Community Legal Services And Counseling Center (CLSACC) is celebrating nearly 40 years of providing essential services to the community. CLSACC, founded as Cambridgeport Problem Center in 1970, provides free legal assistance and affordable mental health counseling to people with low incomes.
CLSACC has always been an organization of volunteer professionals. Today, CLSACC is the only volunteer-based agency of its kind in the area, combining legal assistance and mental health counseling. Staff and volunteers provide services at CLSACC. Our unique interdisciplinary approach has enabled CLSACC to keep pace with the ever- changing and inter-related needs of our clients.
The center serves 1,100 clients each year and benefits an additional 2,400 children and other family members. CLSACC serves battered women and abused children, women and children living in poverty, families and senior citizens at risk of homelessness, refugees/immigrants, and people with disabilities. The Center also serves people who suffer from mental illness which affects their ability to function in the community.
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CLSACC provides most of its services through the efforts of volunteer lawyer and counselors. In our 2008 fiscal year, volunteer lawyers and mental health professionals, together with law students, interns and volunteer paralegals donated over 14,200 hours of service.
Volunteer lawyers are members of the Massachusetts bar. Volunteer counselors are licensed clinical social workers, psychologists, and mental health counselors.
Learn more about CLSACC's Volunteer Opportunities here.
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The 15-member Board of lawyers, mental health professionals, and client representatives, including former volunteers with strong ties to CLSACC, sets policy, approves the annual budget, hires senior staff and engages in fundraising activities.
More than half of the Directors have served on the Board for over a decade. CLSACC also has a host of committees who work with and report to the full Board, including Fundraising, Human Resources, Facilities, Technology and Executive.
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CLSACC's operating budget of $828,752 is funded by a variety of sources: Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation, United Way of Massachusetts Bay, the Victims of Crime Act program of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance, the Massachusetts and Boston Bar Foundations, the City of Cambridge, state agencies, private foundations, law firms, and individual contributors. We are always seeking new sources of support - please visit the Giving section of our website to learn more about the many ways you can help!
CLSACC is an EEO/FEP, is accessible to person's with disabilities, and is committed to promoting diversity in our work place.
This agency supported by:
