On the 4-year mark of her leadership, Florida Rural Legal Services' Executive Director and Chief Exectuive Officer Jaffe Pickett released this heartfelt message:
As I reflect on the improvements FRLS has made in the last four years, I am both extremely proud of the myriad of improvements and progress while also being motivated to carve out an even larger space for service expansion and strategic partnership opportunities as we continue our celebration of 55 years of service, as one of the longest serving legal services programs in the state.
FRLS has changed our service model, expanding local offices to Regional offices to best represent the expanded services each of our offices provides. We have also opened FRLS’ fifth regional office in Belle Glade in 2022 with continued plans for growth in this rural area, facing some of the highest poverty challenges.
We are grateful for the increased funding totaling more than approximately $5.5 million dollars which will translate into expanded services, made possible through our generous justice partners including the Legal Services Corporation, The Internal Revenue Service and our largest in state funder, the Florida Bar Foundation. After being recognized locally and nationally for our disaster response services following the devastation hurricane Ian caused within Florida, 90% of which impacted FRLS’ service areas, we are excited about the great opportunities to continue to build on these advancements and opportunities.
We have added critical positions to complement our growth including a Chief Financial Officer, Chief Human Resources Director, Chief Development Director, Marketing and Communications Director and Director of Community Outreach and Community Lawyering. We have also improved our pro bono services model in administration and each Regional office adding Attorney coordinators to work with our valuable pro bono partners who expand our reach of justice.
We are grateful to our dedicated Board of Directors who have assisted in making all of FRLS’ program progress and improvements possible, to our dedicated Regional Managers, advocates and support staff who are boots on the ground, our hotline staff, who serve as our frontline, and to all of our funders and partners who believe in our program mission and vision! I will work to ensure FRLS continued growth, improvement and success and we look forward to the same exponential growth, support and excellent partnerships in the coming years as we have been fortunate to realize in the past four years!