Blossom Project

The “Blossom Project,” our title for the Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program, was designed to help victims of domestic violence sever the ties to their abusers. We assisted these victims by providing the full range of legal aid in all types of civil cases that these individuals (and their children) encountered in their lives. Although our formal grant funding has ended, we will continue to handle cases that were started under the grant until they are closed.

Cases handled as part of the Blossom Project included protection from abuse orders, separation and/or divorce, child custody, child support, housing law, bankruptcy, unemployment compensation, and other types of civil litigation and legal counseling.

Since the original DOJ grant was awarded to NWLS in December 2001, well over 1,000 victims of domestic violence and their families received the broad range of legal assistance in our region. We are extremely proud of our work to enable these victims, and their children, to stop the violence that threatened their lives, and to move beyond the cycle of domestic abuse that hindered their growth.

The success of the Blossom Project was due, in large part, to the partnership between NWLS and the domestic violence advocacy organizations in the six counties served by the DOJ grant. These centers included the Victim's Resource Center, Inc., (Venango and Crawford Counties); Women's Services, Inc., (Crawford County); AW/ARE Inc., (Mercer County); The Crisis Center, (Venango County); McKean County Victim's Resource Center, (McKean County); and A Safe Place (Warren and Forest Counties).