A LETTER FROM INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MAUREEN OLIVES
Dear Friends,
As I look back on the challenges and triumphs of 2023, the word heritage resonates so strongly with me. After leading Philadelphia Legal Assistance from its creation in 1996 to mid-2023, Anita Santos-Singh passed away on January 13, 2024. PLA staff found ourselves looking for firm footing as we coped with Anita’s medical leave and then her death. We were in a completely new situation as an organization, missing Anita’s guidance, her steady hand, her optimism, and her vision. What did Anita leave us?
Thankfully, in addition to building a strong organization that serves thousands of Philadelphians each year, Anita left PLA a generous legacy. We inherited her commitment to equal justice, her creativity, her agility, and her excellence. She curated a group of dedicated individuals ready to help, ready to answer the call, ready to do what is necessary to even the playing field for low-income Philadelphians.
PLA has grown significantly in the past two years. We added staff resources to our Consumer Housing Unit to respond to the many homeowners with COVID-related hardships and tangled titles. Our Medical Legal Community Partnership has grown to seventeen sites and twenty-one advocates, bringing embedded, community-based legal assistance to low-income patients across Philadelphia. Advocates across Pennsylvania and the nation look to our Unemployment Unit for assistance and guidance. Our Family Law Unit continues to represent the most endangered victims of domestic violence and sexual assault but also provides self-help assistance and resources to many more.
Our advocates, both attorneys and paralegals, find creative solutions when clients need help in a system that is overburdened or doesn’t provide an answer. The paralegals who staff our Eviction Diversion Program hotline have led two distinct efforts aimed at assisting tenants in need. One created negotiation training for tenants who are not eligible for eviction diversion mediation, others are creating and distributing vital information to tenants about illegal eviction and how they can exercise their rights.
One of our new advocates calculated the amount of public benefits she was able to obtain for clients as well as wrongful debt or overpaid benefits avoided. In under six months, she was able to realize a swing in financial outcomes of over $175,000, and in many cases provided disabled and high-need clients with access to home healthcare services, medical insurance, and disability benefits.
Our unemployment unit continues its statewide and national advocacy work on benefits modernization and creating access to benefits that is user-friendly, responsive to claimant concerns, and efficient, while providing individual representation to unemployed Philadelphians that is second to none.
We have challenges. We need to find the resources to continue the programs that have been built with pandemic-related funding. We need to continue to serve others with dignity, with creativity, with inclusivity, and with zeal. We need to write PLA’s next chapter, building on our rich heritage left to us by a great leader. We are so grateful to all of our supporters, our partners, and our funders. We look forward to the work ahead.
Sincerely,
Maureen Olives
Interim Executive Director