Family Advocates of Central Massachusetts
Family Advocates of Central Massachusetts (FACM) is a medical-legal collaboration between LACCM and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The program seeks to improve the health and well-being of low-income children and their families living in Worcester County, by assisting families who are referred to Family Advocates by participating medical practices. The participating medical practices are: UMass Pediatric Primary Care and Family Health Center, both in Worcester; Community Pediatrics of Milford; South County Pediatrics in Webster; and Community Health Connections Family Health Center in Fitchburg. The FACM Project has been presented at several national conferences over the past few years, and it is viewed as a model that other medical-legal collaborations can replicate. For a graphic illustration of FACM's origins, methods, and community impact, please click here.
Schools and Advocates for Family Empowerment (S.A.F.E.)
In order to make services more accessible in the community, LACCM has, in the past, partnered with a
The Honorable Harry Zarrow Homeless Advocacy Outreach Project
The Honorable Harry Zarrow Homeless Advocacy Project is a collaboration of the Worcester County Bar Association’s Committee on Services to the Homeless & Poor and LACCM. The Zarrow project seeks to reduce or prevent homelessness by the provision of legal assistance to those who are homeless or in imminent danger of becoming so. By identifying and providing advice or representation on the legal issues encountered by homeless and at-risk individuals, the project alleviates the factors contributing to homelessness. Private attorneys volunteering with the project can serve homeless shelters or other service providers by having a regular visiting schedule at the agency to interview clients with civil legal matters, or by being on call to assist when a client has a legal need. Other volunteers provide pro bono representation to these individuals or to homeless shelters and service providers in order to expand and enhance their capacity to serve their clients. The Zarrow Fellow at LACCM coordinates and provides support to the volunteer attorneys who provide pro bono legal help to homeless and at-risk populations, and also provides legal representation to project clients.
LiveJustice
LiveJustice (http://www.livejustice.org) is an online resource dedicated to helping low-income residents of Massachusetts with housing problems. The goals of the LiveJustice website are to provide tenants with better access to legal information and to enable tenants to keep their tenancies and improve their living conditions. Through the LiveJustice website, tenants can search for answers to common housing questions, or can send an email to an attorney about their particular problem.
Uncontested Divorce Project
The Uncontested Divorce Project (UDP) provides representation and assistance for low-income individuals seeking simple divorces in Worcester County. The project handles cases where there is no dispute regarding visitation, custody, or property.
Worcester Fair Housing Project
The Worcester Fair Housing Project (WFHP), a joint project between LACCM and the City of Worcester, provides advice and representation to anyone in Worcester County who has been the victim of housing discrimination. The WFHP has assisted clients in a range of discrimination claims including racial harassment, refusal to rent due to family status, refusal to remove lead paint, interference with housing subsidies, and discrimination based on disability. In addition to litigation, the WFHP conducts education workshops on fair housing laws for tenant groups, social service providers, landlords and other community members. The WFHP also trains civil rights investigators to “test” whether housing discrimination is occurring in the county, to support litigation or promote equitable settlements for project clients.
Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices Project
In partnership with Western Mass. Legal Services and the Mass. Justice Project, LACCM has received a grant from the Department of Justice to educate immigrant workers about their rights under the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The work under the grant began in September 2006.
Medicare Advocacy Project
The Medicare Advocacy Project (MAP) is devoted to assisting both elderly and disabled people who may have been wrongfully denied Medicare. MAP will provide help by giving advice or free legal representation to Massachusetts Medicare beneficiaries whether they are enrolled in traditional Medicare or in a Medicare Advantage Plan.
Each year, elders and persons with disabilities who have been wrongfully denied Medicare coverage turn to MAP for assistance. In some cases, people are denied coverage for physicians’ services, durable medical equipment, home health care, or skilled nursing facility care. In other cases, they are forced to leave the hospital prematurely, are denied prior approvals by their managed care plans, or are made to wait for coverage to begin under threat of a premium penalty. In still other cases, people turn to MAP to help them navigate the complex prescription drug befit.
In addition to free legal representation, MAP offers comprehensive and up-to-date education on Medicare. MAP advocates speak to public groups and train staff of social service agencies, long-term care facilities, and home health agencies.
MAP is funded in part by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation.
MAP covers legal services agencies across the state. For service in Worcester County, please contact the Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts. For service outside of Worcester County, please contact the MAP headquarters via Greater Boston Legal Services at 800-323-3205.
The Public Access Project
Federal and state laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability in all places of public accommodation. The laws also prohibit such discrimination in all programs, services and activities provided by a state or local government agency, including public education, employment, recreation, health care, social services, courts, libraries, voting, and town meetings. Accessibility barriers to any of these services, locations or activities may be a violation of these laws; LACCM's Public Access Project provides assistance to individuals with disabilities who have faced such barriers to accessibility. Some examples of disability access cases that might be handled by the Public Access Project are:
- A person cannot pick out books at a library because the aisles are too close together to fit the personís walker.
- A would-be diner in a wheelchair cannot get into a restaurant because the entrance is blocked by a picnic table.
- A person in a wheelchair cannot attend a town meeting because the buildingís entrance has stairs.
- An individual with a visual impairment is not allowed into a restaurant because the individual is accompanied by a service animal.
- A person in a scooter is prevented from using a restroom at the local bowling alley because there is a vending machine blocking the only route.