Community Legal Aid

Community Legal Aid offices are closed Thursday, July 4, 2024 in honor of July Fourth.

Pride month may be officially over but CLA is proud to stand with our LGBTQIA+ neighbors ALL year round! Whatever your gender identity, whoever you love, Community Legal Aid is here to help you advocate for your legal rights. If you believe you have faced discrimination in housing, education, or employment due to your gender identity or sexual orientation you can reach out to CLA for help. https://lnkd.in/gGuPQpN Pictured in slide #1: CLA tables at #Holyoke Pride

💙 💗 ⚖

Massachusetts Attorney General (Massachusetts Attorney General's Office), Andrea Joy Campbell recently co-sponsored a multistate letter sent by a bipartisan coalition of Attorneys General calling on leaders of the U.S. House and Senate Appropriations Committees to allocate maximum funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) in the FY2025 budget. An independent nonprofit corporation established by Congress in 1974, LSC promotes equal access to justice and administers grants to organizations that provide civil legal assistance to low-income Americans. CLA is one of five LSC-funded organizations in Massachusetts. A May 7th press release from the Office of AG Campbell included a quote from CLA Executive Director Jonathan Mannina, saying: LSC provides much-needed support for our work assisting tenants facing evictions; domestic violence survivors seeking safety; children in need of school-based services to accommodate their special needs; and elders facing abuse and exploitation. We are grateful for the support of both the Commonwealth and the Legal Services Corporation. Read more on our website: https://lnkd.in/eFTSUCiR

Thank you to Greater Springfield Senior Services, Inc. for supporting Community Legal Aid's work on behalf of our elderly neighbors in Hampden County! Community Legal Aid is also funded in part by a Title III/Older Americans Act grant with support from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs, and the Federal Association for Community Living.

A ZIP CODE SHOULD NOT DETERMINE A CHILD'S FUTURE! PSA from National Fair Housing Alliance : "Many variables can shape a child’s outcome in life–like the zip code where a child grows up. That’s because not all neighborhoods have the same opportunities and resources, such as quality schools, transportation, housing, healthcare, food and jobs. The good news is that there are many ways to improve our communities so that everyone has a fair chance to succeed, regardless of zip code. You can play a vital role in your local community. A public service message from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in partnership with the National Fair Housing Alliance. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status or disability. For more information, visit www.hud.gov/fairhousing. FAIR HOUSING. SHARED OPPORTUNITY IN EVERY COMMUNITY." --- If you believe you have experienced housing discrimination in Central or Western Massachusetts, Community Legal Aid’s Fair Housing Project is your local resource. To report housing discrimination, call us at (855) 252-5342 or apply online at https://lnkd.in/gxZ-fRQ #fairhousing #fairhousingact #housingdiscrimination #endhousingdiscrimination #fightdiscrimination #westernmass #centralmass #franklincounty #hampshirecounty #hampdencounty #berkshirecounty #worcestercounty #pioneervalley #legalaid #legalsevices #knowyourrights

"Baystate Health Awards $500,000 in Better Together Grants to Community" By BusinessWest Staff, BusinessWest SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Health, in partnership with the Community Benefits Program, announced the recipients of the 2024 Better Together Grants. This year, proposals considered focused on advancing youth well-being through strategic interventions that seek to decrease adverse youth mental-health outcomes. Projects funded by Better Together must apply a framework of social determinants of health, be evidence-based, include routine performance evaluation, and align with Baystate’s community health needs assessment. “We recognize that addressing youth mental health is not limited to clinical and traditional medical settings,” said Dr. Tyonne Hinson, senior vice president and chief Diversity, Health Equity, and Inclusion officer. “These grants were awarded to organizations implementing initiatives that focus on the development of strategies and practices to address social determinants of health, access, and the social environment to make our communities a healthier and safer place to live.” Baystate Health announced the five winning proposals of the 2024 Better Together grants, totaling $500,000 in funding: - Community Legal Aid ($100,000 for its Family Preservation Project); - Follow My Steps Foundation ($100,000 for its Steps to Empowerment Program); - Latino Counseling Center ($100,000 for its Mindful Connections/Conexiones Conscientes); - Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services ($100,000 for its Beat the Odds Project); and - Springfield Pride Parade Organization ($100,000 for its Safe Space Program). Funding for the Better Together grants is made possible through the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s determination-of-need requirements. In addition to funding the grantees, Baystate Health has also contracted with the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts to provide technical assistance and evaluation support to the grantee cohort over the next one to two years. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/d3mhhJfn

Earlier this month, the Greenfield Recorder reported on the expansion of CLA's Disability Benefits Project, which, thanks to funding from the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation, will now serve residents of all five counties in CLA's service area. The Disability Benefits Project provides free assistance to those who have been wrongfully denied federal disability benefits or have had their benefits wrongly reduced or terminated. For decades, the Project has provided legal help to residents of Berkshire, Hampden, and Worcester Counties. With the recent addition of Staff Attorney Kathryn Madison, it now serves Franklin and Hampshire County as well. Attorney Madison explained the importance of the Project to the Greenfield Recorder, saying: Often, it’s a big challenge for people to help the judge understand what they’re going through if they don’t have the help of an attorney who knows the regulations and the framework that Social Security uses to consider those cases. Read more on your website: https://lnkd.in/eFTSUCiR

Community Legal Aid's offices will be closed today, Wednesday, June 19, 2024, in honor of Junteenth. The emancipation proclamation was issued in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, which declared that all slaves in the rebellious states were to be freed. On June 19, 1865, Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas with the news that the more than 250,000 enslaved Black people in the state were free. This day came to be known as Juneteenth, officially a federal holiday as of 2021 due to legislation signed by President Biden. We encourage everyone to take a moment today and reflect upon the significance of this holiday, and participate in events around MA if possible. Events in Central MA: https://lnkd.in/exAHdk4W Events in Western MA: https://lnkd.in/eBw2CWaU https://lnkd.in/eWdbsAy2. To learn more about Juneteenth check out some of these resources: https://lnkd.in/e8ecCSrz https://lnkd.in/eipyb9A https://lnkd.in/gzNtQGAw https://lnkd.in/dzjZMF8

On April 30th, MassLive.com published a piece by CLA Fair Housing Testing Coordinator Nuri Sherif. In the piece, Sherif, who has both a Bachelor's and Master's in History, writes about the historical legacy of housing inequality in Massachusetts as well as the resources available to those experiencing housing discrimination. Sherif wrote: The Fair Housing Project’s testing program is another affirmative tool meant to evaluate housing providers’ compliance with fair housing laws. Where there is evidence of discrimination, there are options for holding landlords accountable while advocating that their policy and practices align with anti-discrimination laws. CLA’s Fair Housing Project helps clients with a variety of fair housing issues, including racial harassment, refusal to rent due to family status, refusal to remove lead paint, and discrimination based on disability. In addition to litigation, the Fair Housing Project conducts educational workshops on fair housing laws for tenant groups, social service providers, landlords, and other community members. The Project also trains civil rights investigators to “test” whether housing providers are unlawfully discriminating against tenants and applicants for housing. Read more on our website: https://lnkd.in/eFTSUCiR