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What would you do if you had one day to decide how to give away $760,000?
Sounds simple, but it’s not. First the money only goes for qualifying charitable purposes that meet the stated law-related purposes and mission of the Oklahoma Bar Foundation. You are in the middle of final preparations for trial and a stack of requests more than twelve inches high arrives at your office. As you go through them, you find that these requests total well over a million dollars and you are charged with determining which programs are most worthwhile – the problem is they all sound good!
Giving away money thoughtfully is not an easy task. Your Oklahoma Bar Foundation Board of Trustees is comprised of a group of attorneys from all across that state that bring an incredible amount of talent, experience and knowledge to the table. From within that group, the Grants and Awards Committee is charged with review of the grant requests, and being good stewards of the money at every step of the award process. The Committee spends an entire day conducting applicant interviews to help with final determinations. This year eighteen programs have been recommended to receive OBF grant awards totaling $763,000, with an additional $58,158 being awarded for law student scholarships, bringing total awards to $821,158.
OBF HAS EXCEEDED THE $7,000,000 AWARD LEVEL WITH A TOTAL OF $7,471,074 TO DATE.
The $7,500,000 level will likely be topped by the close of the year. OBF held a grand gala event during 2002 to celebrate crossing the five-million dollar level of grant awards that covered a period of more than fifty years. Just five short years later that amount has grown to more than seven-million dollars, thanks in part to the success of the IOLTA program and the generosity of attorneys from across Oklahoma. While it is impossible to estimate the number of people that have benefited from programs supported by the OBF, it is fair to say that OBF supporters and contributors have helped make an important difference in the lives of many. Programs helped this year include:
| Boys & Girls Clubs of Green Country Inc., Mayes County Youth Court |
6,000 |
| Ongoing existing program funding of an early intervention program allowing
offenders ages 11 to 18 to have cases heard and sentenced by student peers |
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| Center for Children & Families Inc. of Cleveland County |
5,000 |
| Court ordered supervised visitation and family exchange assistance services |
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| Crossroads Youth & Family Services, Inc. |
3,500 |
| Compilation and printing of a Cleveland County Juvenile Intervention Public Legal Information Pamphlet |
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| Domestic Violence Intervention Services, Inc., Call Rape |
10,000 |
| Civil legal services and educational programming in Tulsa County |
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| Family Shelter of Southern Oklahoma, Inc. |
10,000 |
| Civil legal services for victims of domestic violence in Southern Oklahoma |
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| Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma Inc. |
400,000 |
| Upgraded salary funding and service program expansion into satellite regions |
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| OBA Law-Related Education PACE Teacher Institute |
25,000 |
| Ongoing program maintenance for presentation of the statewide summer teacher workshop, now PASS certified |
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| OBA/YLD Oklahoma High School Mock Trial Program |
44,225 |
| Statewide program presentation and addition of an advanced student/teacher clinic |
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| Oklahoma CASA Association, Inc. |
15,000 |
| Statewide training conference to provide mandatory training for Court Appointed Special Advocates staff and volunteers for abused and neglected children |
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| Oklahoma CAAVA Association, Inc. |
39,000 |
| Court Appointed Advocates for Vulnerable Adults program maintenance and program expansion into a rural area |
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| Oklahoma City University Law School , Native American Legal Resource Center |
17,500 |
| Implementation of a Statewide American Indian Law High School Mock Trial competition program |
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| Oklahoma Indian Legal Services, Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic |
39,000 |
| Support staff maintenance and much needed upgrades to phone and file server systems to be able to provide free legal tax services and advice |
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| Oklahoma Lawyers For Children Inc. |
25,000 |
| Implementation of an Intern Stand-Alone Program, compilation of a volunteer lawyer manual and program expansion to provide pro bono services to abused and neglected children by lawyers in the state’s largest county, Oklahoma County |
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| Senior Law Resource Center, Inc. |
15,600 |
| Law-student interns for web page development and research and print costs of free public service educational materials |
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| Teen Court Incorporated of Comanche County |
20,000 |
| Supplemental program funding and compilation and printing of a teen legal resource manual |
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| Tulsa Lawyers For Children, Inc. |
69,365 |
| Increase staff services, print costs of a volunteer lawyer manual and training materials to provide pro bono legal services to abused and neglected children by lawyers in the state’s second largest county, Tulsa County |
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| Tulsa University College of Law Boesche Legal Clinic |
13,810 |
| Immigrant rights legal clinic project utilizing law-student interns in provision of civil legal services |
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| YMCA Oklahoma Youth & Government Program |
3,000 |
| High school officer leadership training program and addition of a 7th and 8th grade student Model Legislative Day |
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How do I become a part of all of this?
Attorneys and other interested parties can help to provide services across Oklahoma through participation in the OBF Fellows program and other general contributions, as well as through participation in the IOLTA program. Join with Oklahoma attorneys and help us to make a real improvement in the lives of others. Please contact the OBF at (405) 416-7070 for more information on the Fellows program or mail in the form located on the web page.
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