Minnesota Elder Justice Center Enhancement of Services: Legal Representation for Older Victims of Abuse and Financial Exploitation

This program will implement projects that enhance services for older victims of abuse and financial exploitation. This program is intended to improve outcomes, minimize additional trauma, and restore safety and security to older adult victims of abuse and financial exploitation. This award, made to Minnesota Elder Justice Center (MEJC), funded under OVC FY 2020 Enhancing Services for Older Victims of Abuse and Financial Exploitation program, is designed to support communities in providing services to older victims of abuse and exploitation. MEJC proposes to support older victims of abuse and exploitation by providing one full-time and one half-time staff attorney to directly represent victims of elder abuse in need of legal services. Their service area includes the state of Minnesota, and the legal services they propose would be available at no cost (pro bono) to victims statewide. In particular, they will direct their services to older victims of elder abuse, which can include a wide variety of victimizations, including but not limited to physical abuse, sexual assault, neglect, maltreatment, harassment and financial exploitation. MEJC will expand services to victims of elder abuse and financial exploitation by offering legal representation to victims of elder abuse and financial exploitation. Representation to victims of elder abuse will be provided in a range of legal matters including secure housing, benefits eligibility, access to protective orders, and fiduciary restructuring (revocation); as well as non-legal advocacy including issue spotting, system navigation, safety planning, court accompaniment, empathetic listening, and triaged referral.CA/NCF