Outreach and Self-Help Programs
By: Source: AARP Foundation Date Posted: 2003-06-26
Self-Help Offices Using a Website
LCE has Self-Help Offices in low-income neighborhoods of Washington, D.C. These offices allow older residents, with the help of non-attorney volunteers, to use a specially designed website to obtain services such as:
- requesting services from the D.C. Government
- legal information
- self help guides
- public benefits checkups
- applications for public benefits
- assistance with housing code enforcement
- drafting consumer complaint letters
- referrals to social service agencies
- assistance filing small claims cases
- power of attorney documents
- requests for vital records
- legal advice by telephone
- assistance arranging for other services
Self-Help Office Locations:
Bread for the City
1640 Good Hope Road, SE
Washington, D.C. 20020
Capitol View Baptist Church
5201 Ames Street, NE
Washington, D.C. 20019
Emmaus Services for the Aging
1426 9th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
Iona Senior Services
4125 Albemarle Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20016
Israel Baptist Church
1251 Saratoga Avenue, NE
Washington, D.C. 20017
The main telephone number for appointments is 202-434-2094. It is a voice mail message, which requires residents to leave their name and phone number for someone to give them a call back within one business day to schedule an appointment. Residents will be scheduled at the Self-Help Office site located close to where they live on the day that particular site is open during the week.
Outreach Sites
In addition to the Self-Help Offices, LCE has a staff attorney stationed at four different social service agencies throughout the city. The attorney is available for several hours a week at each site. They provide legal advice, information and referral, and intake services for matters requiring more extended representation by other LCE staff and volunteers.
Home Visits
For those clients who are homebound and unable to visit LCE’s self-help offices, outreach sites or main office, LCE provides a home visitor who can interview clients in their homes. We do ask that the people who request this service be truly unable to leave their homes.
Public Benefits Check-ups
Either at the Self-Help Offices or at LCE’s main office, eligible individuals can avail themselves of a public benefits check-up. This is a series of questions to ascertain an individual’s eligibility for a large number of public benefits programs. Clients also receive information about where to apply for these benefits and what information to take with them.
Outreach to Non-English-Speaking Persons
LCE uses Language Line interpretation services where a translator can be added to any phone conversation for virtually any language that a client may speak. This three-way conference call is strictly confidential and requires only that the caller specify the language needed. All LCE staff have been trained in how to use the Language Line service.
Community Education
LCE staff and volunteers address community groups in Washington, D.C., on a wide variety of legal topics. LCE gives first priority to those community groups composed solely or mainly of senior citizens who reside in the nation’s capital. Frequent users of this service include nutrition sites, senior centers, AARP chapters, religious groups, and support groups of various sorts. Typical topics addressed include public benefits, predatory lending, wills, powers of attorney, guardianships, conservatorships, consumer protection, landlord/tenant, and housing.
To request a speaking engagement, contact LCE at (202) 434-2120.
Active Intake Project
We use active intake for two purposes: 1) to find matters that can be handled by some of our volunteer attorneys and 2) to identify common problems at an earlier stage, before they become crises, when they can be resolved with fewer LCE resources. This intake is conducted at specially scheduled clinics (held where seniors congregate) and community events (e.g., health fairs).
Power of Attorney Seminars
LCE sponsors a two-part seminar where the client leaves with a fully completed and executed financial and/or health care power of attorney. In the first session, a volunteer attorney explains the nature of the documents, and the decisions that must be made before completing them. At the second session, volunteer attorneys help the clients complete both documents. The documents are signed and witnessed at the end of the second seminar.
If your group would like to host a two part seminar, you can arrange for a volunteer lawyer by contacting:
Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky
Attn: Ken Trotter
(202) 756-2912.
Legal Check-up Seminars
The AARP Legal Services Network offers Legal Check-up Seminars where participants can assess the state of their "legal health." Like a medical checkup can help prevent physical ailments, a Legal Checkup seminar can help identify hidden legal problems that could lead to more serious situations if left unaddressed.
The program offers workbooks for all 50 states and D.C., as well as workbooks in Spanish for New York and California.
Public Benefits Outreach
LCE engages in a variety of methods to reach out to DC residents who may not be receiving all the benefits to which they are entitled. For example, LCE conducts numerous community speaking engagements (see Community Education section above) where presentations are made on a variety of topics, including public benefits.
Additionally, the Self-Help Offices provide a link on their website, Benefits QuickLINK, to a computerized benefits check-up where an individual can determine his or her eligibility for a large number of public benefits.
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