Worcester County Access to Justice Campaign

With the backing of supporters like you, CLA has responded to the needs of our communities by expanding its services and advocacy. For instance, the new Family Preservation Project helps families avoid the trauma of having their children placed in state custody when their parents are in crisis due to issues related to poverty, such as a lack of access to food; safe housing; quality physical and mental health care; and appropriate educational services. After launching a little over a year ago, this project has been successful in keeping families together in 98% of the cases it has handled. CLA is actively working to expand this project, and other innovative projects like it, to serve more families throughout its service area.

In one case, Community Legal Aid’s Family Preservation Team spent over a year helping a family with an open case with DCF. “Rosie,” who was a trauma survivor, lost custody of her two children after Rosie’s partner was accused of abuse. The children were placed in the care of Rosie’s aunt and uncle, who maintained good relations with Rosie and wished to see the children returned to their mother. The FPP team first helped the aunt and uncle, who were both disabled and low-income, obtain SNAP and other benefits to help with expenses that came with the responsibility of caring for the two kids. The team also helped Rosie prepare a Caregiver’s Affidavit, so that the aunt and uncle could register the kids for school and make medical decisions for them.

Meanwhile, determined to regain custody of her children, Rosie severed contact with the abusive partner and obtained new housing. She maintained a close bond with her kids, who adamantly wanted to be reunited with their mother. The FPP team ensured that DCF worked with Rosie to make sure she received the services that would enable her to regain custody. Eventually, Rosie completed her entire Action Plan, which is a plan intended to address the family’s problems and protect the well-being and safety of the children, which would normally allow the case to close. Instead, DCF pressured the aunt and uncle to apply for guardianship of the children, and threatened to remove the children and place them in foster care with total strangers. With the support of the FPP team, Rosie’s aunt and uncle resisted the DCF’s pressure. Since Rosie had done everything asked of her, the FPP team strongly advocated that DCF agree to a reunification plan. Thanks to the help of the FPP team, the children have now been reunited with their mother, and DCF has officially closed the case.

With the backing of supporters like you, CLA has responded to surging demand from tenants trying to avoid homelessness, families seeking safety from violence, elders and people with disabilities needing healthcare, low-income workers seeking unemployment benefits, and refugees seeking humanitarian-based immigration relief through its subsidiary, the Central West Justice Center (CWJC).*

One of the people CWJC helped is Yvette, who fled Cameroon because of the violence she suffered there for being a teacher during a civil war.

The problems started for Yvette shortly after she started a teaching job, when peaceful protests organized by lawyers and teachers took place near her community in Cameroon. When the government responded to the protests with the force of the military, people from her region, known as “separatists,” picked up arms against the government. Yvette’s mostly peaceful area became engulfed in violence. Although she was not involved in the protests or connected to the separatists in any way, her life changed. Over the next few years, Yvette, her family, and members of her community, lived in constant fear. Yvette told us,

To put pressure on the government, the separatists wanted to keep schools closed. When the government forced the schools to reopen, I was put in a terrible position: if I didn't teach, I would be arrested by the government and if I did teach, I would be punished by the separatists.

Over the next three years, I was threatened, shot at,
and kidnapped by separatists. I feared for my own life and for my husband and two daughters. Eventually I stopped teaching.

Then the military came for me. I was not home, and my husband was beaten so badly he spent several days hospitalized. I then learned from a family member that I was on the military’s “wanted list,” and I was not safe anywhere in the country. Now a target of both the military and the separatists, I knew my life was in danger. When I left my young children and fled the country, it was the worst moment of my life.

Yvette eventually made it to the United States. With the help of Attorney Caroline Foley at the Central West Justice Center, she was able to prove to the Immigration Court that she fears she will be tortured and killed by the separatists or the government if she returns to Cameroon. Yvette has been granted asylum and Attorney Foley has filed a family petition to help bring Yvette’s husband and daughters here as well. Now Yvette is looking forward to the day that she can be reunited with her family and they can all be safe here, free from the fear and violence that engulfed Yvette’s life in Cameroon.

Read more stories like this one in Community Legal Aid's Fiscal Year 2022 Annual Report.

*Central West Justice Center, a subsidiary of Community Legal Aid, receives no funding from the Legal Services Corporation.

The words of Community Legal Aid’s own clients are a powerful reminder of the transformational impact Community Legal Aid’s advocacy can achieve:

• Crystal says, “I will forever be grateful to CLA for walking side by side with me during this process.”​
  
  
• Madelyn says she felt “almost as if I had a megaphone, the lawyer was my megaphone.”
  
  
• Eufrocina says, “Thanks to the great effort of my lawyer, today I am on my way to citizenship. I feel very fortunate for the great help given me and my family. Without their help and dedication, I would not be legally in this country. Thank you very much to all the attorneys who strive to help each immigrant.”
  
  
• Labrie says his attorney “went above and beyond… I felt like I was blessed… [Community Legal Aid] saved my life to be honest.”

For more information visit www.communitylegal.org