Partnership made in heaven

Over the past five years, the IFC and Pisgah Legal Services have been forging a cooperative partnership to better serve Hispanic communities in Macon and Jackson Counties. In that time, our partners at Pisgah have made increasing access to legal services for the Hispanic community a top priority in their larger mission to provide free or low-cost legal aid to the underserved of Western North Carolina. 

We teamed up again this month to kickoff 2026 on proactive note, hosting a tax preparation clinic at our Highlands Food Pantry and two power of attorney clinics at our Cashiers offices. Both of these services provided by Pisgah have been crucial to the communities we serve, especially in light of the changing policy landscape around immigration and visa permitting this past year. As the year goes on, we expect to host these and other collaborative events with Pisgah to help our communities navigate the ongoing instability around these issues.

Our relationship with Pisgah has been further strengthened by some shared personnel - IFC board member Susan Yow now serves as a pro bono attorney on the Pisgah team and Pisgah's regional development officer Leslie Manning joined our board late 2025. This level of cooperation and partnership only improves how well our two nonprofits can serve the local community.