Legal Aid pays tribute to champion of DV survivors
STATEMENT (St. Cloud, Minn.) — Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid joins the St. Cloud community in mourning the death and celebrating the life of Maxine Barnett, founder and longtime executive director of the Central Minnesota Task for on Battered Women, today known as Anna Marie’s Alliance.
Under Barnett’s leadership, Anna Marie’s Alliance led strategies, nationwide, to support survivors of domestic violence. Notable was the organization’s enduring partnership with Legal Aid. It was St. Cloud Legal Aid attorneys who first collaborated with Barnett’s team — to draft Articles of Incorporation for the Central Minnesota Task Force on Battered Women — helping to achieve its nonprofit status.
In turn, Barnett trained Legal Aid attorneys on trauma and the impact of trauma on survivors of domestic abuse and their children. These lessons remain evident today in both the approach to casework and the client-centered focus pursued by Legal Aid staff.
Former Deputy Director Ann Cofell recalls, “Maxine invited Legal Aid attorneys to come to the shelter to meet with clients, reducing roadblocks to needed services. This remarkable woman’s legacy lives on in all of those she touched with her remarkable spirit, and indeed in the entire community, positively changed by her dedicated service.”
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Media contact:
Lisa Ramirez | Lramirez@mylegalaid.org
Communications Director
Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid
612.746.3641