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MAIN APPLICATION Legal Information: • Legal Information Services: 15- minute telephone consultation with a volunteer attorney to discuss issues such as divorce, child custody, consumer law, and tenants' rights. Clients are informed about what they are able to do legally on their own vs. what must be done with attorney representation in order to achieve cost savings. • Community Legal Project: University of North Carolina law students provide 30- minute in- person appointments to discuss clients' legal questions. After the initial appointment, the law student then researches the issue, composes a memo with relevant information, consults with an attorney on their information to ensure accuracy, and meets with the client for a follow -up consultation. • Our publication Family Law in North Carolina is a guide with up -to -date information on legal issues like separation, divorce, child custody, child support, and property settlement written by local attorneys in an easy to use question and answer format using lay language. • Attorney Referral Notebook: local attorney listing with information on areas of specialty and fees. Financial Literacy Education: individual financial counseling (90 min. sessions, client determines number of sessions desired), financial education workshops and free tax preparation through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program. Career Exploration and Preparedness: individual career advising (60 min. sessions, client determines number of sessions desired), career development workshops, and information about job openings. c) Describe the local need or problem to be addressed in relation to the Consolidated Plan or other community priorities (i.e. Council /Board Goals). Cite local data to support the need for this program and the population being served. Legal Information: There is significant unmet legal need in our community primarily because of the cost of representation. In North Carolina, there is only one Legal Aid attorney for every 13,170 low - income people while there is one private attorney for every 562 people in North Carolina; an estimated 80% of the civil legal needs of low- income families go unmet every year (NC Equal Access to Justice Commission). These legal needs may be related to "domestic violence, divorce, child custody, housing, consumer protection, employment, (and) health ", which are all areas that have a major impact on peoples' lives and in which legal expertise is crucial (NC Equal Access to Justice Commission). Financial Literacy Education: In Orange County between 2009 and 2013, 17.8% of the population was living below the poverty line. Female- headed households with children under 18 had the highest poverty rate in Orange County at 35.6 %, compared with 7.9% for married- couple households with children under 18 (US. Census Bureau QuickFacts American Community Survey). Also contributing to poverty among women is the reality of gender pay disparities that continues to be a problem in the United States. In 2010 North Carolina women earned just 82.5% of their male counterparts, and the wage gap is significantly larger for women of color. ( "The Status of Women in North Carolina," Institute for Women's Policy Research). Nationally, women are also less likely to have health insurance and retirement plans (2015 White House Council of Economic Advisers Report). Because of these factors, women need to save more than their male counterparts throughout their lives. However, the federal government's Women in America report found that two out of three women say that they have little or no knowledge of financial products and services. Career Exploration and Preparedness: Women are more likely to work in industries and positions that are lower- paying than men (2015 White House Council of Economic Advisers report). In addition, women tend to hold a disproportionately high percentage of minimum -wage jobs, and North Carolina has a higher than average percentage of its workforce that are minimum -wage workers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, North Carolina had 2.3 million workers who Main Application 1/24/2016 2:59:42 PM Page 21 of 58