Project 2025
Enhanced Access to Legal Assistance for Older Adults in Virginia
How Many Seniors Will Live in Virginia by the Year 2025 and Are We Prepared?
According to various projections, there will be over one million more older adults in Virginia by the year 2025 as compared to the year 2000.
What is Project 2025?
In 2006, various public and private entities in Virginia came together as one in response to an Administration on Aging grant opportunity for statewide legal assistance. Virginia's former Governor Kaine, former State Attorney General McDonnell, the Virginia Department for the Aging, the Virginia Poverty Law Center and other committed stakeholders worked together collaboratively to strategically plan and improve access to legal assistance for older adults in Virginia. Rather than merely obtaining funds to complete a temporary result, stakeholders worked toward permanent improvement that would benefit Virginians now and also in the future. Stakeholders understood that, given the current demand on essential state resources in Virginia and the limited legal resources in place for those 60 years and older, that we would need to start preparations now to ensure that seniors and their caregivers have adequate access to legal information and legal assistance in the future.
What Has Been Accomplished So Far?
Virginia's progress to date is exciting and historic. A project of this magnitude has never been successfully undertaken before and significant results are occurring. Tangible outcome measures to date include: a firmly established Elder Law Task Force and Elder Law Listserv; pilot programs targeted to increase pro bono participation by private attorneys in Virginia; strategic and statewide planning to improve the current legal services delivery system; website development and online tools to assist service providers in locating legal assistance for their clients and other strategies designed to increase efficiency and protect the rights and independence of older adults.
Especially for Advocates and Service Providers...
This Project 2025 website provides information to guide you in obtaining assistance for clients needing advocacy, information & referral, legal advice, and/or legal representation. There is also a section for legal assistance training opportunities. See the "Resources" link.
"This project was supported, in part, by a grant, number 0985-0018 (Project 2025: Enhanced Access to Legal Assistance for Older Adults in Virginia - Model Approaches to Statewide Legal Assistance Systems), from the Administration on Aging, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official Administration on Aging policy."
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© 2010 Project 2025.
Design by Andreas Viklund.
Photo by Dave Faris.