This May, Atlanta’s NPR affiliate WABE spotlighted AVLF’s place-based legal work on the local broadcast of “Morning Edition.” Producer Stephannie Stokes spent time with Community Advocate Christal Reynolds, Staff Attorney Ayanna Jones-Lightsy, and AVLF client Lagina Brown learning about how AVLF is advocating for tenants in the Thomasville Heights neighborhood – advocating for both better housing and better education.
From the story:
Thomasville Heights Elementary School Principal Nicole Jones said that the women with the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation have become familiar faces at Thomasville Heights.
“They’re very trusted,” Jones said. “The parents don’t think anything about it. It’s just like, ‘Can I talk to the teacher or can I see the principal?’ You know, ‘Can I talk to the lawyer?’”
Jones-Lightsy and Reynolds said they plan to stay in the Thomasville Heights neighborhood and continue working with the families.
“I think it’s important that management [companies feel] like all of the tenants at Forest Cove now have a lawyer,” Jones-Lightsy said.
“So we’ll be around,” Reynolds said. “We will be here for the long haul.”
Read the full story here.