By Lisa Hanson, Executive Editor
The Board of Directors of the Iowa State Bar Foundation (ISBF), the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports the efforts of The Iowa State Bar Association (ISBA), held its quarterly meeting on Tuesday, March 25, and awarded $93,154 in grants supporting legal initiatives in Iowa. The meeting was held at the ISBA Building and via Zoom. The directors were tasked with evaluating and awarding the grants for fiscal year 2025-2026. This is the only meeting of the year where grant requests are reviewed. The board is pleased to be able to announce the following grants were awarded:
Iowa Center for Children’s Justice - $5,000
The Iowa Center for Children’s Justice (ICCJ) is a nonprofit organization and is dedicated to delivering services in three core areas: legal representation for children, divorce workshops for youth, and alternative dispute resolution services. This funding request would support the divorce workshop program.
ICCJ's youth divorce workshops serve children ages 6–16 whose parents have recently filed for divorce. In 2024, these workshops reached 1,300 children. The workshops equip children with tools to manage the emotional and psychological challenges of family separation, fostering resilience and emotional stability.
Funds from this grant will help expand and sustain this vital program. Grant funds will cover program materials, facilitator training, and expansion efforts as we look to offer the program in additional counties in Iowa. In addition, grant funds will support ICCJ’s data collection and evaluation efforts. This includes pre- and post-tests to measure resilience and track outcomes, enabling ICCJ to assess program effectiveness and make data-driven improvements.
Iowa Legal Aid – statewide housing stability project - $10,000
In 2024, housing cases comprised nearly half of our total closed cases (47%). Eviction is still at crisis levels across the state and comprises 80% of our housing cases. High housing costs combined with the end of the pandemic-era housing support have devastated thousands of low-income Iowans who can’t make their rent or mortgage payments.
Iowa Legal Aid (ILA) seeks funding to help support our statewide Housing Stability Project, which provides legal assistance to people throughout Iowa.
Additionally, this project encompasses our Eviction Diversion program, which is established in six counties with the largest population centers in Iowa (Polk, Black Hawk, Johnson, Linn, Pottawattamie, Scott). These counties are the site of 71% of the state’s evictions. We offer our services to all tenants at the county courthouse just prior to their eviction hearing. Some tenants learn about their legal rights and receive step-by-step instructions adequate to preserve their housing. Others are provided full representation at their eviction hearing.
Iowa Legal Aid anticipates helping approximately 6,400 clients statewide with their housing issues. This will impact approximately 14,400 household members, including more than 5,500 children. Most of our clients live at or below 125% of the federal poverty level and are disproportionately female (70%), people of color (28%), or have a disability (36%).
Funds will be used to help Iowa Legal Aid provide free legal services to low-income Iowans who have housing instability. Our legal staff will provide legal advice and ensure that all clients receive an understanding of their rights under Iowa law. In some cases, this is all that clients need to be able to resolve their problems on their own. Our attorneys will negotiate with third parties such as landlords and/or their legal counsel to resolve clients’ issues. When needed, we provide full representation in court or administrative agencies. We also connect clients to agencies and organizations that provide needed non-legal wrap-around community support.
ISBA Center for Law and Civic Education – Know Your Constitution - $10,000
This request is to further the mission of the ISBA’s Center for Law & Civic Education to educate students, educators, and other members of the public on the law. Funds will specifically be used to support the ISBA’s Know Your Constitution program which serves more than 2,500 students from more than 250 schools around the state.
ISBA Center for Law and Civic Education – Mock Trial - $55,000
The purpose of this request is to further the mission of the ISBA’s Center for Law & Civic Education to educate students, educators, and other members of the public on the law. Funds will specifically be used to support the ISBA’s Mock Trial Program. Funds will support both the Middle School and High School Mock Trial programs which serve more than 4,000 students from more than 250 schools around the state.
