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JALA welcomes Emily Taylor-Hernandez as the JWLA Kathy Para Student Intern

Emily Taylor-Hernandez, a pre-law student at Syracuse University, has been selected to serve as the JWLA Kathy Para Student Intern this summer in the Family Law & Victim Advocacy Unit at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. A resident of Fleming Island, Taylor-Hernandez is majoring in forensic Science and psychology, and she is a member of the Kappa Alpha Pi Pre-Law and Pre-Government Professional Fraternity, the Psi Chi National Honor Society, and the Pre-Law Society, among other student organizations. She was the recipient of the Community Service Award at Episcopal School of Jacksonville, and she said more than 600 hours of volunteer work has shaped her perspective. “Volunteering has not only taught me how rewarding service can be but how I can use my voice to advocate for others” she said.

2026-05-11T15:55:37-04:00May 11th, 2026|Family Law, News, Uncategorized|

Runners, walkers and bikers can support Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Shelter for Elders initiative through the Nov. 22-23 Freed to Run

Gunster Shareholder and endurance runner Mike Freed and Jacksonville Area Legal Aid – joined by several event directors from the Northeast Florida community – are gearing up for the Freed to Run Challenge Nov. 22-23 to benefit JALA’s Shelter for Elders endowment, which supports housing-related legal assistance for indigent seniors. “We are thrilled with the success of Freed To Run and can’t wait to continue to build on it,” Freed said. Individual runners, relay teams, walkers and bikers will raise funds for the endowment through peer-to-peer fundraising based on a challenge to complete as many half-mile laps around the Duval County Courthouse as they can in a period of either 12 or 24 hours. Other options are to run a 5k or to bike from the St. Johns County Courthouse to the Duval County Courthouse. Those businesses, organizations and individuals wanting to participate, donate to the endowment or lend their in-kind support to the event can contact the appropriate director:

2025-10-23T11:30:39-04:00October 23rd, 2025|Freed To Run, News, Shelter for Elders, Uncategorized|

JALA pro bono legal clinic helps grandparents raising grandchildren

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid will hold a free legal clinic on Tuesday, October 21 from 9 a.m. to noon at Charger Academy, 7050 Melvin Road, in Jacksonville. Participants will meet one-on-one with an attorney for guidance on civil legal matters, such as family law, temporary custody, and housing. The event was created to address a need identified by community partners, who found that several local children being raised by their grandparents don’t have legal orders identifying their grandparents as temporary custodians. “This can impact a child’s ability to get medical treatment and impact their ability to be enrolled in school,” says Stacey DeVall, deputy director of Pro Bono for JALA. So far, 17 families have signed up for the pro bono clinic.

2025-10-23T11:31:56-04:00October 20th, 2025|Uncategorized|

Best-selling author Stephanie Land to headline JALA’s Equal Justice Awards Celebration

Best-selling author and economic justice advocate Stephanie Land whose memoir was the inspiration for Netflix’s Golden Globe and Emmy Award-nominated original series Maid, will deliver the keynote address at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s 23rd Equal Justice Awards Sept. 18 at the Jacksonville Public Library. Land’s bestselling debut memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive recounts her harrowing saga as a single mom navigating the poverty trap. Her unflinching testimony exposes the physical, economic, and social brutality that domestic workers face, all while radiating a parent’s hope and dedication. JALA’s Equal Justice Awards features the presentation of the Robert J. Beckham Equal Justice Award, named for a former JALA board member and longtime supporter. It is bestowed on a person or organization who has notably promoted the cause of equal justice for low-income residents of Northeast Florida.

2025-08-05T11:53:01-04:00August 5th, 2025|Equal Justice Awards, News, Uncategorized|

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid working to save the home of local golf and civil rights legend Arthur Leroy Johnson

As a child in Jacksonville in the 1950s, Arthur Leroy Johnson would go get ice cream with his father and brothers at the Foremost Dairy in Riverside, the Jacksonville, Fla., neighborhood where he has lived for nearly 40 years and where he is struggling to hold onto his two-bedroom home with the help of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. “My father worked two blocks from where I live today,” said Johnson, whose father was employed at the dairy. “At 5 o’clock in that neighborhood, all the Black people had to be out. There was a whistle that would blow. If you worked in that area, as a Black person you had to be leaving. The whistle was called Big Jim.” In 1986, Johnson, who is now 80, became a homeowner in that very same neighborhood when he bought an 1,100 square-foot, aluminum-sided home from a woman who employed his mother as a domestic worker. Johnson, who will be inducted into the African American Golfers Hall of Fame in May and had a successful career as a concert promoter, eventually ran into financial difficulties when prostate cancer and other health problems sidelined him from his job as director of First Tee – North Florida, a program that integrates golf with a life skills curriculum to help youth build strength of character. He took out a reverse mortgage on the 1912 home, initially borrowing just $24,000. But living on $941 a month in Social Security, he was having trouble making needed repairs to his home. Unable to get insurance, he defaulted on his reverse mortgage. After fighting to hold onto his home for 12 years, he ended up owing a total of $140,000 to pay off the mortgage.

2024-06-04T11:19:40-04:00February 13th, 2024|Client Stories, Fair Housing, News, Uncategorized|

A Decent Home

A Decent Home Community Film Screening Wednesday, 3/6/24 | 5:30- 8:00 pm Jacksonville University Swisher Theater 2800 University Blvd, Jacksonville 32211 A Decent Home addresses urgent issues of class and economic (im)mobility through the lives of mobile home park residents who can’t afford housing anywhere else. They are fighting for their dreams -- and their lives -- as private equity firms and wealthy investors buy up parks. - Free admission and snacks - Screening followed by panel discussion with local housing attorneys For more information, please contact: Missy Davenport, mdavenp@ju.edu, 904-256-7169

2024-02-14T12:39:54-05:00February 13th, 2024|Fair Housing, News, Uncategorized|
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