Specifications include, but are not limited to: ELDERLY LEGAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM The Georgia Elderly Legal Assistance Program is funded under Title IIIB [42 U.S.C. Section 302(a)(2)]. As such, the funding of legal assistance by each Area Agency on Aging is mandatory, and services shall be accessible and available throughout each of the 12 planning and service areas in Georgia. Program Purpose The broad purposes of legal assistance services are to assist older individuals in: • Understanding theirrights; • Exercising choice • Benefiting from services, opportunities and entitlements, and maintaining rights promised and protected by law; • Providing access to the system of justice by offering advocacy, advice and representation to person 60 and older; Programs are to: • Serve particularly those who are the most socially or economically needy, low-income minorities and rural elders including long term care residents, personal care home residents, elders with chronic health problems, elders with particular problems of access to health care, homeless elders, institutionalized or de-institutionalized mentally ill or developmentally disabled, elders with language barriers, elders proposed for or under guardianship, victims of elder abuse, neglect or exploitation and physically isolated elders; • Address accessibility to the target population groups identified by the Area Agency on Aging and the legal assistance provider, as specified in the Title III B grant application of the provider. These services are to be available and accessible to the target population groups throughout the planning and service area; • Address outreach efforts through the use of specific techniques which will help to make potential clients aware of their services. The techniques will be tailored to the groups which have been targeted; • Address the provision of community legal education such as speeches, presentations, radio or television shows; • Foster cost-effective, high quality services, having maximum impact on the following priority areas – income, health care, long-term care, nutrition, housing and utilities, defense of guardianship, abuse/neglect/exploitation and age discrimination; • Be accessible through the planning and service area; • Develop and maximize the use of other resources to expand the provision of legal assistance to older people, including alternate dispute resolution where appropriate The successful Responder will describe in detail the plan for providing Elderly Legal Assistance to each county in the planning and service area. The plan will indicate any county for which intake, legal advice, representation, community education and or information and referral cannot or will not be provided by Title III B legal services paid staff. In addition, the plan will indicate specifically who will provide intake, legal advice, representation, community education and or information and referral.