Published: July 24, 2009 05:18 pm      

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller launches a community outreach program

Volunteers will help ‘underserved’ Hoosiers, Zoeller says

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller was in Clarksville on Friday to announce the launching of a statewide community outreach program.

“When I was elected last year, one of my highest priorities has been to develop an outreach system, so that the services and programs in the office of the Attorney General can be brought to people on a community level,” Zoeller said.

The goal of the Volunteers in Service to America — or VISTA — program is to build lines of communication to different areas of the state.

“[It’s] so that we can reach people who are currently harder to reach; people who need the information the most because they tend to be those that are targeted by the bad actors, by the scammers, by people trying to take advantage of folks in down economic conditions,” said Abigail Kuzma, chief counsel and director of the consumer protection division.

The Attorney General’s office defined the underserved people of the state — about one-third of Indiana’s population — as elderly, mentally and physically disabled, low-income and new immigrant populations.

The focus areas for services are foreclosure prevention, consumer protection, identity theft protection, do-not-call services, and fighting Medicaid fraud and patient abuse and neglect.

In time, “Other things that are part of the role of the attorney general, I hope to bring to the community-based organizations and the people that they serve,” Zoeller said.

One area of focus, home foreclosures, is being aggressively pursued with the help of the local organizations and pro-bono attorneys.

The need for foreclose protection is high in the state, despite a recent homes sales study that has shown improvement in the market.

“It’s an uptick but it’s hardly a recovery,” said Zoeller, a Southern Indiana native. “Maybe we’ve hit the bottom in some of the problems, [but] it’s only good news if you look at how bad the news has been over the last year.”

The statistics in Indiana have shown a high rate of default.

“The numbers [of foreclosures] have shot up remarkably,” he said. “We are 13th in the nation in terms of rate of foreclosure per capita, and it’s really an alarming number.”

But it’s not all bad news. People that know they may face foreclosure can look to some of the programs being offered through the Attorney General’s office to try and keep their homes.

The economy and the VISTA program has helped some “in-need” residents negotiate with home lenders — who may be more willing to work with defaulters if it can try to recover some of the bad loan.

The foreclosure-prevention network is one of the reasons the state was able to receive the federal grant, Zoeller said.

Thirteen volunteers will work in 14 regions of the state — one volunteer will be responsible for two of the state’s regions — to link Zoeller’s office to each local area.

Within each region, the volunteers will work to establish a connection from the Attorney General’s office to local nonprofits, TRIAD groups, church and community organizations and pro-bono commissions.

Clark County is part of a region that includes Crawford, Floyd, Harrison, Orange, Scott and Washington counties.

Most of the VISTA members that have volunteered for the program are recent college graduates. Each person will receive a moderate living allowance, will serve in the program for one year and may also receive an educational or cash stipend of $4,725 or $1,200, respectively, upon the completion of satisfactory service.

The money for VISTA is being provided through a federal stimulus grant, but it is not a new program.

“VISTA is a program that has been around since 1965, and the concept is that they’re volunteering to serve Americans,” Kuzma said. “It’s kind of like Peace Corps in America.”