By Scott Dorfman '07
Executive Editor

Thanks to a generous $1 million gift from the Burford Leimenstoll Foundation in Richmond, hundreds of Virginia families will receive much-needed legal aid services through the University of Virginia’s Child Health Advocacy Program. The program, which is a collaborative effort between the Law School, Legal Aid Justice Center, and UVA Children’s Hospital, provides a referral service for families with children treated at the Hospital to receive legal aid from Justice Center staff and law students. Families receive legal advice in many non-medical areas, such as child support, benefits, and landlord/tenant disputes. The program also provides emergency funds to help families through crises.

Kimberly Emery, assistant dean for pro bono at the Law School, said the program has provided a number of important services for Virginia families and that each will be furthered by the foundation’s gift.

“The goal of [the program] is to improve short- and long-term child health outcomes by intervening early to provide legal services that can prevent a family’s legal problem from becoming a crisis,” Emery said. “For example, the [program’s] attorney, who is on site at the hospital part-time, could be paged by a doctor to meet with a patient family whose child had asthma that was being aggravated by substandard housing. Rather than letting the family stop paying rent when the landlord refused to make repairs and sent an eviction notice, the attorney could contact the landlord and attempt to work out a settlement that would prevent an eviction, possible homelessness for the family, and hopefully upgrade the home.”

According to Diane Pappas, associate professor of clinical pediatrics and co-director of the Child Health Advocacy Program, the foundation’s gift will enable the program to expand services to more families in the region, and to further develop the range of services it currently offers. The program helped over 200 families throughout Virginia last year.

“As the program develops,” said Pappas, “we will be able to provide ‘preventative’ care, both legally and medically, anticipating issues and addressing needs before family legal crises and the resultant negative health outcomes can develop. Ultimately, we will develop a statewide network of child health advocacy programs so that we can extend the benefits of this program to children throughout the Commonwealth.”

The Law School offers a year-long Child Advocacy Clinic which works in collaboration with the program, giving students the opportunity to represent children in administrative hearings, negotiations, and court hearings. The clinic is taught by Professors Richard Balnave, with assistance from Andy Block, founder of the JustChildren program at the Legal Aid Justice Center; Angela Ciolfi, a fellow at the JustChildren program; and Emily Suski, an attorney at the Legal Aid Justice Center. Sixteen law students participate in the clinic.

The Burford Leimenstoll Foundation was established in 1991 by former Central Coca-Cola Bottling Company Chairman and CEO Betty Sams Christian to support various local and national charities. In addition to the Child Health Advocacy Program, the foundation supports the Virginia Home for Boys, VCU Massey Cancer Center, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Collegiate School, Boy Scouts of America, and the Virginia College Fund.