A newly formed partnership among Quanada, Land of Lincoln Legal Aid, and Ascend Justice will dramatically improve access to legal representation for survivors of domestic violence in Quincy and the surrounding area.
The new office will be located in Quincy and serve clients from Adams, Brown, Schuyler, and Pike Counties. The local office will focus primarily on representing survivors in civil protection order cases and family law, while
Chicago-based organization Ascend Justice will be providing remote legal services on a host of other issues including family defense, immigration, and economic justice.
According to Megan Duesterhaus, Quanada’s chief executive officer, “aside from simply expanding our services to legal representation, the real strength of this partnership is that it will allow us to provide services holistically by addressing all legal challenges that survivors are having rather than focusing solely on protective orders and family law.
West-central Illinois is considered a legal desert where meaningful access to legal representation for people living on a low-income is scarce to non-existent. It’s been 37 years since a legal aid office operated in Quincy. “We are thrilled by this opportunity to reopen again to provide free civil-legal assistance to survivors of domestic violence,” says Clarissa Gaff, Land of Lincoln Legal Aid’s executive director. “Survivors across the state deserve the full range of legal resources whether they live in metropolitan or rural areas. We hope that the remote legal services model will prove effective so that it can be replicated in other areas throughout Illinois,” adds Margaret Duval, executive director at Ascend Justice.
The project is being funded by grants from the Illinois Department of Human Services.
Applications for the Quincy office are currently being accepted. Information can be found at https://lincolnlegal.org/careers/.
About Land of Lincoln
Land of Lincoln Legal Aid provides low income and senior residents throughout Illinois with high quality legal services in order to obtain and maintain their basic human needs.
lincolnlegal.org
About Ascend Justice
Ascend Justice empowers individuals and families impacted by gender-based violence or the child welfare system to achieve safety and stability through holistic legal advocacy and system reform.
www.ascendjustice.org
About Quanada
Quanada empowers survivors of domestic and sexual violence by providing trauma-informed services while engaging the community.
www.quanada.org