Legal Key Receives Funding from the Mass Bar and Boston Bar Foundation
We are grateful to receive IOLTA-funded grants from both the Massachusetts Bar Foundation and the Boston Bar Foundation. This support from the larger legal community will allow us to continue to work with our Massachusetts and Boston-based care teams to identify, triage and address the legal problems of those they serve.
East Boston Social Center’s 2025 Every Child Shines Summer Community Convening
Legal Key Executive Director Amy Copperman spent an inspiring day with our partner East Boston Social Centers on July 24 at the Every Child Shines Community Convening.
Every Child Shines is a movement that supports the wellbeing of children and families in East Boston to ensure that every child enters kindergarten joyful, thriving and ready to learn.
The day brought together almost 100 community members to uplift and discuss the most pressing policy issues that impact kindergarten readiness.
Pictured l-r: Gloria DeVine, Director of the East Boston Family Engagement Network, Amy Copperman, and Katie White, Director of Every Child Shines
ICYMI: Immigration Law Explainers Now Available
In case you missed it, Legal Key now has put out guides covering some of the changing laws that impact immigrants. With generous funding from the Boston Bar Foundation, we have been able to translate these guides into Portuguese, Haitian Creole, and Spanish. Some are Massachusetts-based, and some apply more broadly.
Federal resources:
| Obtaining Passports for Children Under 16 | How to Talk About Immigration Status | How Care Teams Can Support Immigrant Families |
Massachusetts resources:
| Obtaining Passports for Massachusetts Children Under 16 | Spotlight on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in Massachusetts |
Looking for more information on immigration rights? Check out the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General’s guidance for immigrants, families and communities. In Rhode Island, the Providence City Council announced that a “Know Your Rights” mailer will be sent to every Providence household.
Legal Key’s Digital Digest is a publicly accessible resource that spotlights changes in laws that impact health. It covers a wide range of health-harming legal needs and covers Massachusetts law, Rhode Island law, and Federal law. Below are some recent updates to state housing law:
| Massachusetts Massachusetts has passed a new law that prohibits tenants being charged broker’s fees for apartment rentals. The new law goes into effect August 1. Visit the MA Digital Digest – Housing Stability section for more information. |
| Rhode Island In RI, tenants can petition the District Court to “seal” the record of a past eviction case. Visit the RI Digital Digest – Housing Stability & Shelter section for more information. |
A Note from Our Executive Director
We at Legal Key have been envisioning what our future looks like since the passing of the new tax and spending bill (which despite the name, is anything but “beautiful”). Even though the full consequences are still an open question, what is clear now is that values we once believed to be iron-clad in our country – care for our most vulnerable, community support, and respect for the rule of law – are disappearing before our eyes.
There is a phrase that we try to embrace every day: Hope is a Practice. We know that having hope during challenging times takes effort, and one action we can all take to cultivate hope is to engage more in policy advocacy. There are many amazing national organizations fighting for the rights of low-income people and vulnerable communities, and here are a few that Legal Key rely on to guide our policy advocacy work:
The work of these organizations give me hope that someday we will bring the pendulum swinging back towards a society that once again aspires to embrace and protect the collective good.
Amy Copperman, Executive Director
At Legal Key, we believe in the legal system and its potential to protect the most vulnerable in our communities. Your contribution helps us to realize our vision of a society where information about legal rights and systems is widely accessible and used to help people thrive.
© 2025 Third Sector New England, Inc., on behalf of Legal Key, All Rights Reserved
Legal Key Partnership for Health and Justice envisions a society where information about legal rights and systems is widely accessible and used to help people to thrive. To realize this vision, Legal Key’s mission is to create access to legal knowledge for health and social service sectors and empowers those communities to use legal problem-solving to improve wellbeing. Through legal education, workforce support and social care program design, Legal Key impacts systems, care professionals, and the individuals they serve.
Legal Key is a fiscally sponsored organization of Third Sector New England.
Information contained in this newsletter is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or establish an attorney-client relationship.