Collaboration leads to new walk-in legal clinic in East End
9/20/2019, 6 a.m.
A Virginia Commonwealth University community health program is joining with the University of Richmond and the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society to provide free legal advice in the East End.
The new initiative, announced Wednesday, involves law students from UR’s Carrico Center for Pro Bono & Public Service.
They will work with a Legal Aid lawyer at VCU’s recently opened Health Hub at 25th Street and Nine Mile Road adjacent to the grocery store, according to a news release on the program.
The new walk-in service is available at the Health Hub from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays, according to the announcement.
VCU’s Health Hub was created to provide education and activities that promote health and well-being.
Tara Casey, director of the Carrico Center based at the UR Downtown campus, stated that about a dozen students have been assigned to the program.
The students’ role, she stated, would be to complete intake screenings to better enable the Legal Aid attorney to provide advice to clients or connect them to resources on issues related to housing, family law, public benefits and other issues.
Allison Held, a UR law school graduate and VCU’s director for medical legal partnerships, calls the program a good fit with the Health Hub.
“There are so many social and legal factors impacting the health of this community,” Ms. Held stated, “and our main goal is to build trust and effect positive change.”
