Our anonymous donor and all of the contributors to the SAFE Fund have done nothing less than re-make the future of our work. 

As the Community Assistance Manager, it is my hope that AVLF continues to be that safe space where people feel comfortable saying “I need help.”

It has been the greatest honor of my life to advocate for the people of Vine City, English Avenue, Ashview Heights, and AUC. I often tell people that it was in these neighborhoods that I found the soul of Atlanta.

One AVLF staff attorney, who wishes to remain anonymous, tells us how her mother fought against the odds for better opportunities.

Board Member Elizabeth Finn Johnson always wanted to work for the ACLU. But after finding herself in a corporate job, AVLF reignited her passion for pro bono service. 

“If AVLF had been around in the city that I lived as a child, my mother would have been a client.”

Community Advocate Christal Reynolds’s parents would often take in strangers who needed a warm place to sleep and a hand up. Decades later, the example her parents set guides her work in Thomasville Heights. 

My mom explained that Jennifer had a habit in the following years of calling her when she got scared.
When Jennifer called that day and I answered, it had been nearly 20 years since she and my mother had first met. Over these years, Jennifer kept my mom’s home phone number and knew that she could call it when she was frightened or needed an answer.

I have an over-developed sense of justice. Fun fact: a therapist once told me, as I sat with folded arms and stony face, that I am not the sheriff of the world and that I should put my badge down. Whatever, dude. AVLF is my badge.

As my husband and I were packing for North Carolina, he asked me if I was going to miss being one of the cool kids. When I looked at him for clarification, he simply said, “AVLF.” My time at AVLF has been one of the most incredible opportunities of my life, and, while I am excited for the future, I recognize that I likely will never work in such a supportive, positive, and enthusiastic environment again. My coworkers’ passion for their work is genuine and contagious. They are also just fun people. I honestly liked staff meetings.