The Oklahoma Bar Foundation Board of Trustees is pleased to announce 2014 Grant Awards approved at the September 25 Trustee Meeting in Oklahoma City. The year to date total for the regular OBF Grant Awards, Court Grant Awards, and law student scholarships is $460,681. By years end, this total is expected to increase to one-half million dollars with the help of our generous contributors. Please help the OBF reach this goal by becoming an OBF Fellow or Community Fellows today at OBF Fellows Giving Umbrella Information
The list of the eighteen regular grant award recipients is as follows:
| Center for Children & Families, Inc. |
$ 10,000 |
| Funding for general support of the free Divorce Visitation Arbitration Program that provides services to work with the court in the provision of parent education and monitoring of court ordered supervised visitation and exchange services for children in Cleveland County. | |
| Community Crisis Center, Inc. |
$ 5,000 |
| Funding of the part-time domestic violence/sexual assault victim’s OBF Court Advocate position for Ottawa County. | |
| Domestic Violence Intervention Services/Call RAPE, Inc. |
$ 12,000 |
| Funding towards support of the domestic violence/sexual assault victim’s Tulsa County Court Advocate position for delivery of civil legal services to low-income survivors. | |
| Family & Children’s Services, Inc. |
$ 7,000 |
| Funding of Tulsa Family Court Program to support children’s required participation in the “Helping Children Cope with Divorce” program in Tulsa County area. | |
| Family Shelter of Southern Oklahoma, Victims of Domestic Violence Program |
$ 5,000 |
| Funding towards support of the domestic violence/sexual assault victim’s Court Advocate position for Carter and Murray Counties. | |
| Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Inc.* |
$106,200 |
| Funding for unrestricted operational expenses to provide access to civil legal services for low-income and elderly Oklahomans, statewide service area. | |
| Low-Income Taxpayer Legal Clinic at OILS |
$ 10,000 |
| Provision of legal services statewide for all low-income Oklahomans providing legal tax help and education through to tax court representation. | |
| Marie Detty Youth & Family Services Center |
$ 12,000 |
| Funding towards support of the domestic violence/sexual assault victim’s Court Advocate position in a six county area with emphasis in Comanche County and Fort Sill. | |
| OBA-YLD Oklahoma High School Mock Trial Program |
$ 46,600 |
| Overall program support in total for presentation of the high school mock trial program through to national competition, statewide coverage. | |
| OCU School of Law, American Indian Wills Clinic |
$ 18,000 |
| Funding for clinic staffing plus travel costs to provide legal services and to further educate the legal community on complex Indian land issues in Oklahoma, statewide services with an emphasis in western portions of the state while providing law- students with education and professional development opportunities. | |
| Oklahoma Lawyers for Children, Inc. |
$ 40,000 |
| Funding to maintain legal assistance and advocacy to children and financial assistance with new attorney GAL program for representation of traumatized innocent children in juvenile court and emergency showcase hearings in state’s largest county, Oklahoma County. | |
| Senior Law Resource Center, Elder Law Educational/Outreach Program |
$ 12,000 |
| Funding to support the law-student elder law intern program to provide assistance with research, provision of free legal services and educational outreach programs to promote informed thoughtful diminished capacity, incapacity planning and elder financial exploitation while providing law students with education and professional development opportunities | |
| Teen Court, Inc. |
$ 17,500 |
| Operational costs of the first offender program and education of students for positive resolution of misdemeanor offenses in Comanche County area. | |
| Tulsa Lawyers for Children, Inc. |
$ 25,000 |
| Funding to maintain existing three person staff to provide legal assistance and advocacy to children and continued program expansion for representation of traumatized innocent children in juvenile court and emergency showcase hearings in state’s second largest county, Tulsa County. | |
| TU Boesche Legal Clinic, Immigrants Rights Project |
$ 6,766 |
| Funding for the clinical legal education program to provide legal services to vulnerable non-citizen residents of Oklahoma while providing law- students with education and professional development opportunities to include court travel costs outside of the state, interpreters and expert witness fees not provided by other means; services in Tulsa County and the eastern portion of the state. | |
| Wlm. W. Barnes Children’s Advocacy Center, Child Abuse Training Program |
$ 3,000 |
| Funding to support a professional multidisciplinary team training approach for training and support to be able to recognize, respond and report child abuse for educational, law enforcement, childcare and welfare personnel in an effort to reduce further trauma to child abuse victims in Rogers, Mayes and Craig Counties | |
| Youth Services of Tulsa, Broken Arrow Youth Court |
$ 5,000 |
| Provision of funding for first offender youth court for the legal services portion of the program in Broken Arrow area. | |
| YMCA, Statewide Youth In Government Program |
$ 4,000 |
| Funding of the Youth Model Legislative Day at the Capitol, 7th and 8th grade students, and student scholarships for Judicial Program Competition at the ABA in Chicago | |
| Total Regular OBF Grant Awards for 2014: |
$345,066 |
*amount to be revisited at the close of the year
Following the day-long applicant interview meeting on August 22, the OBF Grants and Awards Committee submitted grant recommendations to the board with the assistance of Trustee Jeffrey Trevillion, Jr.’s nonprofit financial analysis for 2013/2014, detailing grantee revenue, salaries, salary revenue ratio, number of clients served and cost per client served. Jeff’s commentary included an assessment of the grantee organization’s qualified or unqualified independent auditor reports. Some $590,000 in needs was reviewed with $345,066 available for awards, which is some $20,000 over the budgeted total amount . These eighteen statewide grant programs served over 56,450 Oklahomans and their families though their ability to advance education, citizenship and justice.
These grant awards would not have been possible without our revenue sources from our Fellows, Community Fellows, Cy Pres Awards, IOLTA trust account income and donations from Oklahoma citizens who entrust their charitable gifts to the OBF Board of Trustees. The OBF truly remains the charitable heart of the Oklahoma Bar Association.
As an illustration of teamwork, the Oklahoma Bar Association Board of Governors and the Oklahoma Bar Foundation Trustees met for their annual joint dinner in Bricktown on September 25 to collaborate and celebrate the grant awards. The group of bar leaders and staff enjoyed viewing a segment of the new OBF Video Story depicting grantee success stories. The OBF theme of “Lawyers Transforming Oklahoma Citizens Lives” and its clearly defined mission of the promotion of justice, the funding of critical legal services and the advancement of knowledge of the law for all Oklahomans was boldly evident in the video that will be available to share during the November Annual Meeting.
To be able to continue on this successful path of grant giving so that more deserving Oklahomans can be served, the OBF reaches out to you as fellow lawyers to enlist a lawyer, law firm or affiliate group to join the OBF Umbrella of Giving today. Please remember that, “We cannot receive if we do not ask”. — Thank you, OBF President Dietmar Caudle
- OBF President Dietmar Caudle and OBA President Renée DeMoss, along with the OBA Board of Governors and the OBF Board of Trustees, celebrate 2014 OBF Grant Awards.