Louisiana Appleseed Projects

Key Projects:
Mental Health
Economic Development
Education

Conducting mental health training; writing, researching and compiling mental health handbooks – Some attorneys and judges, particularly those not focused exclusively on criminal practice, are unaware of Louisiana laws governing identification, diversion, and treatment of people with mental illness or mental retardation. Recognizing the need for training and support in this area, Louisiana Appleseed is collaborating with other area organizations to create a Louisiana-focused handbook that will serve as a guide for practitioners when representing clients with mental health issues and mental retardation. Louisiana Appleseed will compile, print and deliver the manual in mid-2008. In addition, Appleseed plans to hold free Continuing Legal Education classes on the topic. Louisiana public defenders, as well as private practitioners and mental health workers, eagerly anticipate the handbooks and training sessions, recognizing the great need to learn how to best serve clients with these issues.

Project Partners: Louisiana Justice Coalition, Loyola School of Law, LSU School of Social Work, Texas Appleseed, Tulane Law School Criminal Clinic, Louisiana Public Defenders’ Association and law firm Adams and Reese.

B. Economic Development

Enabling owners of heir property to clear title and preserve wealth – Families living on heir property (property passed down to family members through generations outside of the official probate process) lack clear title and are unable to access the wealth-generating tools commonly associated with land ownership. They also face a heightened risk of losing their property. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita revealed that many low-income people throughout the Gulf South were unable to qualify Road Home funds because they lived on heir property.

Louisiana Appleseed is finding solutions to provide owners of heir property with the tools to protect themselves from land loss, generate wealth and access recovery funds following major disasters. As a result of Louisiana Appleseed advocacy, the Louisiana Legislature passed a resolution, forming a state committee to study the effects of ownership of heir property and issue legislative recommendations for the 2009 legislative session. Going forward, Louisiana Appleseed will provide the committee with the background, research and recommendations necessary to develop and implement the legislation, enabling thousands of Louisiana residents access to procedures that will secure title to their homes.

Project partners: Alabama Appleseed, First American Title, Louisiana Bar Foundation, Stanley Ray Trust, Texas Appleseed, and law firms Adams and Reese and Jones Walker.

Increasing Latino access to financial institutions, through education, outreach and advocacy – Latino immigrants are statistically much less likely to have bank accounts than the remainder of the population and therefore often pay exorbitant fees to cash checks and send remittances, must sometimes resort to predatory lending services, are unable to build assets and credit histories and have recently become easy targets for robbery. Based on the work of other Appleseed Centers, this project links banking institutions with members of the growing Latino population to increase access to financial institutions.

Louisiana Appleseed will release a report in 2008 on the services provided by local financial institutions and will conduct financial education programs aimed at increasing Latino access to financial institutions. The report will highlight the economic importance of immigrants both locally and nationally and will provide specific recommendations to financial institutions for increasing immigrant access to their services. Appleseed will use its report as a tool to advocate for the increased financial service and product options available through mainstream financial institutions for the Latino population. The project also provides financial institutions with guidance on regulatory issues pertaining to the implementation of these programs.

Project partners: Catholic Charities/Hispanic Apostolate, Credit Bureau of Baton Rouge, Puentes New Orleans and law firms Adams and Reese, Baker Donelson and Skadden Arps.

Wage Claim Project – Louisiana Appleseed is developing a project to address the growing number of wage claim issues. Due to the increased number of unlicensed contractors and higher number of Latino immigrants, local legal service providers are seeing an increased number of cases in which construction workers are not paid for the work they do. Some attorneys are hesitant to accept this type of work because they are unfamiliar with the laws pertaining to the subject. The Pro Bono Project and the Loyola Law Clinic have asked Louisiana Appleseed to research, draft and publish a wage claim training guide. This guide will provide attorneys with the knowledge they need to effectively represent their clients. Appleseed and its partners will also use the guide in free CLE classes it will hold on the subject. Long term goals of this project include advocacy for reform in wage theft laws, practices and procedures.

Project partners: The Pro Bono Project and Loyola Law Clinic.

C. Education

Increase Latino access to community colleges – Despite the labor shortage in Louisiana, many new and returning residents lack the job skills and career counseling necessary to attain the most desirable jobs. The community college system is a vital part of developing a strong, stable and well-trained working and middle class – those who lack access to it are missing out on a powerful wealth-generating tool. While there are programs available to members of the Latino community, they go largely unused due to the difficulty many Louisiana community colleges have effectively recruiting and educating the Latino community about these programs.

At the request of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS), Louisiana Appleseed is working with school leaders to identify and implement programs aimed at attracting a larger number of Latino students and develop a strategic plan for outreach, program design and appeal. The administration at LCTCS has made this project a top priority.

Project partners: Louisiana Community and Technical College System, Ford Foundation, University of Virginia School of Law and law firm Stone Pigman.