2009 ABA Enterprise Fund
Emeritus Attorney Pro Bono Indigent Guardianship Project

Grant Announcement and Request for Proposals

Emeritus Attorney Pro Bono Indigent Guardianship Project

The American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging and the Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law are pleased to announce the 2009 ABA Enterprise Fund Emeritus Attorney Pro Bono Indigent Guardianship Project. The project is awarding up to 10 mini-grants of $2500 each to states with emeritus attorney pro bono practice rules to develop model approaches to specifically recruit emeritus pro bono attorneys to handle indigent adult guardianship cases.

Project Overview and Objectives

Doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, and long term care facilities face a serious and persistent problem of deciding what to do on behalf of patients who are incapacitated and have no available surrogate decision-maker. While no hard data exists, many individuals who are incapacitated have a compelling need to have a surrogate appointed to make health care and other decisions for them. For a small group of these individuals, a family member or friend may be willing and available to serve as guardian, but neither the individual who is incapacitated nor the family member or friend has the financial resources to hire a lawyer to establish the guardianship.

The Emeritus Attorney Pro Bono Indigent Guardianship Project is designed to address the special legal needs of this underserved population by assisting states that have emeritus attorney pro bono rules develop a specialized program to recruit emeritus pro bono attorneys who have experience handling guardianship cases to handle these cases and help meet the special legal needs of this underserved population.

The project is awarding up to 10 mini-grants of $2500 each to states with emeritus attorney pro bono practice rules to develop model approaches to specifically recruit emeritus pro bono attorneys to handle indigent guardianship cases. Grants will provide seed money to assist
state emeritus attorney pro bono programs, bar sections or committees that focuses on elder law or probate and estate law, and bar-sponsored or non-profit programs through which the attorney would handle or be assigned the case in developing specialized recruitment campaigns to engage emeritus pro bono attorneys in providing legal services to low-income clients seeking to establish a guardianship of an incapacitated person with a compelling need for a guardian.

Applicant Eligibility

Any state or local bar association, bar section or committee, or bar-sponsored or non-profit program that is committed to developing a model approach for conducting specialized recruitment campaigns to engage emeritus pro bono attorneys in providing legal services to low-income clients seeking to establish a guardianship of an incapacitated individual with a compelling need for a guardian and enhancing awareness of the emeritus attorney pro bono rule or program in the state’s legal and pro bono communities is eligible to apply.

Application Due Date

The deadline for submitting applications, by email or by fax, is Monday, November 10, 2008 at 5:00 pm EST.

Proposal Review and Section Process

Proposals will be reviewed by the ABA Commission on Law and Aging and the ABA Section on Real Property, Trust and Estate Law. Awards will be announced in early December.

Grant Period

The grant period runs from December 15, 2008 to July 15, 2009.

Reporting Requirements

Grantees are required to participate in one teleconference mid-way through the grant period and submit a final narrative and budget report by July 31, 2009 including items such as project outcomes, challenged faced and how they were addressed, how funds were used, and how the project will be sustained beyond the grant period.

Proposals should be no longer than 5 pages, line spacing of at least 1.5, typed in Times New Roman 12-point font (or equivalent), with 1-inch margins, consisting of:

• Up to 3 pages of narrative, answering the questions on Page 3 of this RFP in the format presented. Please include the questions as part of the narrative.
• One page listing the organizations that will participate in the project and the collaborative activities that each will conduct.
• One page presenting a proposed budget reflecting how the $2500 mini-grant will be spent.

Method of Submission

• If submitted by email, please send to EFGuardianship@staff.abanet.org
• If submitted by fax, please send to 202-662-8690.

Questions

If you have questions about this project or about the application process, please email them to EFGuardianship@staff.abanet.org.

2009 ABA Enterprise Fund
Emeritus Attorney Pro Bono Indigent Guardianship Project
Proposal Narrative

Applicant Organization:

Contact Name:

Address:

Phone:

Fax:

Email Address:

1. Describe the proposed project, highlighting the approaches you propose to use to specifically recruit emeritus pro bono attorneys to handle adult guardianship cases.

2. Describe how the participating organizations will screen and refer cases to emeritus pro bono attorneys.

3. Describe how the participating organizations will ensure that all alternatives to guardianship have been considered before initiating the case and that obtaining counsel for the respondent in the guardianship case has been considered.

4. Describe the specific, quantifiable outcomes that will result from your project and how you will measure them.

5. Describe how you will sustain the recruitment effort beyond the grant period.