DC VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT
A Voice for Victims and Children in the District Since 2008.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
With the help of hundreds of well-trained volunteer lawyers each year, DC Volunteer Lawyers Project provides comprehensive legal services to victims of domestic violence, immigrant victims of gender-based violence, and child-victims who have been identified by the court as living in dangerous homes. We help victims and their families with a wide range of issues including emergency protection orders, child custody, financial support, divorce, and immigration. We serve as court-appointed attorneys for vulnerable child-victims living with abuse, neglect, domestic violence, and other dangerous circumstances. To ensure that our clients have the support they need to escape violence, our advocates provide safety planning, trauma-informed crisis intervention, ongoing emotional support, and access to critical social services such as housing assistance, counseling, and parenting classes from our many partners.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Domestic Violence Program
In one of the first steps in breaking the cycle of violence, DCVLP's volunteer lawyers represent domestic violence victims in obtaining civil protective orders ordering their abusers to "stay away".
DCVLP prioritizes those cases with a high lethality assessment and minor children in the home. Clients are generally assigned to a volunteer attorney team which includes a veteran volunteer paired with one a newer volunteer and/or a law fellow. The team receives training on CPO practice from DCVLP and is closely supervised by one of our staff attorneys.
Child Advocacy Program
At the request of DC Superior Court judges, DCVLP represents at-risk children in high-conflict contested custody cases. In over 50% of these cases, the children are impacted by domestic violence; many cases are also complicated by substance abuse, mental or medical illness, physical disability, child abuse, and incarceration. Our well-trained volunteer attorneys provide a voice for these youngest victims with the goal of ensuring a safe and secure home for each child.
CAP cases are time-intensive taking 10-12 months, and sometimes for much longer. In 2021, DCVLP represented 120 child-clients, and we often have a waitlist of over 20 requests.
Community Legal Clinics
In partnership with several partner organizations, DCVLP operates Community Walk-in Clinics where clients receive essential legal and non-legal resources, at a convenient location, to help them leave abusive relationships. The Clinics are located at various sites across DC and are staffed by DCVLP volunteer lawyers who assist survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking by providing legal advice and information on CPOs, divorce and custody, and immigration and whenever possible, providing representation. Virtual and remote access options are also available for clients who cannot access in-person services. Partner agencies offer both counseling and housing, services, which are crucial to a domestic violence survivor.
Last year, DCVLP and its partners assisted 672 clients at the Clinic, which is partially funded by the DC Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants.
Domestic Violence Intake Center
We interview victims, provide legal advice and prepare petitions for civil protection orders at the DC Superior Court’s Domestic Violence Intake Center.
RELIEF: Representation and Legal Advocacy for Immigrant Families
Our newest program, RELIEF, provides trauma-informed immigration legal assistance and case management services to low-income domestic violence, sexual assault, and gender-based violence victims including LGBTQ asylum seekers. Our goal is to help our immigrant victims, who live in fear of deportation and are unable to legally work, achieve safety and stability in their lives by informing them of their rights and helping them obtain immigration relief through VAWA self-petitions, green card/citizenship applications (including battered spouse waivers), and asylum claims, for example. In addition to our Call-in Clinic and four existing walk-in clinics, victims may access RELIEF through a pilot clinic located at George Washington University Hospital in partnership with AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Court-based Domestic Violence Protection Order Clinic
In 2019, we opened this clinic to provide immediate legal assistance to unrepresented domestic violence victims and other petitioners seeking protection orders on the day of their court hearings. Clients are referred by judges, their clerks, court-based advocates from SAFE and DC Forensic Nurse Examiners, or self-referred. Our Clinic Attorney, a former clerk in the Domestic Violence Court, was initially sponsored by Equal Justice Works Foundation, with law firm partners, Steptoe & Johnson PLLC and Greenberg, Traurig LLC to operate the clinic; when the Fellowship concluded, DCVLP absorbed the project into our overall Domestic Violence Program.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Protection Order Cases Accepted
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Domestic Violence Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of volunteers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Children and youth, Victims and oppressed people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Our volunteer lawyers represent domestic violence victims in protection order, custody, divorce and child support and immigration cases, and at-risk children as court-appointed Guardians ad litem.
Victims and their children helped in family law cases
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Low-income people
Related Program
Domestic Violence Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of victims served at DCVLP legal clinics
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Caregivers, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants, Victims of conflict and war, Victims of crime and abuse
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Brief advice and legal services provided at DCVLP's community-based and remote clinics
At-risk children represented
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Families, Low-income people
Related Program
Child Advocacy Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of immigrant clients who received legal representation
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Forms of immigration relief include Asylum, SIJS, VAWA self petitions, U and T Visas, and obtaining work authorization documents
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our goals are to:
a) help domestic violence victims and immigrant victims of other gender-based forms of violence escape abusive relationships and achieve personal safety and stability, housing stability, and economic self-sufficiency, and;
b) help child-victims who are living in homes where abuse, neglect, domestic violence, mental illness or drug abuse is present find safe and stable homes with a non-violent parent, relative or friend.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
In our Domestic Violence Program, we represent low-income domestic violence survivors who need to escape abusive, violent relationships and establish a safe home and future for themselves and their families. In our Child Advocacy Program, we represent the best interests of at-risk children who are living in a turbulent and unsafe environment so they can find a safe home, creating a stronger and healthier family unit in which they can thrive. And in our Immigration Program, we provide trauma-informed immigration legal assistance to low-income victims of domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence, helping immigrant victims achieve safety and stability in their lives through relief such as VAWA self-petitions, battered spouse waivers, and asylum claims.
