The School of Law has received a $200,000 grant from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund to offer a clinic for members of the University law community, both students and faculty, to work with mentally challenged people in the area.
Kimberly Emery, assistant dean for public service at the Law School Public Service Center, said these citizens are underserved and often have a hard time finding legal assistance.
"Intake work at soup kitchens showed us that there were a lot of people there who are mentally retarded," Emery said.
Richard Bonnie, director of the Institute for Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, said this grant will give law students a hands-on experience in mental health law.
Bonnie said some of the legal areas that the students in this clinic will be working on with their clients may include guardianship, disability benefits, Americans with Disability Act claims and housing claims.
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School of Law Dean Robert E. Scott said that this grant will not only help the law students get some real-world experience but will benefit the Charlottesville area as well.
"This extends our outreach - we can do good for the community," Scott said.
Emery said students who are not involved with the clinic still can participate in intake work at soup kitchens and the Salvation Army.
Sherry Magill, executive director of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, said the fund agreed to give this grant because it was a "great way to provide good, affordable legal help to people who couldn't afford it otherwise, as well as give law students a wonderful experience."
Emery said this grant was the third the Law School has received from the Jessie Ball duPont fund in the last several years.
According to Magill, the other two grants the duPont Fund gave to the Law School were to support an affordable housing mediation program in 1996 and to address the needs of indigent children in 1998.
These clinics also dealt with the needs of local people who would not be able to get quality legal aid otherwise - something Mrs. duPont found valuable, Magill said.
The duPont Fund, based out of Jacksonville, Fla., donates resources to institutions that the philanthropic Mrs. duPont supported during a specific part of her lifetime - including many academic institutions.
"She was a strong believer in higher education," Magill said. "We focus on issues designed to help the vulnerable who are often ignored by the rest of society."
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