Here at LASCO, we are so focused on providing critical legal assistance to people in need that we sometimes forget the importance of sharing what we learn along the way.
Through our work, we see firsthand the challenges facing low-income Ohioans and how legal problems can make already difficult situations even harder. We also learn a great deal from our community partners and others working to address these same challenges.
To do a better job of sharing that information, we are adding Did You Know?, a new occasional feature in the Pursuing Justice Newsletter.
Over the last few weeks, I have visited our offices in Chillicothe, Newark, and Portsmouth and spent time with our teams here in Columbus. Every time I visit an office, sit through a case acceptance meeting, or talk with a community partner, I learn something new. My hope is that this new feature will give us the opportunity to share that information with you, along with data and trends that help us better understand the communities across our service area.
For example, between June and September of this year, requests for help with landlord-tenant issues increased by nearly 58%. That's a significant change in just a few months—one that helps to inform us how we think about the needs of our communities and where we focus our resources. Below, you’ll see more numbers that provide insight into our housing work and how it impacts communities across our service area.
In the coming months, we'll also be sharing findings from our recent Community Needs Assessment and other information we're gathering through our work and partnerships. I hope you'll find some of it as interesting as I do and that it gives you a better sense of both the challenges facing our neighbors and the work we're doing to address them.
We also hope that by sharing additional insights about our clients and communities, you will better understand the important role volunteers and donors play in helping us close the justice gap. We could not do this work without your support.
Numbers aren’t everything. Many of the most compelling stories about our work can’t be measured by a dollar amount, a number of cases closed, or how many volunteers engaged. But they help us remember how all those individual stories fit into the bigger picture of providing critical legal assistance to those who need it most.
