Legal Legacy Fund

My abuser always told me no one would believe me, and no one would help me if I left him. It is hard to describe how I felt with an ODVN attorney by my side in court to face him. These services helped me rebuild a safer life for me and my children.

ODVN set up the Legal Legacy Fund to honor, Nancy Grigsby, when she retired in 2021 after 41 years of service to end domestic violence.

“The first day I stepped into a battered women’s shelter, my life began on a path that transformed my understanding of the world and myself,” said Nancy. That path led her to be one of the co-founders of Artemis Center in Dayton and to lead the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence prior to joining ODVN in 2009.

Nancy founded our legal program to ensure that survivors have someone standing with them to provide legal representation. With a network of contract attorneys, the legal program helps an average of 800 survivors per year with protective orders, divorce, custody issues, and more. Through thousands of cases over the years, the access to legal services has given hope to survivors when they thought hope was lost.

Throughout her career, Nancy took the lead to answer the challenging needs of survivors. She led strategies to provide legal assistance to ALL survivors—people of color, LGBTQ, deaf or hard of hearing, and those incarcerated or re-entering society. She founded ODVN’s Clemency and Parole Project to give hope to survivors convicted of homicides related to their victimization.

In honor of Nancy’s tireless leadership, ODVN has launched this Legal Legacy Fund to ensure legal assistance is available to survivors in the future. We thank you for your help to sustain this work for the future.