Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and National Association of Social Workers-MA Applaud the Massachusetts Legislature and the Baker Administration for Streamlining Access to Safety Net Programs
For Immediate Release – August 04, 2022 Media Contacts MLRI: Christine Dunn christine@sevenletter.com | 617.646.1044 NASW-MA: Rebekah Gewirtz rgewirtz.naswma@socialworkers.org | 617.645.4773 Newly implemented systems will increase program efficiency and improve access to critical safety-net benefits for all low-income Massachusetts residents On July 27th, the Baker Administration implemented a portion of FY21 and FY22 budget language […]
Statement from the Lift Our Kids Coalition on Cash Assistance Increases in the FY 23 Budget
The FY 2023 budget’s 10 percent increase in cash assistance starting in October marks another historic step forward for families in Deep Poverty. This is the third increase in three years after decades of frozen benefit levels. These successive increases demonstrate our legislative leaders’ moral commitment to our most vulnerable children, older adults, and people […]
Lift Our Kids Coalition Secures 10% Increase to Cash Assistance Grants in FY23 Budget
In late 2018, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, together with Greater Boston Legal Services and many other legal services programs and community organizations, began a campaign to increase state cash assistance grants, which had been frozen for two decades. With the leadership of Sen. Sal DiDomenico (D-Everett) and Rep. Marjorie Decker (D-Cambridge), the Lift Our […]
MLRI Files Successful Joint Amicus Brief on Behalf of Advocacy Organizations
Last month, Mass Law Reform, Greater Boston Legal Services, South Coastal Counties Legal Services and the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School submitted an amicus brief for the case of Slavin v. Lewis in Norfolk Superior Court, representing six advocacy groups who serve survivors of domestic abuse. Amicus briefs, also known as friend of […]
Statement of Georgia D. Katsoulomitis, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, in Response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is a stunning reversal of legal precedent and the loss of a constitutional right that has been protected for almost half a century. The reversal of Roe v. Wade is not only a devastating loss of reproductive rights for women in the United States but it is […]
The Moral Imperative of Anti-Racism
On June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger led a contingent of Union soldiers into Galveston, Texas to inform its citizens that slavery had been abolished. Two and half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and less than six months before emancipation officially became national policy, the last Confederate bastion ended the inhuman practice of slavery […]
Language Access Bill Reported Favorably Out of Committee
An Act Relative to Language Access and Inclusion (now H.4872 and S.2929) has officially been reported favorably out of Committee.
MLRI Applauds Supreme Judicial Court Decision on Ride-Share Ballot Initiative
Yesterday, in a unanimous decision, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a ballot initiative being funded by ride-share companies Uber and Lyft could not appear on the 2022 statewide ballot. The Court ruled that the initiative, which would have classified ride-share drivers as independent contractors and therefore not entitled to the strong protections generally afforded […]