Guest Blog: Caterpillar’s Commitment to Renewal House and its Residents

We at The PBEye are inspired every day by the Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® signatories. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the launch of the CPBO Challenge® initiative, we are showcasing some of their projects with the hope that they inspire you, too.

From its inception in 2006, the Caterpillar Inc.** Pro Bono Program in Nashville has covered a spectrum of legal matters from researching social security laws in the U.S. to inheritance rights in Kenya; from assisting young immigrants with their deferred action immigration paperwork to helping the elderly and indigent through our simple wills and powers of attorney clinics.

Our longest standing partnership has been with Renewal House, a local nonprofit that provides residential and non-residential treatment programs to women with drug and alcohol addictions. In the residential program, if the mother has custody, her young children may reside with her as she goes through the recovery programs. Over the last 10 years, we have provided a wide variety of legal services to Renewal House and its residents.

As a group, we’ve conducted many simple wills and powers of attorney clinics. In small teams or individually, we’ve been involved in divorce/custody/name change/visitation/child support matters, subpoena matters, worked on their document retention policy, an employee manual as well as a grantcaterpillar application. In addition to conducting document and contract reviews, we have amended their bylaws.

Our pro bono efforts have had a profound impact on Renewal House in that by providing assistance to the struggling mothers we have given them stepping stones to rebuild confidence in their future and to the organization itself, by providing a multitude of free legal services to the nonprofit. In return, Renewal House has given us a sense of accomplishment as we feel that in some small way, we’ve helped make a difference in the lives of the women.

Yvonne Clemence is a paralegal in Caterpillar Inc.’s Legal Services Division and the coordinator of its Nashville Pro Bono Program.  Michael G. Sposato is a Deputy General Counsel in Caterpillar Inc.’s Legal Services Division and its Pro Bono Committee Chair.

** denotes a Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® signatory

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