Maria Padilla is a Case Coordinator and Court Support at Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse, and an Arizona Certified Community Legal Advocate. She has worked at Emerge! for 13 years. She has had the privilege of working at the crisis hotline, shelter program, and community-based programs. She has worked with participants providing safety planning, goal planning, crisis counseling, case management support, providing domestic violence education, and life skills education. In 2017 she transitioned to the lay legal team at the Community Based Office working with participants who were referred via the lethality screening tool, APRAIS.
She gained a wealth of knowledge in working with the lay legal team around Orders of Protection, safety planning, navigating the legal system, and providing emotional support as participants navigated these systems. In 2021, she received the opportunity to be a part of the Domestic Violence Legal Advocate (DVLA) program through Innovation for Justice (I4J) and she has provided DVLA support to participants ever since. She is honored to be a part of this program.
