spacerAbout Philly VIPspacerVolunteersspacerTraining & MentoringspacerGet Legal HelpspacerSupport Our WorkspacerNews & Eventsspacer
Your Support Makes the Difference

Home > Support Our Work

Support Our Work

Philadelphia VIP:
A Case for Support

VIP promotes equal justice for the poor by providing civil legal services not otherwise available, collaborating with other legal services organizations and promoting a culture of volunteerism by educating and exposing attorneys and law students to issues of poverty.
      –Philadelphia VIP Mission Statement

For the past twenty seven years, Philadelphia VIP has provided legal services for low-income residents and families facing civil legal problems that threaten their basic human needs – shelter, employment, financial stability, education and health.

Through its volunteers and staff, VIP serves more than 1,000 individuals and families yearly who could not otherwise afford attorneys and whose cases could or would not be handled by other public interest organizations. We are the agency of last resort for the majority of our clients, and we need your support to help fund our work.

Our clients are among the poorest in the City and region, and their numbers are growing.(1) To be eligible for our services a client's income must be at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines.(2) Thus, our most financially secure clients earn $19,600, while a family of 4 lives on less than $40,000.

While VIP receives much of its support from foundations and corporate donations, we rely on the generous support of individuals to bridge our critical gap in funding.

Your gift is very important to us and will help support our four priority caseload areas:

  • Maintaining family income (child support, employment/wage claims, tax issues, disability)
  • Preventing homelessness (landlord/tenant appeals, public housing evictions, probate, tangled title, consumer debt, litigation defense)
  • Supporting family stability (child custody, adoption/guardianship, special education and school discipline, name change and immigration issues); and
  • Promoting community economic development.

We hope you will consider a gift to Philadelphia VIP this year, and please know that your donation, no matter the amount, is greatly appreciated by each and every staff member, volunteer, and client of Philadelphia VIP.

 

1. Philadelphia continues to lose population but because the poverty rate in the City increased from 22.9% to 24.9% in the period since the 2000 Census, the population of people in poverty has grown from approximately 347,500 to 364, 500. 2. The sole exception to this rule applies to clients seeking legal assistance from LawWorks to form a small business whose income may be at 300% of the poverty guidelines.