Advancing Racial Justice

Community Legal Aid is committed to promoting racial equity, fighting discrimination, and partnering with our neighbors to empower communities of color.  The goal of racial justice is integrated into all of our practice areas.  Read more about our institutional commitment to diversity and inclusion. We also maintain several special advocacy initiatives that promote racial justice in our community:

Fair Housing Project

Community Legal Aid’s core housing work includes helping tenants to fight back against illegal housing practices, including race-based harassment and discrimination. In Worcester, the 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 about the Worcester Fair Housing Project.

Asian Outreach and Advocacy Project

With support from the Harry H. Dow Memorial Legal Assistance Fund, Community Legal Aid aims to increase access to legal services and address the needs of the significant Asian immigrant and refugee populations in the Worcester area. Recognizing the underlying challenges for many low-income and Limited English Proficient people, our project’s outreach and advocacy efforts are tailored towards providing culturally and linguistically responsive advocacy, community education and public awareness of the challenges facing this population. Read more about the Asian outreach and Advocacy Project.

CORI/Re-Entry

Community Legal Aid’s CORI/Re-entry work focuses on helping formerly incarcerated individuals overcome barriers to housing, employment, and other opportunities in order to reintegrate into society. Helping formerly incarcerated people re-enter society and attain steady work and safe housing is an essential first step in their ability to live safe, stable, and productive lives. Our ability to effectively address these problems goes to the very core of the American belief in offering second chances. Read more about Community Legal Aid’s CORI/Re-entry work.

Migrant Farmworker Project

Community Legal Aid’s affiliate agency, the Central West Justice Center, houses the Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Project. The Project provides legal services to the state’s agricultural workers and other migrant laborers on issues of immigration, employment discrimination, wage and hour law, housing, and many other matters.  Read more about the Central West Justice Center’s Migrant Farmworker Project.

Medical Legal Partnerships (MLP’s)

CLA currently participates in three regional MLP’s which are innovative collaborations between the medical and legal communities. A case begins when a medical practitioner believes that a patient’s medical issues may be improved or resolved with legal assistance from CLA.  Many of these health-harming legal needs disproportionately affect communities of color. As part of the partnership, our attorneys educate local medical providers about the social determinants of health, including the racial justice issues that contribute to poor health outcomes and health disparities.  Read more about Community Legal Aid’s Medical-Legal Partnerships.

Racial Justice Fellowships

Community Legal Aid is committed to pursuing fellowships that amplify our racial justice work.  Below are examples of recent fellowships we have received to promote racial justice in our communities:

• MLAC Racial Justice Fellowship
  In 2019, the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation (MLAC) awarded its prestigious Racial Justice Fellowship to Attorney Nina Harrison “to expand the reach of legal aid to communities that have difficulty gaining equal access to the justice system due to linguistic or cultural barriers. The goal of the fellowship is to use systemic advocacy and other strategies to address pervasive problems of racial injustice…”
• Bart Gordon Fellowship
  In 2020, the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation (MLAC) awarded its competitive Bart Gordon Fellowship to Attorney Claribel Morales to “improve access to justice for people who face linguistic or cultural barriers to attaining legal assistance.” Read CLA’s press release on this Bart Gordon Fellowship.
• Shriver Center Racial Justice Institute
  In 2020, four CLA attorneys were named fellows of the Shriver Center Racial Justice Institute.  The Shriver Center describes the fellowships: “Policies and laws that create and perpetuate poverty and racial inequity are written into the fabric of our country. The recent COVID-19 crisis has laid bare the systemic inequities and structural racism that many communities experience daily. The Shriver Center’s Racial Justice Institute grounds advocates in a commitment to race equity as an integral and essential part of anti-poverty advocacy and prepares them to tackle these issues on behalf of the communities they serve. Following seven months of intensive training, Racial Justice Institute fellows join a national network of over 240 alumni advancing race equity litigation, policy advocacy and organizational alignment.” Read Community Legal Aid’s press release on the Racial Justice Institute.

Racial Justice Training Series

Community Legal Aid was recently awarded a Flynt grant from the Williamstown Community Chest to conduct Know Your Rights racial justice trainings for community groups in Northern Berkshire county.  The trainings will focus on the history of structural racism, disproportionate policies, and discrimination in housing, education, employment, and the criminal justice system.