The Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee created the AIDS Law Education Research and Training (ALERT) project to reach minority women who were not accessing legal services at traditional AIDS service organizations (ASO) or other legal services providers. ALERT, a unique medico-legal collaboration, serves clients where they go for services. In particular, ALERT serves minority women with HIV by providing health clinic-based legal intake at two sites in Milwaukee, the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, which serves approximately 100 predominantly Spanish-speaking patients, and the Positive Health Clinic at Sinai Samaritan Medical Center, a central city health care provider, serving 350 HIV positive patients. The ALERT attorney goes to the Sixteenth Street CHC once a month when the infectious disease doctor is present at clinic. The ALERT attorney goes to the Positive Health Clinic twice a month, with one of the times falling at the same time the women's support group meets. The ALERT attorney also works with the HIV casemanager at UMOS, a community-based organization serving the Latino community. Home and hospital visits are done routinely by the attorney with clients who are too sick to come to the office. Finally, ALERT also provides a monthly legal education program to the clients and staff at the Benedict Center, which is a program serving at risk women who attend programming in lieu of incarceration.
Contact Information:
Lisa Clay Foley Project Attorney Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee 229 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 200 Milwaukee, WI 53202 Phone: (414) 765-0600 Fax: (414) 291-5488 Email
LSC:
America's Partner for Equal Justice 