passage: Historically , LSEO letter - writing campaigns generated from $ 11,000 to $ 25,000 annually , recalls Dallas Ferguson , a Tulsa attorney and board president of the new LASO .
  That amount hardly offset enormous cuts , beginning in 1996 , by Congress to Legal Services Corp. , the chief funding source for state legal - aid agencies .
  Threatened with extinction , LSEO clawed its way back with the help of state funding , grant money and the Tulsa Area United Way .
  Meanwhile , the clients keep coming .
  At least three - quarters are women and children living in poverty .
  The agency helps more than 12,000 children a year .
  A third of LSEO 's clients are the working poor who receive no government benefits .
  Many are senior citizens .
  Riggs regrets that retired Tulsa attorney John Athens , a champion of legal aid , did not live to see how much the money has meant .
  Athens died last year .
  In his honor , The Oxley Foundation donated $ 200,000 to expand a client hot line .
  That service , which will be expanded statewide , enables needy people to consult an attorney about civil legal problems , including rent and contract disputes , domestic abuse , consumer issues and custody matters .
  Attorneys handle no criminal cases .
  R.H. Harbaugh , foundation trustee and a colleague of Athens at the Conner & Winters law firm , said his mentor had " a special interest in people who could not afford legal services .
  He was aware of the hot line and supported its expansion . "
  Said Riggs : " We use lofty phrases such as ' with justice for all , ' when we talk about our legal system .
  That phrase is etched on our U.S. Supreme Court building .
  Those are just empty words if people do n't have access to that system . "
query_and_answer: What agency helps more than 12,000 children a year ? || Congress' Legal Service Corp
evidences: Threatened with extinction , LSEO clawed its way back with the help of state funding , grant money and the Tulsa Area United Way . The agency helps more than 12,000 children a year .