Grant Database

Hasti Barahmand – Florida’s Children First, Miami. Provide foster youth involved in the juvenile justice system with holistic direct representation that extends beyond the courtroom into the community, while creating an effective working practice model for the state.

Jaime Rubin – Legal Aid of Manasota, Sarasota. Provide legal assistance to low-income students and parents who qualify for Exceptional Student Education (ESE) services through direct representation and research into unexamined special education issues. Engage in community education and collaboration.

Amanda Sejba. Facilitate a Medical Legal Partnership and provide legal advocacy and representation to Broward County veterans and military personnel to assist them in receiving disability and veteran’s benefits.

Alexandra St. Pierre. Provide holistic direct representation and systemic legal advocacy to youths as they age out of the foster care system and transition to early adulthood in order to preserve legal rights and ensure a more successful transition into independence.

Charlotte Joseph Cassel’s project will identify and resolve barriers to health care access faced by low-income, disadvantaged populations in Miami-Dade County through a combination of direct representation, community outreach and training, and systemic advocacy. The Greenberg Traurig Holly Skolnick Fellowship Foundation and The Florida Bar Foundation each will provide $56,000 to support Cassel’s fellowship.

Antoinette Pollard’s project will provide direct and co-representation of foster children with unmet health-care needs and establish relationships with agencies and managed care organizations to resolve problems resulting from the transition to managed care under Medicaid, which has created confusion for Florida’s foster children, including unexpected changes in benefits, denial of care, loss of providers, and out of pocket payments for critical treatment. Children’s attorneys often lack knowledge of the complex Medicaid system and need support to protect their clients’ rights. Children without attorneys have an even greater need for help. Specialized legal representation is required to protect the rights of this vulnerable population to receive the care to which they are entitled and on which they depend.

Krystin Montersil will mitigate the effects of detention on children and families by helping parents prepare and appoint guardians. She is a graduate of Florida International University College of Law.

Reina Saco will help migrant and seasonal farmworker communities across Florida gain access to affordable, safe and sanitary housing. Saco graduated from the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Sesilia Valdez Diaz will serve low-wage Latina workers in the hospitality industry experiencing wage theft, discrimination, harassment, and other employment issues in Central Florida. She is a graduate of Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University College of Law.

Kristin Tellis will provide legal services and advocacy in the “Little Haiti” neighborhood of Miami for residents, businesses and other stakeholders to protect their interests in the gentrification of their community. Tellis is a graduate of the Florida State University College of Law.

Jordan Chisolm will provide free transactional legal services to minority and immigrant entrepreneurs in low-income Miami neighborhoods to strengthen community revitalization. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law.

Disaster Recovery Legal Corps Fellows Jean-Luc Adrien, Delmarie Alicea, Latasha Cooper

Taylor E. Greenberg will provide direct legal representation, create a community-wide task force, and train attorneys to improve outcomes for teenagers in group home foster care in Hillsborough County. Greenberg is a graduate of Stetson University College of Law. Greenberg is funded by Greenberg Traurig and The Florida Bar Foundation.

Anne Kanzow works to decrease the number of children with disabilities in rural areas entering the school-to-prison pipeline by engaging advocates and developing educational materials for students, parents and the community. Kanzow is a graduate of Stetson University College of Law. She is funded by the Foundation through its Bank of America grant program.

Joseph E. Cordova, M.A. will serve immigrant and migrant worker families by using education, outreach, policy advocacy and community lawyering to increase community power, socioeconomic opportunities and legal services. Cordova is a graduate of the University of Florida Levin College of Law. He is funded by the Foundation through its Bank of America grant program

In Liberty City, a historically black neighborhood in Miami with significant poverty, Emenike will work to improve housing stability by representing tenants facing eviction and enforcing their right to safe and habitable housing. Teiya Emenike is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Law. She is funded by the Foundation through its Bank of America grant program

In South Florida, which is considered a hot spot for human trafficking, Victoria Sexton will conduct a community needs assessment and advocate for trafficking survivors by providing holistic direct civil legal services. In May 2019, Sexton is expected to graduate from Georgetown University Law Center.

Viviana Bonilla Lopez will protect and restore the civil rights of people with disabilities in Miami-Dade County by expanding supported decision making as an alternative to guardianship in the 11th Judicial Circuit. Lopez graduated from New York University School of Law in 2017.

Jackie Ebert will provide legal training, technical assistance and representation to chronically homeless women and children to remove legal barriers to housing stability, self sufficiency and self determination. Ebert graduated from Harvard Law School in 2018.

Jon Glover will create and manage a veterans outreach program in the Tampa Bay area to assist veterans and dependents on the process and requirements for removing barriers to benefits by providing pro bono legal aid services. Glover is expected to graduate from Stetson College of Law in May 2019. He is jointly funded by Greenberg Traurig and the Foundation.