rights.
- Word of mouth. Clients tell friends.
- A simple website and a phone line with a text option.

Reaching staff and sponsors.
- Recruit volunteer attorneys through bar associations, law firms and law schools.
- Offer an orientation, a background check and training in safety, privacy and respectful practice.
- Give partners a short report each quarter with counts of participants and what they said.

How we decide who joins. We use a simple sign-up form and enroll participants in the order received, with priority for those with the greatest need and for people new to the program. We keep a waiting list when the program is full.

What we watch. Sign-ups, attendance, cases handled, favorable outcomes and how many participants return for a second season.

Operations Plan

How the program will be carried out.

Timeline for Year 1:
- Months 1 and 2 (July and August): Hire the staff, buy equipment and materials, finalize the waiver, consent form and privacy policy with our attorney and sign site agreements.
- Month 3 (September): Open the intake line and weekly clinic.
- Months 4 to 10: Provide advice, representation and workshops throughout the year.
- Months 11 and 12: Survey clients and court staff, report to funders and plan Year 2.

Space. We work from a small office near the courthouse and hold clinics at libraries.

Safety and privacy.
- We follow the rules of professional conduct, protect client confidentiality and maintain malpractice insurance.
- Intake staff screen for conflicts of interest before giving advice.
- Every staff member and volunteer passes a background check and completes safety training.
- Staff work in pairs or in view of others whenever participants are minors or in a vulnerable situation.
- We keep an emergency plan at every site, and participants complete an emergency contact form.
- We keep records private, share them only with a participant's permission or as the law requires and follow a written policy.

Equipment. We buy about $7,500 of equipment once at the start: laptops and secure case management system ($4,000), phones and a secure client line ($1,500), office furnishings and locking file storage ($2,000). Later years replace or add a few items.

Staffing. In Year 1 I serve as Executive Director and Managing Attorney. The Staff Attorney, paid $70,000 a year, represents clients. A Paralegal, paid $45,000, supports cases. A part-time Intake Coordinator, paid $24,000, screens callers. We add attorneys as we add offices.

Management & Organization

Renata Okafor, Executive Director and Managing Attorney. I lead the organization, report to the board and am responsible for budgets, partnerships and reporting. I came to this work as a lawyer who saw how often families lost cases they could have won with help. I will supervise every case to understand the program from the inside. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Staff. The Staff Attorney represents clients, the Paralegal supports cases and a part-time Intake Coordinator screens callers. Each passes a background check. These positions are part of our grant request.

Board of directors. Our volunteer board includes a retired judge, a law professor, a former client, a banker who serves as treasurer, an attorney and a social worker. The board meets every other month, approves our budget and reviews our safety plan. No board member is paid, and members with a conflict of interest step out of related decisions.

Advisory partners. A court administrator, a bar association leader and a housing counselor give guidance twice a year.

Staffing and pay in this plan: Executive Director and Managing Attorney, paid $60,000 a year; staff Attorney, paid $70,000 a year; paralegal, paid $45,000 a year; intake Coordinator (part-time), paid $24,000 a year.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals, how we will measure them and when we plan to reach them.

Year 1 outcomes (July 2027 through June 2028):
- Serve about 200 participants at 1 offices.
- Run at least two full seasons and a summer session.
- Have at least 85 percent of participants attend most sessions.
- Have at least 80 percent of participants return for a second season.
- Receive positive feedback from at least 90 percent of families who answer our short survey.

What we count and how.
- Participants enrolled, sessions and games attended, from our records.
- Skills learned and goals met, from the coach's checklist.
- Equipment issued and returned, from our log.
- Participant and family feedback, from a short, confidential form.
We report what we find, including what did not work, and use it to improve.

Growth over five years.
- Year 2: About 280 participants at 1 offices.
- Year 3: About 360 participants at 2 offices.
- Year 4: About 440 participants at 2 offices.
- Year 5: About 520 participants at 3 offices.

Learning along the way. At the end of each quarter, the director and the board review the numbers and decide whether we are on track. If we are behind, we will adjust our outreach, our sites or our schedule before asking for more money.

After the grant. By Year 5, grants make up about 62 percent of our budget, down from about 62 percent in Year 1, as partners and donors give more. We will keep building those relationships every year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $80,000 from the Peachtree Justice Foundation for the Staff Attorney and interpreter and translation services, for July 2027 through June 2028.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Staff Attorney salary, $70,000.
- Other: Interpreter and translation services and court costs, $10,000.

