For 2021-2022, JALBCA awarded a grant of $135,000 to The Family Center’s Legal Wellness Institute to support The Maite Aquino Program. The Maite Aquino Program provides accessible, holistic legal services for low income NYC families with minor children who are impacted by breast cancer. Most Program clients are mothers who are in treatment for breast cancer. The Program also provides vital legal services to help stabilize families coping with a breast cancer-related death.

Thanks to JALBCA and Sullivan & Cromwell, The Family Center’s Maite Aquino Program helps breast cancer-affected families obtain and maintain stability in their housing, income, family relationships, and more. Services provided through the Program are tailored to each client family and range from individualized advice and counsel so that clients can make informed decisions and plan for themselves and their children; to drafting and executing documents such as designations of standby guardian, powers of attorney, and health care proxies; to representation in court and in administrative hearings. Many Program clients receive legal assistance simultaneously on multiple legal issues.

In addition to the hardships that accompany any breast cancer diagnosis, Maite Aquino Program clients often face challenges on multiple fronts: legal, financial, family, mental health, and more. With minor children involved, these issues are all the more complex and urgent, so the Maite Aquino Program connects clients with needed social services and supports.

The Maite Aquino Program also creates, publishes, and distributes Breast Cancer Legal Resource Guides, which provides important and accessible legal information on topics relevant to those coping with breast cancer.

THE FAMILY CENTER’S BREAST CANCER LEGAL RESOURCE GUIDES:
Designation of Standby Guardian:
English: https://www.thefamilycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Breast-Cancer-Legal-Resource-Guide-SBG.pdf
Spanish: https://www.thefamilycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Breast-Cancer-Legal-Resource-Guide-SBG-SPANISH.pdf

Payable on Death Accounts
English: https://www.thefamilycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Breast-Cancer-POD-Handout.pdf
Spanish: https://www.thefamilycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/SPANISH-Breast-Cancer-POD-Handout.pdf