I am a father before all else, and how I view everything in the world is shaped by this. 

So in the days after men were murdered for the uniform they wore, following hard on men being murdered for the skin they wore, it was especially difficult to hear the pain of my daughters asking, “Dad, what can we do?”

For the last year, I’ve had the unique opportunity to take part in the domestic violence trainings for the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation. In each training, we would address the […]

When I started as an intern at the AVLF/PADV Safe Families Office in the Fulton County Courthouse, I thought I knew it all. I went to an all-women’s high school, and I even graduated from Agnes Scott College, a women’s college. I organized a benefit for an international battered women’s shelter as my senior project, and I thought I was prepared for whatever came my way at the Safe Families Office. I was even prepared for the ever-present question, “Why does she stay?” But I was not prepared for how emotionally involved I would become in AVLF’s Safe and Stable Families Project.

Safety. And Stability.

If there is a way to condense what the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation means to those in our community who depend on AVLF for access to a lawyer, it might be those two words.

I offer these words not to add my voice to the swell of candidates’ screams about how we make our nation more secure. But I do urge that while the larger questions play out, there is much that we, the staff of AVLF, and you, the volunteers, donors, and supporters of the Foundation have done and can do, every day, to enhance the places we live, which in turn makes us a more just and more peaceful society.

As my husband and I were packing for North Carolina, he asked me if I was going to miss being one of the cool kids. When I looked at him for clarification, he simply said, “AVLF.” My time at AVLF has been one of the most incredible opportunities of my life, and, while I am excited for the future, I recognize that I likely will never work in such a supportive, positive, and enthusiastic environment again. My coworkers’ passion for their work is genuine and contagious. They are also just fun people. I honestly liked staff meetings.

Over the past few years, I have thoroughly enjoyed my involvement with AVLF’s Safe Families Office. Safe Families pairs volunteer attorneys with clients to represent the clients at hearings for 12-month protective orders. The objective of Safe Families is to safeguard clients from future domestic violence. Not only does the Safe Families Office give me a great opportunity to get out of my office and into the courtroom, but it also allows me to use my legal education to make a genuine difference in someone else’s life.

AVLF does amazing work with the people most often taken advantage of in Atlanta: the low-income. In this group, Spanish-speakers are often disproportionately affected by slumlords and unscrupulous employers. I came into this job last year having spoken a little Spanish, but not nearly enough to properly assist these vulnerable clients. I had the opportunity last month to spend two weeks intensively studying Spanish in Monterrico, Guatemala, to help me better support the Spanish-speakers who call our office.

LIZ WHIPPLE | June 25, 2015 Working at AVLF is, at its heart, about making friends. The incredible people at the Fulton County Courthouse who have taken me in, thank you. […]

The Washington Post recently published an article reporting that for the second year in a row, Atlanta has taken the title of the most unequal city in the United States. A new report by the Brookings Institute shows that the household incomes of the wealthiest households are close to 20 times the incomes of the most impoverished. In Atlanta, this means that the households in the 98^th percentile have incomes of more than $288,000 per year, while those in the 20^th percentile earn less than $15,000. This means the households that earn more than 98% of the other households in Atlanta make an average of $288,000 per year. These households earn more than 20 times the average yearly incomes of the poorest households.

Esteemed board member Avi Stadler always says “AVLF saves lives.” Sometimes we really do. Other times, we aren’t enough. With the Domestic Violence Project and the GAL program, however, we – volunteers, staff, donors – have the distinct privilege of playing a pivotal role at turning point in the life of the vulnerable. As I look back over 2014, I would like to acknowledge the loss of a client to the violence we battle daily. I also look back and see hundreds of lives that are now safer and more secure because they knew us. I look forward to 2015 and envision a sea of women, men and children whose stories, still to be written, will be richer for having us as minor characters.

In the four years I’ve worked at the Safe Families Office, I have seen and heard some terrible things. I speak often about worst-case scenarios, be it in trainings or presentations, but there is a distance in the recounting. Last week, however, there was no distance when a voice on the other end of the phone said “Liz, there’s been a shooting.” It was the police calling, a call the likes of which I’d never before received and I hope I never do again. The fact that it was happening at all, though, meant a client of ours was involved.

At age 53, I went back to school and got a Bachelor’s Degree in behavioral sciences. I was living in New Jersey at the time. I almost didn’t finish school because of a serious health problem that was nearly fatal. After I graduated, I worked with the families and children of incarcerated people. But I soon began to slip into a deep depression because my health problems caused lasting impairments.

To get a fresh start on life, I decided to move to Georgia, near a childhood friend. I was optimistic about this new beginning. Soon after I got here, I rented an apartment. There were some red flags from the very beginning, but I wasn’t sure if that was because I was in a new state. The apartment complex took my down payment, but kept making excuses for why they wouldn’t show me the unit that I was supposed to rent. Eventually, their headquarters explained to me that there were major electrical problems in the unit, but they told me they were being repaired.