“This grant gives us the opportunity to reach families before they face a crisis and help them
safeguard what matters most—their land, their legacy, and their future,” said Anne Caywood,
Executive Director of Lowcountry Legal Volunteers. “By investing in prevention, we’re giving
communities real tools to protect generational wealth and ensure these stories and traditions
can be passed down with confidence.”

The group will host estate planning clinics, one-on-one consultations, and community outreach events focused on legal education and prevention through September 2026.

LCLV plans to provide 225 wills in the eight-month period.

For those with more complex property needs, like deeds and trusts, LCLV will partner with local attorneys who will provide services at low or no cost to residents.

“We’re building a future where families can pass down land, stories, and opportunity without
legal uncertainty,” Caywood said. “This grant is a critical step toward that future.”

The grant targets specific groups, like Gullah-Geechee community members, who are often the victims of heir’s property issues.

Luana Graves Sellars, the founder of the Lowcountry Gullah Foundation, said a will helps to ensure those impacted groups and family members have extra security over their property that often dates back centuries.

“The Gullah people have had historic land that has been in the family and in some cases, they don’t know that it’s heirs’ property or what they can do,” said Sellars. “So, being able to help families so that they can hold on to the land despite gentrification and development and all of the things that are coming out from under them taxes, delinquent taxes, all of those things are detrimental to Gullah families, and the land is the culture’s biggest asset.”

LCLV has an office in Okatie, located inside the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office as part of the Victims Services Center, and one in Beaufort, located within the Lowcountry Outreach Center.