“Northwestern Legal Services exists to serve the community
in assessing and responding to clients’ legal needs through
their empowerment and attainment of justice.”
These words in our mission statement signify our pledge to
low-income individuals and families in northwestern
Pennsylvania that we will work to secure justice in civil
legal cases on their behalf. For over thirty-five years,
Northwestern Legal Services has worked diligently to become
a community institution recognized as a regional asset by
our clients, the bar, public and governmental agencies, and
the communities we call home.A mission statement,
however, does not tell the whole story about the work we do
for the clients we serve. Our purpose is to make a
difference in the lives of people by providing them with a
broad range of civil legal aid that includes direct
representation and counsel, community legal education and
outreach, and tools that people can use to seek justice on
their own. In the process, we try to bring traditional legal
methods together with emerging technologies such as the
Internet to help low-income clients better their lives, and
the lives of their families and loved ones.
This annual report tries to capture the significance of
what we do in charts, graphs and other forms of data, but
the true measure of our efforts is contained in the stories
of the people who came to us for help because they had
nowhere else to turn. It is here where the significance of
our mission becomes real.
The information contained in the NWLS 2004 Annual Report
is divided into sections that highlight important aspects of
our organization. After each section we have provided a
story that we think helps illustrate the importance of legal
aid in the lives of people who struggle with poverty.
It is here that our mission begins.
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