Philanthropy at Work: Pisgah Legal Services
AMYWF has provided a Family Resilience grant to support Pisgah Legal Services’ provision of free civil legal aid to underserved, low-income victims of crime; primarily victims of domestic and sexual violence, child maltreatment, hate crimes, and elder abuse in Western North Carolina.
Pisgah Legal Services expanded their Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention Program to Yancey and Mitchell counties in 2019, and to Avery in 2020. With more than 11,000 low-income people (living at or below 125% of poverty) in Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties, there are more than 7,800 people who are expected to need non-criminal legal assistance each year to help them be healthy and thrive.
Support from AMY Wellness Foundation will help provide legal services to meet the immediate safety needs of victims of crime, such as securing domestic violence protection orders and emergency custody, and address longer term legal needs for property separation, custody, and divorce, which enable them to live independent from abuse. In addition, PLS helps
abuse victims address other basic needs including housing, protecting essential property (such as a house or car), child support/custody, divorce, division of marital property, etc. in the civil court system.
The pragmatic solutions provided by legal aid, including domestic violence protective orders, custody, child and spousal support, property settlement, and advice on other related legal matters, provide long-term solutions to help victims build self-sufficiency and independence apart from their abusers. AMY is proud to support PLS and community members in need of these services. For more information please visit https://www.pisgahlegal.org/