IBF Awards $20,000 Grant to Illinois Legal Aid Online

The Illinois Bar Foundation Board of Directors is pleased to announce a $20,000 grant to Illinois Legal Aid Online, one of 32 grants awarded this year totaling $304,995. Illinois Legal Aid Online operates three statewide websites which provide essential online legal resources and assistance to lower income Illinois residents and the attorneys who represent them. www.illinoislegalaid.org provides those who cannot afford an attorney with user-friendly legal information, educational materials, interactive forms, instructions for self-representation, multimedia training and referrals to free and low-cost legal services. www.illinoislegaladvocate.org provides an online community for legal aid attorneys to communicate and coordinate services, to obtain training and practice support, and helps streamline the delivery of free and low cost legal services. www.illinoisprobono.org provides volunteer attorneys with a comprehensive database of pro bono opportunities, multimedia training, instructions and practice support resources. Additionally, for the past two years, an important part of ILAO's work has been working with the Illinois Coalition for Equal Justice and courts across the state to establish technology based self-help legal centers in courthouses and public libraries. ILAO staff creates home pages for each new Center that serve as that Circuit's portal to the ILAO public site. IBF awarded the Illinois Coalition for Equal Justice a grant this year of $10,000 to establish five self-help legal centers in libraries in the most rural counties in Illinois. As the charitable affiliate of the Illinois State Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Foundation's mission is to ensure meaningful access to the justice system, especially for those with limited means, and to assist lawyers who can no longer support themselves due to incapacity. This past year, through the support of ISBA members, IBF distributed more than $425,000 to support these efforts.