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What We Do

MLAC provides funding and support to civil legal aid organizations across the Commonwealth.

Funding

Our grantees are nonprofit organizations that provide legal assistance at no cost to residents of Massachusetts with low incomes. For more information on the organizations MLAC funds, please visit our funding pages.

MLAC provides several kinds of grants.

General Support Funding

General Support includes unrestricted funds to regional and statewide legal aid organizations, as well as funding for the following Special Projects:

• Disability Benefits Project
• Domestic Violence Legal Assistance Project
• Medicare Advocacy Project

Immigrants’ Rights Funding

Other funds include grants for these projects:

• Greater Boston Immigrant Defense Fund
• Massachusetts Immigration Legal Assistance Fund
• Afghan Refugee Project

Victims of Crime Funding

The Civil Legal Aid for Victims of Crime Initiative (CLAVC) helps victims of crime throughout Massachusetts with their related civil legal problems.

Support

MLAC strengthens legal aid in Massachusetts in several ways:

• The Central Technology Project provides technology services and support to MLAC-funded organizations to help them deliver legal aid effectively and efficiently.
• Data and Analysis collects and analyzes the scope and impact of legal aid across a wide variety of factors, including: number of clients and cases, types of cases, and demographics. With that data, the team reports on the legal aid workforce, the impact of legal aid on low-income people, and recommends new goals and strategies for addressing current and emerging legal needs.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion works to create a diverse, representative and collaborative environment within legal services to provide accessible, welcoming, and culturally competent services to clients of all backgrounds and their communities.
• Program Evaluation conducts grantee program evaluations using a peer review model. Performance standards are drawn from the American Bar Association’s Standards for the Delivery of Civil Legal Services and cover six areas of focus: strategic planning and collaborative priority setting; development and utilization of resources; client access; quality assurance; management, administration, and use of technology; and governance.
• Communications develops content and campaigns that promote awareness of civil legal aid and the work of MLAC grantees through client storytelling and data. Additionally, it supports efforts to increase communications and media outreach capacity within legal services on a statewide basis.
• Fellowships fund the work of legal aid attorneys who seek to expand the delivery of legal services in communities traditionally underserved by legal aid. MLAC funds two fellowships: the Bart Gordon Fellowship and the Racial Justice Fellowship.
• The Equal Justice Coalition advocates for state funding for civil legal aid. It is a partnership of MLAC, the Boston Bar Association, and the Massachusetts Bar Association.