Southeast Louisiana Legal Services

COVID-19 Veterans Legal Advocacy Project

Service Area: Houma, Louisiana

The following program was awarded grants as part of the Bob Woodruff Foundation’s second 2020 Expedited Grants Portfolio, addressing urgent needs related to COVID-19.

The Houma-Thibodaux communities of coastal Louisiana are home to almost 9,500 veterans and a workforce that relies on industries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) is the largest nonprofit civil legal aid provider in Louisiana with 105 staff members from six offices serving 22 parishes, and 50 percent of the state’s low-income population. SLLS has developed significant experience over the past 15 years from responding to the immediate and long-term impacts of 10 presidentially declared disasters including Hurricane Katrina, the 2008 Economic Crisis, and the 2010 BP Oil Spill. With a BWF grant, SLLS will provide civil legal aid to stabilize veteran and their families during the pandemic and its long aftermath.