Iowa legal aid - elder justice innovation grant FY2025 - the iowa legal aid (ILA) elder justice innovation project goals are to identify potential cases of elder financial abuse and to provide…

Iowa Legal Aid received a $299,617 Cooperative Agreement from the Administration on Aging under CFDA 93.048 (Special Programs for the Aging, Title IV, and Title II, Discretionary Projects), awarded September 30, 2025, with a completion date of September 29, 2028. The organization will develop and implement an enhanced screening tool in collaboration with Iowa's six area agencies on aging to identify potential cases of elder financial abuse among older Iowans seeking legal assistance. When financial abuse is suspected, beneficiaries will receive comprehensive support including legal representation and case management services from a dedicated team of legal professionals.

The project encompasses significant educational and dissemination components designed to advance the field's understanding of elder financial abuse. Iowa Legal Aid will conduct awareness-raising presentations and training for older Iowans, private practice attorneys, and area agency on aging staff. The organization will also collect data on program efficacy and individual client outcomes to produce a white paper documenting lessons learned and replicable steps, which will be shared with the Legal Services Corporation, legal publications, and aging-focused conferences. This initiative leverages Iowa Legal Aid's established expertise, including its specialized legal hotline for older adults established in 1989 that currently serves approximately 3,000 older Iowans annually.

Iowa legal aid - elder justice innovation grant FY2025 - the iowa legal aid (ILA) elder justice innovation project goals are to identify potential cases of elder financial abuse and to provide supporting services to mitigate the risk of future harm. ILA will work with the six area agencies on aging in iowa to create an enhanced screening tool for older iowans to identify potential elder financial abuse. This tool will be used by ILA for older iowans who contact US for legal help. When financial abuse is suspected, the older iowan will have a team of legal professionals to address their issues and provide case management services. The project will also focus on education efforts to raise awareness of elder financial abuse through presentations to older iowans, attorneys in private practice, and through training of area agency on aging staff. Throughout the project, ILA will collect data on the efficacy of our approach as well as stories of individual impact. We will create a white paper of our work, lessons learned, and results, with steps that can be replicated by other organizations. Our staff will submit this report to legal services corporation, legal publications, and conferences around older adult issues. ILA is uniquely positioned for this work, having established iowa's only legal hotline for older adults in 1989. The hotline has its own staff of attorneys and paralegals who specialize in serving around 3,000 older iowans annually. A significant portion of cases involve consumer debt, housing issues, and other matters that may be indicative of elder financial abuse. This new screening tool will enable US to uncover potential abuse more readily and get to the root causes of financial instability. This statewide project will make a significant contribution to the broader understanding of issues around elder financial abuse.