Your Impact
Civil legal aid resolves urgent family crises while addressing systemic causes of poverty
Funds from the Endowment are strategically disbursed and administered by the Legal Foundation of Washington to more than forty organizations across the state, helping low-income families address urgent civil legal problems every day.
According to the 2015 Washington State Civil Legal Needs Study, three out of four Washington residents living below poverty level will face an urgent civil legal crisis every year. But only one-quarter of them will have access to legal help. The average low-income household in Washington faces more than nine legal issues every year — nearly triple the number from a decade earlier.
Nancy and her 2-year-old son were in hiding.
Her little boy’s father had held a gun to Nancy’s head and threatened to kill her in front of their child. With few resources of her own for legal help, she attended a family law clinic at the Eastside Legal Assistance Program* and was referred to a staff attorney who specialized in domestic violence. With the attorney by her side in court, she won a protection order, her abuser was limited to supervised visits with his son and ordered to treatment, and Nancy and her child were finally safe and able to get on with their lives.
*Annual Grantee of LFW
Even one unresolved legal problem can escalate into a series of complex and interconnected challenges that quickly endanger people’s health, housing or financial security. Because these kinds of issues so often mean the difference between hunger or food on the table, homelessness or a roof overhead, poverty or economic stability, your support for civil legal aid helps low-income people meet their most basic human needs.
Your support for civil legal aid also advances system and policy changes that break cycles of poverty forever. Your gifts to the Endowment fund organizations that advocate for fair policies at the local and state level — for example, defending people’s rights to be treated without discrimination when they apply for housing or jobs, working to protect public benefits from cuts or restrictions, or advancing legislation to safeguard non-violent juvenile offenders from discrimination by sealing their records.