Other money in the program. This request is about 52% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $248,500, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $10,000 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: Grant Revenue $154,500; state Bar Foundation Funding $60,000; county Legal Aid Partnership $24,000; individual Donors $10,000. Year 1 costs: executive Director and Managing Attorney $60,000; staff Attorney $70,000; paralegal $45,000; intake Coordinator (part-time) $24,000; legal Research and Case Management Software about $8,000; malpractice Insurance about $7,000; court Fees and Costs about $6,000; interpreter and Translation Services about $5,000; training and Continuing Education about $3,000; administration and Insurance about $9,000; about $3,500 a year for the wear on equipment.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $19,000 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $4,000 for laptops and secure case management system; $1,500 for phones and a secure client line; $2,000 for office furnishings and locking file storage; $2,500 for attorney review of the client agreement, conflict policy and privacy policy; $1,800 for signs, flyers and a simple website; $2,200 for training and background checks; $5,000 for first malpractice and general insurance payment.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($19,000), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $0) and a cash cushion of about $59,300, which is about three months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $78,500. We start with $8,000 from our founding board and $73,000 in startup support from a bar foundation and a law firm, $81,000 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $248,500 in Year 1 to about $455,000 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $154,500, $137,500, $193,500, $224,000 and $281,000 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows: state Bar Foundation Funding from $60,000 to $100,000; county Legal Aid Partnership from $24,000 to $48,000; individual Donors from $10,000 to $26,000. Our surplus is planned at about $10,000 in Year 1, about $10,800 in Year 2, about $14,500 in Year 3, about $17,500 in Year 4 and about $21,900 in Year 5. We grow from 1 offices to 3 by Year 5, adding a part-time coach for each new site.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $75,100, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $9,940 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Cost per client. In Year 1, our total costs are about $1,193 per client served, which includes setting up the program. By Year 5, with more client served and a trained team in place, that falls to about $833 per client.

After the grant. State bar foundation funding, corporate sponsors and individual donors grow every year, so grants become a smaller share of our budget. Participants and families share their stories, and businesses can sponsor a team or a season by name. We will look for partnerships with schools and the city that want a safe, free civil legal aid option for every child.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- An injury. Certified coaches, proper equipment, groups matched by age and skill, a written emergency plan and insurance.
- A site is no longer available. We keep agreements with more than one site and a plan for bad weather.
- A coach leaves. We keep a list of trained backup coaches and share lesson plans.
- Low attendance. We adjust sites, times and rides based on family feedback.
- A privacy problem. We follow a written policy, use secure systems and train every staff member and volunteer.
- A grant ends. We keep savings and grow partner and donor support each year.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller: one neighborhood, a handful of clients and a small team, tracked carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach with this proposal:

- Your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your most recent financial statements and your current year budget.
- A list of your board members and what each one does.
- Signed letters of support from partner schools, agencies and sites.
- Your site agreements and your insurance certificate.
- Your consent, waiver and privacy policy.
- Your safety plan and background check policy.
- Your program outline and schedule.
- Quotes for equipment and materials.
- Resumes for your Executive Director and key staff.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $154,500 in Year 1, growing to $281,000 in Year 5.
- State Bar Foundation Funding: $60,000 in Year 1, growing to $100,000 in Year 5.
- County Legal Aid Partnership: $24,000 in Year 1, growing to $48,000 in Year 5.
- Individual Donors: $10,000 in Year 1, growing to $26,000 in Year 5.
- Pay (a full year, per person, including payroll taxes and workers' compensation): executive Director and Managing Attorney $60,000; staff Attorney $70,000; paralegal $45,000; intake Coordinator (part-time) $24,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: legal Research and Case Management Software $8,000; malpractice Insurance $7,000; court Fees and Costs $6,000; interpreter and Translation Services $5,000; training and Continuing Education $3,000; administration and Insurance $9,000. These grow between 4% and 5% a year.
- Equipment: $7,500 at the start, then $2,000 to $3,000 a year.
- Startup costs: $19,000, paid once from $81,000 in startup money.
- Participants served: about 200 in Year 1, growing to about 520 in Year 5. Sites: 1 in Year 1, growing to 3 by Year 5. The office is open year-round, with a weekly clinic and monthly workshops.
- About 4% of each year's income is still owed to us at year end.
- Tax: none, as a nonprofit.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and real budget.

Startup Costs