THE JOHN & ABIGAIL ADAMS BENEFIT BALL GRANT AWARDS 2007
Legal Service Grant Awards: The Boston Bar Foundation (BBF) is pleased to announce the distribution of proceeds from the 2007 John and Abigail Adams Benefit Ball. The BBF awarded 6 grants totaling $205,00 to the following non-profit organizations that provide critical civil legal services to low income and underserved populations in Greater Boston:
Action for Boston Community Development
Housing & Homelessness Department Stabilization and Prevention
Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) provides multi-faceted services in order to enable low-income families and individuals to move towards self-sufficiency. The Stabilization and Prevention program aims to sustain tenancies of low- to moderate-income households by assisting clients in the search of affordable housing. ABCD also connects clients with other supportive human services or healthcare agencies. The project provides advocacy in housing court, mediation with landlords, and educates household members on their rights as those rights pertain to legal proceedings, evictions, and appeals.
Funding Granted: $40,000.00
Boston Medical Center – Medical Legal Partnership for Children
Healthy Homes for Healthy Families
The Medical Legal Partnership for Children (MLPC) is a hospital-based legal services program that ensures that low-income families’ and children’s basic needs for food, safety, housing, and health care are met. Healthy Homes for Healthy Families, in collaboration with the Volunteer Lawyers Project, works to screen for, identify, and respond to health-related housing problems such as conditions of disrepair, the need for disability and/or safety-based transfers, and threats to ongoing utility service. The project places pro bono volunteers and other providers of legal services within the clinical setting.
Funding Granted: $25,000
Community Legal Services and Counseling Center (CLSACC)
Expanded Pro Bono and Staff Legal Services Project for Immigration Law
CLSACC uses volunteer professionals to provide free civil legal aid and affordable psychological counseling to low-income clients and their children, in order to meet basic human needs for safety, income, health, and housing. CLSACC's Immigration Law project provides free civil legal services to low-income refugees and immigrants who are seeking legal status in the United States. The requested funding would expand the project to meet an emergency gap in services for asylum clients, particularly those seeking U visas under VAWA.
Funding Granted: $35,000
Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), in collaboration with Legal Advocacy and Resource Center (LARC), Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI), and National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)
Foreclosure Prevention Collaborative Initiative
The Foreclosure Prevention Collaborative Initiative is a project being launched by four major legal services providers, and will take a multi-pronged approach to address the foreclosure crisis affecting low-income homeowners and tenants. The project will provide individual representation, brief service and advice, community legal education, and impact work.
Funding Granted: $80,000
Lawyers Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness
Foreclosure Prevention and Neighborhood Stabilization Referral Project
Lawyers Clearinghouse on Affordable Housing and Homelessness (LCAHH) promotes the development of affordable housing and attempts to reduce homelessness and strengthen communities by providing pro bono legal services to nonprofit organizations as well as to individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. LCAHH will work with two existing programs to identify homeowners facing foreclosure and to refer them to pro bono attorneys. As part of the project, LCAHH will recruit, train, and match lawyers with homeowners. The goal of the Foreclosure Prevention Project is to allow some homeowners to save their property, and to assist those giving up their property with obtaining alternate housing and avoiding the debt usually associated with foreclosure.
Funding Granted: $20,000
Political Asylum/Immigration Representation
Immigration Court Pro Bono Project
The Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project is a non-profit that works with the Boston-area legal community to serve the legal needs of detained and non-detained asylum seekers and other indigent immigrants. The Immigration Court Pro Bono Project offers legal screening, pro bono representation, and consultations to low-income immigration detainees in removal proceedings. It provides legal, medical, and psychological services to refugees and survivors of torture and other trauma.
Funding Granted: $5,000
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