Photo credit from Pye Young: Young stands in front of a Bay Area Legal Services booth.
Managing Attorney for Bay Area Legal Services’ St. Petersburg location, Pye N. Young, advocates for individuals and families’ free clinical services support.
Bay Area Legal Services is a nonprofit legal services firm based in Hillsborough County, with over 190 employees serving a five-county service area: Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas, Manatee, and Sarasota. The organization, founded in 1967, has launched free-to-the-public advocacy programs throughout its almost 60-year legacy.
Young manages the St. Petersburg office. She supervises the office’s attorneys and paralegals staff, procures funding through grant writing, and builds relationships with community resources that both support the provision of legal services and the needs of their clients. Clientele are categorized as “asset-limited income-constrained” or moderate-to-low-income (fixed-income) individuals.
“In addition to legal services, they [clients] have a need for services from other community organizations,” stated Young. “Our job is to build relationships with those organizations so they can refer clients to us if they have legal needs, or that we can refer our clients to them if they have supported or wraparound needs.”
The St. Petersburg office holds the longest-running medical-legal partnership (MLP) in the area. An MLP is a collaboration between a legal service provider and a healthcare entity (e.g., a clinic or Veterans Affairs department) to provide legal services to clients. Since 2017, Young’s office has had a relationship with the Bay Pines VA Healthcare System; their partnership has expanded to the Manatee and Sarasota clinics, providing an on-site attorney.
“We did receive a generous grant from The Foundation for a Healthy St. Pete to re-establish our medical-legal partnership in the community,” said Young.
Recently, the organization received a half-million-dollar renewal grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs that allowed it to expand to the newest VA Clinic in Countryside, North Pinellas County. This legal walk-in clinic houses an attorney and a paralegal, ready to provide legal Q&A to clients; if they identify that more legal work is needed, they take on the individuals as official clients.
“The client doesn’t have to start from scratch every time they need legal services. The whole purpose of a partnership is to [assure] access to justice for the client and work with the partners to make sure the client’s needs are met,” said Young.
Alongside the MLP, services provided under this nonprofit law firm are free to the community. If clients are approved as income-eligible, they can receive legal assistance and, if necessary, legal representation at no cost. Young understands there’s apprehension about accessing or utilizing legal resources, but encourages individuals to take charge of their resources.
“Don’t just assume ‘I’m over income’ or ‘they’re not going to help me’. Maybe we have a referral source or resource that can help. If we can’t help because of income constraints or they don’t meet our qualifications, we refer as well,” Young said.
From initiatives such as veteran advocacy programs to self-help resources and disaster relief support, Bay Area Legal Services proudly serves its community with free civil legal services.
“The work that we do has an immediate impact. It is relevant, necessary, and it is there for those who need it the most. So I encourage those who need it the most to access it, use it, and share,” Young advocated.
Photo credit from Pye Young: Young showcases the Bay Area Legal Services booth.
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