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The Birdsall Impact Grant program seeks to assist county bar associations in the furtherance of a charitable, educational or pro bono program or project or the enhancement of an existing charitable, educational or pro bono program or project that succeeds in making an immediate impact on the way a county bar operates in service to its members, its court and its community.
If your county bar association is interested in applying for grants funds, please
complete the Birdsall County
Bar Impact Grant Application. The deadline for submission is
April 6, 2012.
A five-person grant evaluation committee comprised of Foundation members appointed by the Foundation president and the Conference of County Bar Leaders Executive Committee will evaluate submissions and select a recipient(s) to share in a grant(s) totaling not more than $1,000. The successful applicant(s) will be notified in writing on or before
May 1, 2012 and the grants will be awarded during the Annual Meeting of the Foundation Board of Directors and Members on
May 10, 2012 in Lancaster, PA in conjunction with the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
The program is open to all bar associations, with consideration given to those with
limited means.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Pennsylvania Bar Foundation
Executive Director E. Marie Queen at 888-238-3036 or
info@pabarfoundation.org.
2010 Birdsall Impact Grants Awarded to Lackawanna and Montgomery Bar Associations
At its May 13 annual meeting of the Board of Directors and Members, the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation Board of Directors unanimously voted to accept the recommendations of the 2010 Birdsall Grants Committee to bifurcate the 2010 Birdsall grant to allow the Foundation to support two commendable pro bono programs, one conducted by the Lackawanna Bar Association, the other by the Montgomery Bar Association. Each will receive a $500 grant.
The Lackawanna County Bar Association grant will help support the development and delivery of CLE programming to train Lackawanna County attorneys to provide pro bono representation to low-income homeowners facing mortgage foreclosure proceedings.
The Montgomery County Bar Association grant will be used towards the purchase of laptops and portable printers to support the Bar’s Wills for Heroes program, the pro bono program that brings together local first responders (police, firefighter, emergency medical technicians) with volunteer attorneys who prepare free wills and estate planning documents.
Delaware County Bar Association and York County Bar Foundation – Working to Expand Youth Courts
Youth courts are an alternative to traditional juvenile justice systems. In existence for 30-years, the last decade has seen youth courts become the most replicated juvenile justice program for non-violent offenses. These student-run disciplinary systems now number more than 1200 nationwide and succeed by using positive peer pressure to correct disruptive behavior and break the “school to prison pipeline” phenomenon engendered by zero tolerance policies and punitive school disciplinary systems.
Youth courts can be structured as school-based, community-based or juvenile justice-based programs, and by relying on student resources for operations, they are very cost effective, but youth courts also depend on knowledgeable adult volunteers who work to get the courts established and to train the students in justice principles and court operation.
Both of this year’s Birdsall Impact Grant recipients are working to expand the pool of knowledgeable youth court volunteers.
The Delaware County Bar Association will be using its $500 grant to hold a three-hour training program conducted by the Physicians for Social Responsibility. Geared for lawyers, law students and college students, the session will introduce participants to youth courts and prepare them to go into the Delaware County schools to train on the youth court model.
The York County Bar Foundation will be using its $500 grant to send their youth court alliance coordinator to the Global Youth Justice training program in June 2011. The training is the first step in a two-year project devoted to the development of youth court alliance programs focused on truancy in all ninths grade classes througout the York County School District.
The Pennsylvania Bar Foundation Birdsall Impact Grant program helps county bar associations establish or enhance a charitable, educational or access to justice program or project that is consistent with the mission of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation and makes an immediate impact on the way the county bar association serves its members, its community and its courts. Named in honor of PBA’s longtime County Bar Services Director Arthur J. Birdsall, the program awards $1,000 annually.
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