January 2024 Updates – Read about our new Evaluation!
January 30th, 2024 Newsletter
Welcome to 2024! Before we said goodbye to 2023, we took a moment to pause and celebrate our amazing staff at a holiday lunch in Boston. Our small and mighty team is ready to dig into 2024.
MLPB is excited to share a recent evaluation of our work with our partner the Children’s Trust. Working with the team at Tufts Interdisciplinary Evaluation Research (TIER), the Children’s Trust is conducting a multiyear study of its Healthy Families program, where MLPB has partnered for 6 years. TIER’s findings have helped to lift up important features of how and why we do the work we do.
TIER found that MLPB consultations involved families who were significantly more likely to experience challenges related to child protective services, employment, health insurance, and housing at the time of enrollment in Healthy Families. And as a result of consulting with MLPB, Healthy Families home visitors felt they were better able to:
- recognize and call out systemic injustices
- assess a participant’s legal problem and get them connected to resources
- equip parents with the tools to navigate bureaucracies and stand up for themselves, and
- advocate on behalf of their participants.
We are grateful to Tier for their data collection and analysis expertise! Access the full report here.
MLPB Advisory Board member Geoff Wilkinson has wrapped up his many years of service on the board.
- Most recently, Geoff headed the Board Strategy
Committee and was instrumental in selecting our Strategic Planning Consultant. - Geoff is now on pre-retirement leave from his position at Boston University School of Social Work, and is planning on international travel with his family.
We thank Geoff for his dedication to MLPB, and for sharing his expertise and experience. He has helped shape us into the organization we are today.
| In Massachusetts The Executive Office of Housing & Livable Communities is implementing improvements effective February 1, 2024, to rental assistance programs that will make it easier to apply. In Rhode Island Effective January 1, 2024, landlords can no longer charge rental application fees (although landlords can still charge for background checks if tenants can’t provide their own report). | On the Federal front This winter has proven to be hard for people across the U.S. Many parts of the country, including the Northeast, have experienced some extreme and unpredictable weather. As a reminder, SNAP recipients who have a household misfortune that caused food loss, like a fire, flood, loss of electricity for 4 hours or more, or equipment failure, may be able to request replacement benefits. |
Care planning, delivery and financing should systemically account for people’s legal rights, risks, and remedies. MLPB equips communities of care with legal education and problem-solving insight that fosters preventions, health equity, and human-centered system change. Through training, consultation and technical assistance, we help teams and organizations better connect people to the resources and legal protections they seek.
MLPB is a fiscally sponsored organization of TSNE.
Information contained in this newsletter is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or establish an attorney-client relationship.
