Like most people who become clients of Atlanta Legal Aid, Faly Bangoura had a lot to lose.
Her life. Her children. Her home.
In March 2021, the DeKalb County resident sought to leave her abusive husband while maintaining the family home for their four children. Her divorce complaint cites the family violence protective order she obtained and incidents of physical violence in which police were involved. Complicating matters was the fact that she had no legal custody of the two eldest children, who are not biologically hers.
Bangoura had raised her stepchildren, whose mother died, from infancy, alongside the children she had with her husband during their 10-year marriage. She said it was the children who gave her the courage to fight him in court for more than three years.
“Sometimes you become brave, not just for you but for others,” Bangoura said.
Atlanta Legal Aid attorneys Mara Block and Sarah Austin guided Bangoura through the process, notching almost 250 hours of work on the case. Block, who assessed Bangoura’s situation upon referral from the Women’s Resource Center to End Domestic Violence, said it involved some of the most horrific abuse she’d seen.
“She needed the protection of the courts and the (legal) system to achieve her goal of being able to stay with all four kids and to stay safe,” Block said. “The question about how do we legally pursue her rights to remain as a parent figure of the two older children was fairly new law and is a difficult burden to overcome.”
In June 2024, Bangoura won her battle. The judge had acknowledged in court orders the domestic violence she had experienced. She was granted a divorce, joint legal custody of all four children, primary physical custody of the three youngest children and child support. She said the eldest child, now 17, chose to primarily live with his father in Gwinnett County to avoid switching high schools in his final year. Bangoura was able to keep her DeKalb County home.
“They did a tremendous job,” Bangoura said of Block and Austin. “I could have lost my life in this process. They took that stress away.”
The resolution of Bangoura’s case coincided with Atlanta Legal Aid’s 100th anniversary. Since incorporating in June 1924 with the aim of helping World War I veterans, the nonprofit has grown in size and scope.
It now has more than 150 staff members, including 90 attorneys, and five main offices in Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Clayton counties. The organization also has offices in several Atlanta-area hospitals and consultation spaces in some courts. Each year, 700 volunteers help with more than 20,000 cases.
In a promotional video for the society’s 100th anniversary, Cobb County Chief Magistrate Judge Brendan Murphy spoke about making space available near his clerk’s office for Atlanta Legal Aid attorneys to assist the thousands of tenants facing eviction in the county each year. He said he couldn’t imagine a community without Atlanta Legal Aid.
“Somebody has to step up and speak for the lost, the last and the least,” Murphy said.
Each year the society’s employees assist thousands of low-income clients with a variety of legal issues involving domestic violence, child custody, eviction, unsafe housing, predatory lending and debt collection, access to medical care and more.
“A lawyer can make all the difference in the world,” Atlanta Legal Aid executive committee president Luke Lantta said during the society’s 100th anniversary celebration in September. “Access to justice and a lawyer can be the difference between stability and instability.”
The only agency with a solution
Cumming resident Laraleigh Windom said Atlanta Legal Aid was the only organization in Georgia able to get her son the care he needs to live a fulfilling life. She said her family was in a crisis until society attorney Susan Walker Goico stepped in.
Windom’s 18-year-old son, Luceas Forester, has Phelan-McDermid syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects his intellectual, behavioral and physical function. Windom said her son’s condition became unmanageable when he went through puberty, as he developed destructive and aggressive tendencies.
“Prior to that, he was in therapy. He went to school. He was the happiest kid. He was pretty functional,” she said. “He lost everything between his 13th and 15th birthday. His vocabulary went from 300-plus words to grunts. He was no longer potty trained. He couldn’t chew or swallow. He had to have a feeding tube put in. Sometimes he couldn’t even walk well.”
Windom said she had to build a barrier around her home office so she could monitor Forester without him hurting her as she worked. She said she also had to separate him from his younger siblings.
Simple tasks, such as taking the children to school or out for a meal, were unimaginable. It was not safe to drive with Forester in the car or to leave him at home.
Windom said she contacted every agency she could think of, including Georgia’s Department of Community Health, Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities and the Division of Family and Children Services. She said she called the Georgia Crisis and Access Line until staff put it in writing that they couldn’t help.
“Every agency involved put their hands up and said ‘Oh, that’s not for us to do,’” Windom said. “Only after I made contact with Susan did anything that I had said prior to all of the agencies start to have weight behind it.”
Forester stayed at a psychiatric residential treatment facility in Tennessee for 18 months while Goico, who heads Atlanta Legal Aid’s disability integration project, worked to get him adequate at-home care through Medicaid.
“It’s very difficult for families to navigate that process on their own,” said Goico, whose involvement in the case began in the summer of 2021. “There’s just not a road map for families.”
Credit: Courtesy Laraleigh Windom
Credit: Courtesy Laraleigh Windom
Since his return home in February 2023, Forester has flourished under the guidance of registered behavior technicians. He attends school twice a week and for about a year has held a part-time job at a local discount store, where he stocks shelves.
“I feel like we’re allowed to live again,” Windom said.
Planning for the next 100 years
Rita Sheffey, Atlanta Legal Aid’s executive director, said she’s focused on ensuring the society continues to adapt to meet clients’ changing needs while supporting staff for the next century of service.
New initiatives include a project to better help military veterans and service members, a partnership with Grady Health System to improve the health of low-income families and a rental assistance program involving the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
Salary increases for society staff will begin in December, Sheffey announced at its 100th anniversary event. She said she’s also planning ways to support employees’ well-being.
“We are dealing with clients day in and day out who are in traumatic situations,” Sheffey said. The risk of burnout and secondary trauma is high.”
Block, who joined Atlanta Legal Aid from private practice in 2017, said it is hugely satisfying to seek justice for those who can’t get it on their own. She said a large part of the society’s work is educating people about their legal rights and how to protect them.
“Even when you lose, it still feels really meaningful to be standing next to someone who needs the support,” she said. “For people to know that there’s somebody to stand next to them in a very intimidating environment like a courtroom is really meaningful.”
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