When AVLF launched the Standing with Our Neighbors program in September 2016, there were a lot of things we didn’t know, but one thing we did: families needed help. With enrollment turnover surging to 40% during the 2015-2016 school year, we knew families needed help to keep their kids in school. Here’s what we’ve accomplished so far, by the numbers.

These seemingly small actions – a call to a landlord, a demand letter sent – change the lives of the people we work to help. They are already facing huge obstacles in their day-to-day: they don’t have the income to meet their own daily needs and are not respected in many spaces.

Erica Taylor is many things: an aunt, a lawyer, a fighter. But her newest title is the one we are most excited about. She will soon become our Safe & Stable Homes Project Staff Attorney, taking over AVLF’s flagship program, the Saturday Lawyer Program.

I am a guardian ad litem because I love having a positive impact on families. But I take cases through AVLF because they provide the support I need to be successful in confronting challenging issues and to develop my skills. That’s why I will continue to take pro bono cases through AVLF—and I encourage others to, as well.

One of five recipients of a scholarship to attend the annual Family Law Institute, Safe and Stable Families Director Jamie Perez was singled out for her accomplishments as an attorney to receive the designation.

The Atlanta Bar Association awarded Elizabeth Ann Whipple the accolade due to her abundant service to the Atlanta legal community and her commitment to survivors of domestic violence. This is the first time the Bar has given the award posthumously.

We are grateful to our April 2017 volunteers!

The 5th Annual Warner Bates Guardian ad Litem Benefit, a networking and fundraising event was held at the law firm’s offices in the Riverwood 100 Building, on Thursday, August 18, 2016.

Julie came into the Safe Families Office four days after her boyfriend held her hostage in their shared home. She had watched as he destroyed all of her clothes, cutting them into ribbons before burning them with cigarettes. He repeatedly threatened to kill her. On the third night, a cell phone slipped from her boyfriend’s hand while he slept. She called for help.

Thanks to Kayla Bell of King & Spalding, not only did the landlord drop all charges – he mailed Ms. Hernandez a check for $500.

Atlanta mom Jane West paid a $900 for her security deposit. But the house soon failed inspection, and she was never allowed to move in. When she asked for her $900 deposit back, the landlord ignored her.

We already miss Liz terribly – she was absolutely one-of-a-kind. The kind the legal community, and the larger community, needed more of, the kind of lawyer who made equal access to justice more than just a catch-phrase, and the kind of person that caused Judge Jane Barwick to write this about what her friend Liz Whipple taught her: “That one person, one curly-headed person, can make all others better. And heartbroken.“