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2018 Annual Meeting

Innovators for Access to Justice Panel

A panel of innovators in access to justice will present immediately following the Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice Annual Meeting.

Dan Jackson
NuLawLab
Northeastern University

Gabriel Teninbaum
Institute on Legal Innovation & Technology
Suffolk Law School

Bill Palin
Access to Justice/Technology Fellow
Harvard Law School

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Join us to hear these experts from local law schools discuss their work using technology and other innovations to expand access to justice.

Date: Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Location: Sherin and Lodgen LLP, 101 Federal Street, Floor 31, Boston, MA 02110

Northeastern University, Suffolk Law School, and Harvard Law School alumni are especially encouraged to attend!

The panelists’ presentation will be followed by a brief reception with refreshments.

Email Madeline at madeline@massappleseed.org to RSVP today!

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Victory! Governor Baker Signs Criminal Justice Reform Bill Into Law!

A Letter from the Executive Director

Dear Friends,

You did it!

After so many months of tireless advocacy, you did it. On Friday, Governor Baker signed the omnibus criminal justice reform bill into law. The bill is now Chapter 69 of the Acts of 2018. And with that, you’ve brought us one step closer to dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline.

This is huge.

Thanks to you, we can now stop kids in Massachusetts schools from being arrested for the vague crime of “disturbing school assembly.” We can keep school resource officers from involving themselves in routine disciplinary situations they are not trained for. And we can start collecting important data on school arrests in the state.

For every phone call you made to your senators and representatives, for every email you sent in support of our provisions, for your time and energy – thank you. 

This was no easy journey, and there were moments when it looked like our provisions to keep kids in class might not make it to the finish line. But you raised your voice time and time again and because you did, we won!

Find your legislators here and thank them for leading the charge to make this bill a reality.

The fight to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline is by no means over. But together, we just took a huge step forward.

Thank you for your continued involvement and support.

Warmly,

Deborah Silva
Executive Director

Want to stay informed on the latest issues Massachusetts Appleseed is working on?
Join our mailing list.

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2018 Updates to the “Protecting Assets” (Deportation) Manual Now Available

Dear Friends:

Thank you so much for your work on behalf of vulnerable immigrants and refugees, and your interest in Appleseed’s Manual, “Protecting Assets and Child Custody in the Face of Deportation: A Guide for Practitioners and Immigrants.”

Late in 2017, we began working on a few updates to the Manual, particularly about the Executive Orders issued in early 2017. Those updates are now complete and both the full version of the Manual, as well as individual chapters, are posted to our website.

We hope you will download, review, and share individual chapters or the entire Manual with as many people as possible. We also have a limited number of print copies to share with those of you doing direct service work in your communities; to request a copy, fill out the form at the bottom of the Manual page. Our goal is to provide an indispensable product for you and other groups and people who are so incredibly dedicated to helping vulnerable immigrants and refugees. We are proud to be part of this effort, and to work with so many of you.

And we are not done yet! You can stay tuned over the next several weeks and months for a full Spanish translation of the Manual, shorter, more user-friendly versions of various chapters and more. If you know someone who should be subscribed for these updates in the future, please forward this email and encourage them to sign up for email updates.

Finally, we want to extend our deepest thanks to the many pro bono partners that researched, wrote, and edited chapters of the manual. They include: Adams and Reese LLP, Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-based Violence, ASISTA, Ballard Spahr LLP, Cooley LLP, Hogan Lovells LLP, Norton Rose Fulbright, O’Melveny & Myers, The William Alanson White Institute Center for Public Mental Health and White & Case. We also want to thank the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Ford Foundation for their support of this work.

Thank you for your support, comments, suggestions and for the work that you do every day to help immigrant families. We look forward to continuing to work with you!

The Appleseed Team

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Giving Tuesday


Kick off the holiday season right and participate in Giving Tuesday on November 28! Join us in celebrating the global day of giving by creating positive impact in our communities.

Giving Tuesday is about working together to make a difference. How will you give this Giving Tuesday?

Volunteer

Give your time on Giving Tuesday and volunteer! With thousands of unrepresented litigants across the state, there’s an urgent need for pro bono representation. Don’t feel comfortable in a courtroom? Contact us at inquiry@massappleseed.org for volunteer opportunities at MA Appleseed. We welcome any skill set, from research, to legal expertise, to marketing, and everything in between!

Donate

Give a gift to support access to justice in Massachusetts! We envision a world where everyone gets their fair day in court, regardless of how much money they have or what language they speak. Your generosity can make this vision a reality. Join the movement and give back on November 28!

Become a Fundraiser

This year, we’re taking part in the Newman’s Own Foundation 500k Holiday Challenge! Participating organizations compete for up to $500,000 from when the Challenge launches on November 21, 2017 to when it ends on January 3, 2018.

Join us for the #GivingTuesday Bonus Challenge, where the organization that raises the most on November 28 will win $50,000. Click here to create your own fundraiser to spread the word and support our cause!

Mobilize

Your voice is your most powerful tool – so use it! Share on Facebook and Twitter why you care and what inspires you to give. Enter the #MyGivingStory contest to win up to $10,000 to donate to a charity of your choice, post a pic of you volunteering, or reach out to friends and family – why do they give? Start a conversation online and be sure to tag us @MassAppleseed!

For more information, please contact Madeline Poage, Development and Communications Assistant, at madeline@massappleseed.org.

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Fall Harvest Friendraiser

2017 Fall Harvest Friendraiser

Join us on October 11th to learn about our recent projects to expand Access to Justice and the status of our Keep Kids in Class project.

Fall-Friendraiser-invite

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Massachusetts Appleseed Joins Letter Against Charter School Dress Code

Massachusetts Appleseed joins over three dozen civil rights and education groups on letter condemning Mystic Valley Regional Charter School dress code policy

Massachusetts Appleseed joined the American Civil Liberties Union, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice and other civil rights and education groups on a letter to the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School demanding it permanently rescinded its dress code policy that bans hair extensions and hair that is more than 2 inches in height to ensure that African American students receive equal treatment. The letter also calls for the school to remove all detentions and suspensions imposed on students for violating these rules from the students records.

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School Discipline Know Your Rights Fact Sheets

Our friends at the Greater Boston Legal Services School to Prison Pipeline Intervention Project have created these helpful fact sheets to guide students and parents of students who have been subjected to school discipline. Please note that these are for information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice or establish an attorney client relationship between Massachusetts Appleseed and any visitor to our website. Note also that there are two “know your rights” fact sheets below – one that applies only to Boston Public Schools students and the other that applies to students at all other public school districts. Additionally, the statewide know your rights fact sheets apply to district schools and charter schools, but they do NOT apply to parochial or other private schools. Finally, a student who is accused of possessing drugs, possessing weapons, or assaulting educational staff, will be subject to rules that are slightly different than presented on these sheets. If a student is accused of any of those offenses or charged with a felony, they should seek legal help.

Fact Sheets

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