Jacksonville Area Legal Aid's wonder woman needs rescuing

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid's wonderwoman needs rescuingSource URL: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-01-17/story/jacksonville-area-legal-aids-wonder-woman-needs-rescuing

By David Hunt

Subtle symbols of Kara Roberts’ struggle against the unemployment line are scatteredthroughout her office at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.

There’s the Pachira aquatica sitting on the edge of her desk. That’s horticulturist lingo for“money tree,” a good luck plant meant to bless its caretaker’s work with financial success.

Then there’s the Wonder Woman Pez dispenser, a trinket that grounds Roberts with thereminder that she may not be a superhero but her work is often just as important to therefugees she serves.

Pinned to her bulletin board are the words of Emma Lazarus, a stanza from a poem assynonymous with melting pot America as it has become a reason for Roberts to come towork every day:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free … ”

Roberts, 30, is a refugee rights lawyer at Legal Aid. She needs to raise $30,000 — andsoon — or else she’s out of a job.

A victim of a state budget cut, Roberts was supposed to be laid off as of Jan. 1 but so farLegal Aid Executive Director Michael Figgins said he’s keeping her on the payroll, at leastthrough February.

He’s crunched a few numbers to lessen the blow of what was initially a roughly $40,000deficit. However, he said the fledgling success of Roberts’ fundraising campaign, dubbedthe “Save Kara Project,” has made it tough to hand her a pink slip.

“I’m giving her every chance I can,” Figgins said. “I’m basically going through the couchlooking for nickels and dimes. She hasn’t given up. I can’t give up on her.”

Figgins said checks are starting to trickle in saying things like “for Kara” and “Save Kara”in the memo line.

Roberts is one of two attorneys in Legal Aid’s refugee wing. There also are two paralegalsand an assistant. The staff handles about 850 cases annually.

Jacksonville Area Legal Aid's wonder woman needs rescuing http://jacksonville.com/print/453297

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Roberts’ $60,000 position, including salary and benefits, is on the chopping block becauseshe was hired in May 2009 with a grant. A symptom of the economy, that grant dried upearlier than expected, Figgins said.

Living the American Dream

It’s hard not to make the work personal, she said. She tells her own melting pot story ofhow her father met her mother while fighting in Vietnam. The couple married after hereturned to the Southeast Asian nation as a civilian to escort her to the United States.

“This is the original American Dream,” she said. “We all were these people at some pointin the past. We all come from the same roots.”

That image of hardworking people extracting themselves from turbulent nations for achance at freedom and prosperity has become a large part of the selling point now thatRoberts is on the prowl for donations.

Raising the remaining $30,000 to cover the budget cut won’t be an easy task, Robertssaid. She made a joke about continuing to work for free — and becoming a client of LegalAid’s foreclosure unit — if she fails.

“Even if you get rid of me, you’re not getting rid of me,” Roberts said.

That attitude has her fans reaching for their checkbooks.

Mahmoud Khelah, a 40-year-old asylum-granted Palestinian obtained a green card in May2010 with Roberts’ help, said he’s donating money and trying to get his family to followsuit.

“This is where I want to be. This is where I will be. This is my country,” Khelah said.“People like Kara work well past their scheduled hours and they do a lot of good forpeople. I will do whatever I can to save her.”

To brand the effort, one of Roberts’ friends designed a winged “SK” insignia withinspiration from her favorite heroine, Wonder Woman. That logo decorates the “Save KaraProject” Facebook page she started, complete with client testimonials, in November.

Her fan base is slowly growing, with about 120 people linked to the Facebook page. Sheexpects that to grow, but says it isn’t just about her.

She’d like her project to foster a greater understanding of how Legal Aid helps people, anarrative that could build a steady funding stream and reduce the agency’s dependenceon public funding for its $5.4 million budget.

“She’s a very personable and talented young lady. She would have been successful in anyarea she went into. She just has a big heart,” said Robert Schupp, who taught businesslaw to Roberts several years ago at the University of North Florida.

After finishing at UNF, Roberts graduated from Florida Coastal School of Law before TheFlorida Bar admitted her in September 2008.

[email protected], (904) 359-4025


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Links:[1] http://jacksonville.com/sites/default/files/kara0117.jpg[2] http://jacksonville.com/sites/default/files/met_3SaveKara011211.jpg[3] http://jacksonville.com/sites/default/files/met_1SaveKara011211.jpg[4] http://www.jaxlegalaid.org[5] http://www.facebook.com/SaveKaraProject


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Jacksonville Area Legal Aid's wonder woman needs rescuing