We are pleased to announce that we recently received renewed funding from both the Massachusetts Bar Foundation and the Boston Bar Foundation. We are grateful for the ongoing support from the legal community that will enable Legal Key to continue to serve our Massachusetts and Boston-area partners.
When an organization operates virtually, as Legal Key does, we can be nimble in our work and reach wider audiences. But there are occasions to gather in person, and meeting space can be an expensive proposition for small nonprofit projects like Legal Key.
Enter Nelson Mullins. Thanks to our Advisory Board Chair Melissa Nott Davis, her firm Nelson Mullins has generously provided Legal Key with meeting space for the past year. We are appreciative of their welcoming space, their fantastic staff, and honestly, their stellar views of downtown Boston.
We also want to give a shout out to Community Resources for Justice, where our Advisory Board member Deb O’Brien is the CEO, which has also hosted several of our meetings at their beautiful Boylston Street location. We are grateful for generous companies who donate their meeting spaces to us!
Legal Key was honored to receive the Community Partner of the Year award from Blackstone Valley Community Health Care at their annual meeting this summer. Legal Key first partnered with BVCHC through their DULCE program, and last year we transitioned to working with their larger social supports team.
In the past year, we answered 95 consult questions for BVCHC staff. Their team is incredibly dedicated to their patients! And we are honored to support them.
Legal Key’s Jeannine Casselman and Amy Copperman were thrilled to attend Rooted In Recovery: Rhode Island’s First Recovery Workforce Conference held in July. The event was hosted by RIPRPA, which is housed within RICARES, and it was a day of learning and meeting lots of new folks. It was a fantastic gathering! Legal Key has a new project brewing with RIPRPA—stay tuned for more details later this fall.
Legal Key’s Digital Digest is a space spotlighting changes to laws that impact health, and covers a wide range of categories including employment, housing, immigration, and more. Our goal is to translate complicated legal topics into easy to understand language, and offer steps that people, including care team members, can take to help address legal needs. Visit the Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and federal pages regularly to learn about updates in your area.
| Federal New public charge rules will take effect September 18, 2026. Most immigrants will NOT be impacted. Only those seeking green cards may be affected. Also, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrians ended. Care teams can help people review if they have other pending immigration applications, refer them to immigration attorneys, and check USCIS for further updates. To learn more about these changes, visit our Federal Digital Digest – Immigration page. |
| Rhode Island Rhode Island recently passed a law that bars federal immigration agents from making civil arrests at state courthouses without a judicial warrant. Agents must identify themselves and state their purpose to court security before taking anyone into custody, and violations can lead to contempt of court and civil lawsuits. Visit our RI Digital Digest- Courts and Criminal Systems Involvement page for more information. |
| Massachusetts The Massachusetts Attorney General has issued guidance for patients and healthcare providers regarding immigration enforcement and healthcare. Visit our MA Digital Digest-Health Access and Public Health Information page to learn more. |
Our democracy’s function depends on knowledge about how our legal systems work.
Consider donating to Legal Key with an individual contribution or through a Donor Advised Fund today.
© 2026 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 project 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.
