Message From Our Executive Director
Toward a second century of protecting the human rights of Maryland’s poor
The program year 2009 was dominated by the news and ramifications of the unprecedented worldwide economic downturn. In Maryland, the recession unleashed a double hit on low-income people with regards to their need for civil legal assistance.
First, the number of people needing such help rose dramatically. Second, various funding sources—including local governments, individuals and foundations—significantly reduced their financial support for civil legal services as they tried to cope with their own challenges brought on by the recession.
Against this backdrop, Maryland Legal Aid was able to take steps to reinforce our commitment and determination to zealously protect the basic human rights of the state’s poor to safe and affordable housing, economic sustenance, access to healthcare, and family security. Through the concerted action of the board, staff and other partners, Legal Aid was able to increase its productivity and serve more clients than the previous year.
In another significant development, Legal Aid completed a comprehensive strategic planning process that culminated in a decision to adopt a human rights framework for our work.
A human rights framework incorporates at least three helpful dimensions. First, the approach empowers Legal Aid to use a language that resonates positively among a steadily widening audience. Second, it enables us to interact with a vibrant network of similarly focused organizations and individuals. And third, this approach makes available to Legal Aid advocates an additional set of tools that includes regional and international conventions and treaties, such as the American Convention on Human Rights, the International Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
On another front, the Maryland General Assembly, at the end of an extremely challenging and difficult 2010 session, adopted a measure that will increase filing-fee surcharges on civil court cases used for supporting civil legal services for low-income Marylanders. This action averted a crisis created as a result of the loss of income from lawyers’ trust accounts. The General Assembly’s action increases stability for these services going forward.
Thus, it is with optimism that Legal Aid looks forward to 2011, the year of our 100th anniversary and the beginning of our second century of service to the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society.
Wilhelm H. Joseph, Jr., Executive Director
