Welcome

The Law Foundation of Berks County ("Foundation") is a non-profit corporation designed to raise and provide funds to support charitable, law-related projects, programs and services in Berks County.

PROJECTS FUNDED BY THE LAW FOUNDATION OF BERKS COUNTY

Bridge Fund

In collaboration with the Berks County Community Foundation, which administers the Fund, the Law Foundation provides funding for one-half of the Bridge Fund. The concept of the Bridge Fund is that “a little can go a long way to keep a kid out of the legal system.” Grants from the Bridge Fund are recommended by social workers or agents of the court system and are approved by a judge on a case-by-case basis. The fund is not meant to provide continual support, but rather to bridge a gap in service and keep a child out of the legal system.

For example, a single father was worried about losing his three-, four- and six-year-old daughters to foster care. Each night, he dropped the girls off at the Second Street Learning Center while he worked full-time on the graveyard shift. While he could pay for their overnight care, he could not afford the extra payments that would allow the girls to stay at the center until noon so he could sleep. After application by his social worker, a $300.00 grant was awarded that provided five weeks of childcare and allowed the girls to stay together with their father. The Bridge Fund has also helped several families stay together during the winter months after they exhausted all other funding and programs for free or low-cost heating oil. In most cases, the families were again eligible for free oil after a waiting period. The Bridge Fund provided oil during the waiting period, allowing the children to remain in their parents’ care because their homes had heat.

The Friends of the Drug Treatment Court Fund

Also in collaboration with the Community Foundation, the Law Foundation provides financial assistance for participants of the Berks County Drug and Mental Health Treatment Court. This is a new program which is just getting up and running and will work similar to the Bridge Fund by assisting those in need with such things as paying for required weekly drug testing.

Court Appointed Special Advocates

The Court Appointed Special Advocate Program (CASA) is actually an initiative of United Way of Berks County but receives funding from the Law Foundation of Berks County. Its mission is to provide advocacy to children who are in the custody of the court system as a result of abuse and/or neglect. The CASA Program works to find a safe and permanent placement for all children involved in the program.

Specially trained CASA volunteers are appointed by a judge to represent the best interests of a child in court. Volunteers work closely with the child and his/her family members, caseworkers, teachers, health officials and others who are knowledgeable about the child’s history. Volunteers study each case and make recommendations to the court to help the child be placed in a safe and permanent home as quickly as possible.

Currently, 14 CASA volunteers, who are not lawyers, are serving as the voice in court for local children who have been abused or neglected.

Book ‘Em

On an annual basis, the Law Foundation has been funding the purchase of a new book for each kindergarten student in the Reading School District. Before the selected book is given to each child, a lawyer or other member of the community reads it to the class. The project helps the young students to develop their reading skills and assists them in starting their own library.

Publications

The Young Lawyers’ Section of the Berks County Bar Association has written a publication known as “Stepping Out.” It is distributed to graduating seniors in schools that participate in the program, which is designed to alert them to issues they face in life after school, such as concerns with landlord-tenant, credit, purchase of a car, etc. The cost of the booklet’s publication is underwritten by the Law Foundation.

In addition, the Senior Citizens Booklet Committee of the Berks County Bar Association has written a publication known as “Older and Wiser.” It is designed to answer legal questions concerning the rights of senior citizens. The cost of its publication is also underwritten by the Law Foundation.

Scholarship Awarded

In September 2010, at Alvernia University's special dinner for criminal justice majors and minors, Law Foundation President Terry D. Weiler presented a $2,000 scholarship to Ryan Hermany, who is a junior majoring in criminal justice. Ryan is a graduate of Fleetwood High School and currently has a 3.922 GPA in Alvernia's honors program. He hopes to attend law school and ultimately become a FBI special agent. Annually, in partnership with Alvernia University, the Law Foundation of Berks County awards a scholarship to an outstanding rising junior in the criminal justice program who graduated from a Berks County high school and who intends to pursue a career in criminal justice, the legal profession or other related field.

Message from the President

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

    It gives me great pleasure and pride to make the first official communication to you after the “reveal” of the name and logo change of the Berks County Bar Foundation to the Law Foundation of Berks County. Our new logo, as shown above, will provide a dynamic and compelling change from our prior somewhat subdued existence.

    Name change or not, our goals remain the same, mainly to give back to our community with our time, talents, and money in accord with our mission statement. The new logo and name is the product of many meetings on the part of the Bar Foundation Trustees and outside consultants. Hopefully, the change will generate new interest among our Bar members and the community in general and add visibility and credibility to our Foundation.

    New projects and renewed interest levels require increased giving and participation to provide greater exposure and recognition for the Foundation. To all of you who have given generously of your time, talents, and money throughout the years I say thank you and please know we are extremely grateful. To those who have not yet contributed to the Foundation in any fashion, I urge you to do so, as the time has never been more right. Many of our social institutions and court related programs are grossly underfunded or have been eliminated during these difficult economic times. The need for our service and our support has never been in greater demand, and I urge all of you to respond to this call.

Voltaire is noted to have said, “All men are guilty of the good they didn’t do.” Those of us who practice law in Berks County are blessed and fortunate to be part of a profession whose major mission is service to clients and the community. This is a call to arms for such service.

    The Foundation continues to demonstrate its commitment to community involvement to serve a diverse, broad-based portion of Berks County with programs to positively affect all age groups and interest groups. Our programs include Book ‘Em, a hands-on reading session where lawyers and our friends read to elementary school children and give each student a copy of that book; to Stepping Out, a program for older high school students to teach them the basics of the legal system and our democratic governing process; to Older and Wiser, a publication which enlightens senior citizens as to benefits available to them and legal processes which may work in their favor as they grow older. In addition, we traditionally support the CASA, Bridge Fund, and Children’s Alliance with generous donations which allow them to be more effective in the wonderful work which they do. Finally, we will be increasing our scholarship to a Criminal Justice student at Alvernia College expanding the same from a one year grant of $2,000 to a two year grant totally $4,000.

    None of this would be possible without your generous contributions as well as your support of our major annual fundraising event, the December Holiday Benefit Luncheon which typically features a well known sports figure. You have rallied to the call of that Luncheon and have increased your participation and consequently our fundraising each year, and I am very proud to report, that the 2010 Luncheon set a record. None of this would have been possible without the incredible support of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), its staff, and the hard-working members of the Berks County Chapter.

    With an emphasis on children and young adults, we strive to put your name as members of the Berks County Bar Association in the forefront of the community by exemplifying the high standards and call to service which our profession requires.

    Please participate with us in any manner in which you are able and know your Law Foundation of Berks County is hard at work to serve your community.

Terry D. Weiler, Esquire
   President