The ISBA believes that the Mock Trial Program is exemplary of the organization’s mission and vision. It provides multiple avenues for collegial civic involvement in addition to educating youth and teachers through this hands-on program. Such opportunities give youth and adults greater understanding of the legal process and the profession’s standing within the communities where lawyers live and work.
Justice for All - $2,000
Justice for All 2025 is a collaboration of The Iowa State Bar Association, the National Association of Women Judges and the Des Moines Public Schools to encourage female high school students from underrepresented populations to consider careers in the legal profession. This one-day event will be held at Drake University Law School and include a presentation from the chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, a panel of judges and attorneys, and a panel of current law students. We intend to increase the number of participants from 75 last year to 90 this year.
Kids First Law Center - $7,500
Kids First continues to generate revenue from diverse sources to sustain programs long-term. The current funding request would support the introduction of two new programs, Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE) and Child & Family Reporter (CFR) services at Kids First Law Center.
ENE is a structured dispute resolution process for divorcing high-conflict families. A neutral attorney meets with parents and their attorneys early in the legal process to provide a neutral assessment (“reality check”) of their strengths and weaknesses as well as an opportunity for parties to negotiate after receiving that opinion. Kids First will incorporate a child-focused approach to help parents make better decisions. ENE facilitates early resolution of cases and helps families avoid protracted litigation.
CFRs gather and report factual information to the court in child custody cases, providing a limited assessment of home conditions, parenting capabilities, or specific concerns noted to the court such as a parent’s use of illegal substances. These investigations and reports, generated by a neutral attorney, help courts make more fully informed custody decisions.
Lavendar Legal Center - $1,500
Lavender Legal Center serves Iowa's LGBTQ+ community through direct representation advocacy and referrals, with a priority for serving those with low-income and our LGBTQ+ youth.
The demand for our services continues to grow, and we have more than doubled our caseload this fiscal year. The demand is so high that we have reinstated a waitlist for our services. We are now a staff of two full-time attorneys and one part-time office manager.
During our fiscal year 2023-24, we served just over 70 Iowans. This fiscal year, we have served over 180 LGBTQ+ Iowans, and we still have four months left of our fiscal year. Some of this is natural growth as Lavender Legal Center enters our fifth year in existence.
Muscatine Legal Services - $2,154
Muscatine Legal Services seeks assistance in continuing the program that will offer a single-session clinic to assist indigent people in obtaining a divorce, custody and/or child support using volunteer law students under guidance of licensed attorneys.
Each clinic will serve up to 10 people with five volunteers from the local bar and University of Iowa College of Law students. This will be a volunteer opportunity for the Citizen Lawyer Program at the University of Iowa.
Funds are needed to enable Muscatine Legal Services to conduct two in-office clinics in 2025 that will match participants with law students and volunteer lawyers for self-representation.
This award would assist individuals with accessing the judicial system by removing both financial and educational constraints to their access to justice. It will also assist law students with real-life training on how an attorney interacts with clients, spots legal issues, and forms a legal analysis.
This grant award will help Iowa's future attorneys prepare for real-life work and client interaction. It will also assist the judicial system by relieving demands on the judicial system staff from demands by these individuals with pro-se representation questions.
How can I give?
There are many ways you can give to the Iowa State Bar Foundation by visiting iabarfoundation.org. As a 501(c)(3), contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. An outright cash gift is the simplest. You can also give at the time of your ISBA dues billing statement. You may also wish to make a memorial gift in honor of a colleague, judge, family member, or friend. A bequest allows you to make a significant contribution in the future without affecting your income now. All these gifts can extend your influence far beyond your lifetime.
Levels of giving include:
Sustaining Life Fellow – Contributing or pledging a minimum of $100 annually (including memorial gifts).
Life Patron Fellow – Contributing or pledging an aggregate of $2,000 – no time limit
Life Benefactor Fellow – Contributing or pledging an aggregate of $5,000 – no time limit
Life Leadership Fellow – Contributing or pledging an aggregate of $10,000 – no time limit
