ABLE and Legal Aid awarded $870,000 Challenge Grant from Kresge Foundation

Toledo: The nonprofit law firms of Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. (ABLE) and Legal Aid of Western Ohio, Inc. (LAWO) are approximately $1.7 million away from reaching the $6.1 million necessary to make the Center for Equal Justice a reality.

“We are thrilled about the Kresge Foundation challenge grant,” says Joseph R. Tafelski, executive director of ABLE. “Not only did the Foundation recognize our hard work on this campaign, they have acknowledged the importance of the legal services work provided by ABLE and LAWO by increasing the challenge grant from the $400,000 we requested to $870,000. We are counting on this vote of confidence by the Kresge Foundation to carry us forward in the final phase of our campaign,” Tafelski adds.

Along with the Kresge Challenge Grant, there have been a number of recent gifts that have boosted the Campaign for the Center for Equal Justice, including an appropriation in the State Budget for $1 million. The Challenge Period for the Kresge Grant begins immediately and will end April 1, 2009. During this period, ABLE and LAWO will be reaching out to the general public for assistance in meeting the $6.1 million goal.

Every dollar raised on behalf of the Center for Equal Justice is an investment in LAWO and ABLE’s commitment to improving the lives of low-income individuals and families in western Ohio. “ABLE and LAWO serve hundreds of thousands of people in 32 counties, as well as migrant farmworkers and immigrants from throughout the State,” says Kevin Mulder, executive director of LAWO.