Grateful for a Grant, Proud to Sponsor: Crossroads at the Bench Bar Conference
Hook: The Hillsborough County Bar Foundation awarded Crossroads a $20,000 Outreach Grant at the 29th Annual Bench Bar Conference, where we also served as Health & Wellness Sponsor. Here’s what their support means for the young people we serve.
Article: Crossroads For Florida Kids is grateful to the Hillsborough County Bar Foundation for awarding us a $20,000 Outreach Grant. The grant was presented at the Membership Luncheon during the Hillsborough County Bar Association’s 29th Annual Bench Bar Conference on October 22.
This grant supports the training and recruitment of the volunteer attorneys who represent our youth. Our free CLE trainings prepare attorneys for the realities of this work, from dependency and delinquency cases to trauma-informed advocacy, and they are how many of our volunteers first get involved. More trained volunteers means more young people with a team of advocates in their corner.
The Foundation has been a partner to Crossroads since 2015. That partnership has helped us connect volunteer attorneys with young people in Tampa Bay who need someone in their corner, whether in dependency, delinquency, or other legal proceedings.
Since 2012, more than 280 local volunteer lawyers have represented over 1,800 youth through Crossroads and contributed more than 56,000 pro bono hours. Support like the Foundation’s is a big part of how that work keeps growing.
Crossroads was also proud to serve as the conference’s Health & Wellness Sponsor, with our table right next to the Puppy Pit, where puppies from the Humane Society of Tampa Bay gave attendees a well-earned break. Not a bad place to spend the day. Thank you to Board President Lisa Kilbride and Executive Assistant Alicia Norton for staffing our table, and to the volunteers and new lawyers who stopped by. If we met there, we’d love to keep the conversation going.
To the Hillsborough County Bar Foundation and the Hillsborough County Bar Association: thank you for continuing to invest in this work and in the lawyers who make it possible.
If you’re an attorney interested in volunteering, we’d love to talk with you. Volunteer with Crossroads.
