It took five years to create and fund the first known partnership in the United States between a legal aid law firm and a drug/alcohol addiction treatment center. The partnership has begun in Portsmouth.

Ohio State Legal Services Association (also known locally as SEOLS or Southeastern Ohio Legal Services) and The Counseling Center (TCC) initiated a partnership in December, with the help of a grant from the Ohio State Bar Foundation (OSBF). Mark J. Cardosi, Managing Attorney of SEOLS in Portsmouth, said enhancing the likelihood of long-term addiction recovery is the goal driving the collaboration between the legal aid law office and the treatment center.

The new project places a SEOLS lawyer inside TCC offices in Portsmouth and West Union. Although the legal assistance to TCC clients will not be different from that generally available from SEOLS, the partnership focus is on the civil legal problems most often impacting those people in drug/alcohol addiction treatment. Those legal problems are more often associated with employment barriers, access to subsidized housing, and costs related to past criminal court actions.

Read more at the Portsmouth Daily Times