Legal Services and Domestic Violence Clinical Programs Receive Grant
For 2008, the Wyoming State Bar Foundation awarded more than $48,000.00 in grants to groups in Wyoming. The largest single grant, over $25,000.00, went to the University of Wyoming Legal Services Program and the Domestic Violence (DV) Legal Assistance Project. The funds awarded to the UW Legal Services Program and the DV Legal Assistance Project will be used for non-salary expenses, such as travel, office supplies, and malpractice insurance.
The State Bar Foundation has been a long-time contributor to the Legal Services Program at the UW College of Law, and it has been a critical source of funding for the DV Legal Assistance Project since it was founded five years ago. In fact, after the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, the State Bar Foundation has been the largest source of funding for the DV Legal Assistance Project. With the grant for 2008, the UW Legal Services Program and the DV Legal Assistance Project have received or will receive over $155,000.00 from the State Bar Foundation since 2002. Without that support, it would not have been possible to open and/or maintain the Domestic Violence Legal Assistance Project.
Aided by grants from the State Bar Foundation, the DV Legal Assistance Project and the UW Legal Services Program have been able to broaden their service area to include all of Wyoming. In 2007, for example, the two clinics represented clients in nearly half of Wyoming’s counties, including Teton and Campbell Counties, to name just two areas distant from Laramie with significant numbers of low-income persons who need legal representation in civil legal matters.