In addition to legal representation, to ensure that our clients have the support they need to escape violence, we offer case management services in all practice areas. Our advocates provide safety planning, trauma-informed crisis intervention, ongoing emotional support, and access to critical social services such as housing assistance, counseling, and parenting classes from our many partners.
We also operate community-based walk-in clinics throughout the District so victims can learn about their rights and options and obtain free legal advice regarding family law, immigration, criminal proceedings against their abusers, and other matters related to domestic violence. Because of the ongoing public health crisis, we have established a remote/virtual clinic option and have built in the flexibility to adjust all clinic services to remote as needed.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Volunteer Model:
We engage, train, and support volunteer attorneys to give a voice to victims and at-risk children. We have over 2,500 registered volunteers and provide them with everything they need including mentoring by an experienced attorney, an e-newsletter, and an extensive online legal library. DCVLP was founded in 2008 to provide intensive training and support to volunteer attorneys – especially those unaffiliated with law firms -- so that they could provide competent and trauma informed legal services to domestic violence victims and child-victims. We are different from most other volunteer lawyer organizations in that we do not merely serve as a clearinghouse in referring cases to volunteer lawyers. Our experienced Supervising Attorneys, acting as co-counsel, provide close supervision and support throughout the entire case, some lasting one year or more, to ensure that the volunteers are able to provide quality representation to our clients.
In 2021, 450 volunteers donated 35,000 hours worth $13 million in free legal services. Since 2008, we have leveraged our small budget into 182,000 hours worth $54 million in free legal services.
Sustainability:
We anticipate continuing to grow to keep pace with the demand, and have a fundraising plan to do so. As a 9-year grantee of the DC Office of Victim Services, we will apply for renewed government funding in all program areas. We will also re-apply for funding from foundations that support us, and cultivate relationships with new foundations. Many of our over 25 law firm supporters have indicated their intentions to continue supporting DCVLP, and we will continue our initiative to increase engagement from individual donors along with law firms and corporate sponsors. Finally, we are planning an in-person annual benefit in April 2022. Our Benefit proceeds, along with other individual and corporate donations, raise approximately 1/4 of DCVLP’s annual budget.
Impact:
For the second straight year, in 2021 DCVLP helped over 2,100 domestic violence survivors, at-risk children, and vulnerable immigrants escape abuse. Before 2020, this number was unprecedented in the organization’s thirteen-year history.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
CHILD ADVOCACY
In 2008 we began accepting appointments from D.C. Superior Court judges as Guardians ad litem for children's best interests in custody cases. Today we serve over 100 children every year in our Child Advocacy Practice.
CIVIL PROTECTION ORDERS
In 2011, we began accepting protection order cases, and today we handle hundreds of protection order cases each year. In 2017 we began serving at the Domestic Violence Intake Center at DC Superior Court, offering legal advice to help victims to prepare petitions for civil protection orders. In 2019, we opened a court-based clinic to provide immediate legal assistance to unrepresented domestic violence victims seeking protection orders on their hearing dates.
COMMUNITY CLINICS
In 2013, we created a walk-in clinic, with a long-term goal to increase entry points for District residents to access services. Since then we have opened 3 more legal clinics where we offer legal assistance to victims on a broad range of issues including protection orders, divorce, custody, child support, immigration, and criminal matters against abusers. During the pandemic, we have continually adjusted services to respond both to the public health situation and to client needs; we are currently offering a combination of in-person and virtual clinic services.
ADVOCACY / CASE MANAGEMENT
In 2015, recognizing the importance of social services and emotional support for our clients, we hired a full-time Client Advocate to provide crisis intervention, safety planning and referrals to our community partners. We now have a team of 4 Client Advocates who are overseen by our Co-Legal Director & Manager of Advocacy Services – a J.D. and M.S.W. holder. Our newest advocacy program is HAVEN (Housing Advocacy for Victims). Through HAVEN we provide advocacy and legal assistance with victim legal rights in housing, employment, and financial matters. The goal is to help victims achieve housing stability and economic self-sufficiency.
IMMIGRATION
Another newer program, RELIEF (Representation and Legal Advocacy for Immigrant Families), provides trauma-informed immigration legal assistance and case management services to low-income victims of domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence. We help immigrant victims achieve safety and stability in their lives by informing them of their rights and helping them obtain immigration relief such as VAWA self-petitions, battered spouse waivers, asylum claims, and work authorization.
POLICY & APPELLATE ADVOCACY
With the knowledge and perspective gained from our work on the front lines, we are uniquely situated to engage in advocacy efforts to dismantle the institutional and judicial frameworks that perpetuate domestic violence. In 2021 we created a new position, Policy & Appellate Advocacy Supervising Attorney, which allows us to advocate for policies that keep victims of domestic violence safe and represent clients in appellate cases where they experienced unfair trial outcomes.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
-
How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
-
Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
-
What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights?
Learn more
about GuideStar Pro.
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
DC VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT
Board of directorsas of 06/09/2023
Karen Barker Marcou
Co-founder of DCVLP
Term: 2020 -
Alexis Collins
Vice President, DCVLP
Trish Kelly
Treasurer, DCVLP
Jamillia Ferris
Director, DCVLP
Tracey Coates
Director, DCVLP
Dale Harburg
Director, DCVLP
Tom Hentoff
Director, DCVLP
Princess McDuffie
Director, DCVLP
Stephen Raptis
Director, DCVLP
Pam Sauber
Director, DCVLP
Sara Tennen
Executive Director, DCVLP
Henry Brewster
Secretary, DCVLP
Matthew Cohen
Director, DCVLP
Phillip Hurst
Director, DCVLP
Heather Lamberg
Director, DCVLP
Kamil Shields
Director, DCVLP
Annette Stanley
Director, DCVLP
Ilene Weinreich
Director, DCVLP
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data