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CLEVELAND - The wheels on the bus are bringing free legal help to Columbiana County, just one of 30 stops planned on the 2023 Legal Bus Tour, sponsored by OhioKAN. The tour will be in Columbiana from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 28 at the OhioKAN Columbiana County Clinic at the Columbiana Public Library, 332 N. Middle St. Those seeking services should bring any documents relevant to their legal concern. Information about the event is available at ohiojusticebus@gmail.com.
OhioKAN is a flexible and responsive kinship and adoption navigator program designed to assist children, caregivers and families statewide. After a successful tour across the state last summer, the program is sponsoring the Ohio Justice Bus and the JusticeMobile legal buses.
"A kinship caregiver is any relative or other willing person who acts as the primary caregiver for a child, when the child's parent cannot for some reason. Callers to OhioKAN describe challenges of how bringing new children into their home can have expected and unexpected legal consequences. What we have learned from legal professionals is that a good number of these situations can be remedied with brief legal advice, or even a little bit of help filling out paperwork," explained Jo Ellen Simonsen, regional director at OhioKAN.
At each location, attorneys will assist caregivers with advice about civil legal concerns that might arise from kinship or adoption. Last year visitors to the buses brought questions on matters of custody and guardianship, safety, public benefits, changes in wills or estate planning, support with legal forms, and many other shifting circumstances that occur when relatives and others step forward and provide a home to a child.
Anyone in the community may attend and request legal advice, not just kinship families. Both OhioKAN and legal bus services are provided at no cost to the individual, with funding support provided by Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS).
Partners of the legal bus tour include OhioKAN, the JusticeMobile, the Ohio Justice Bus from the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation, and thirty community-based host sites which include social service providers, educational organizations, libraries, food banks and community events.
OhioKAN Navigators work throughout ten OhioKAN Regions, combining local knowledge with statewide resources to link caregivers to helpful resources, including daily living needs, financial benefits they may be entitled to, or caregiver and child support services. Learn more at https://OhioKAN.jfs.ohio.gov or by calling 1-844-OHIO-K-A-N.
For information on the Ohio Justice Bus or the JusticeMobile, visit their websites: www.ohiojusticebus.org and www.justicemobile.org.