National Legal Assistance Support: Mobilizing Around an Eldercare Agenda

摘要

The objectives of the ABA Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly were: (1)strengthening the capacity of State and Area Agencies on Aging to develop responsive public/private systems of legal assistance that addressed issues of access to justice by low-income older persons, members of minority groups, individuals with disabilities and other vulnerable older people at risk of losing their independence; (2) to improve the quality of legal resources for older persons through legal education and training, particularly for private attorneys and provision of substantive law information and materials. (3) to actively disseminate Commission and other materials concerning the legal needs of older persons, throughout the project period and in coordination with other national legal assistance support centers. While results are difficult to quantify, activities during the project period contributed to the growing interest in elder law. Staff conducted more than one hundred workshops at more than thirty-five conferences, to audiences totalling more than one thousand members of the legal community, the aging network, and other law and aging related organizations. Thirty-three mini-grants were awarded under the Marie Walsh sharpe Endowment. The Commission produced more than thirty-five publications, 18 issues of the 'Bulletin' and 12 issues of the quarterly 'Bifocal'.