Connecticut State Department of Children and Families

Have a question regarding DCF and the coronavirus? Email us at: DCF.COVID-19@ct.gov

V.I.T.A.L. Advocacy and Legal Assistance

 

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Connecticut Legal Services  "Get Help"

CLS is Connecticut’s largest not for profit law firm. 

Our mission is to provide access to justice and protect the critical civil legal rights of low-income individuals and families through representation, systemic advocacy, advice, collaboration, and education. We serve low-income families in 122 of the 169 Connecticut communities (our sister agencies serve areas of greater Hartford and greater New Haven). Our service area includes hundreds of thousands of families eligible for our services.

We protect and secure critical civil legal rights for our clients and advance access to justice for all Connecticut residents. We produce optimal individual and community results, and continuously strive to increase the impact and efficiency of our work. Our staff are our greatest asset. They are supported by their work environment and enriched by the individual and collective difference they make.

Our partners, funders, and the communities we serve view us as a trusted partner and recognized leader. Our Board members are active ambassadors for our organization and create access to resources, expertise, and relationships to support our work.

 

 

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Greater Hartford Legal Aid (English and Español)  Get Help 

Mission:  “To achieve equal justice for poor people, to work with clients to promote social justice, and to address the effects and root causes of poverty.”

This mission drives our work.  It means that:
  • We work to increase access to the courts
  • We advocate for fairness in the application of law
  • Client perspectives inform our advocacy and priorities
  • We embrace a broad view of lawyering
  • We make things better while practicing preventative law

Our lawyers provide:

  • Core essential representation on legal problems related to people’s ability to meet their basic human needs
  • Community education and empowerment to help people better help themselves
  • Advocacy to improve systems that underlie our clients’ problems and the barriers to their success

 

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Our Mission:  Lawyers for Children America is a leading child advocacy organization protecting the rights of children who are victims of abuse, abandonment and neglect by providing quality pro bono legal representation and collaborating for systematic change to improve the lives of children. Lawyers for Children America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Our Goals:  Lawyers for Children America was established with the following goals:
  • To implement services that will help children and youth who are victims of abuse and neglect;
  • To increase pro bono efforts on behalf of children by establishing institutional commitment on the part of major law firms, corporate legal departments, government agencies, national, state and local bar associations and universities, and by establishing local affiliates of Lawyers for Children America across the United States to support that commitment;
  • To improve the child welfare system in coordination with other national and local organizations;
  • To increase public awareness of issues related to youth and violence.

For Connecticut Based Resources: LOTS OF REGIONAL OFFICES AND SUPPORT LISTINGS!

 

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New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Inc.  (English and Español)

205 Orange Street
New Haven, Connecticut 06510-2069
Phone: 203-946-4811 | Fax: 203-498-9271

New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Inc. (NHLAA) is a nonprofit organization that was incorporated on April 7, 1964 to “secure justice for and to protect the rights of those residents of New Haven County unable to engage legal counsel.” NHLAA was one of the first legal services programs established and the federal government used it as a model for similar programs throughout the country. We are an office of attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries committed to protecting the rights and improving the lives of our client communities. Many of our staff have been with LAA for more than twenty years.

Serving:  Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Meriden (elderly clients only), Milford, New Haven, North Haven, North Branford, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Wallingford, West Haven, Woodbridge
 
Get Help! Starting March 16, 2020, New Haven Legal Assistance Staff are working but our physical office space is not open to the public.

We are responding to email, voicemail, and fax.  We are not accepting walk-in appointments, but we will still take new clients by telephone interview.

To reach us, please call 203-946-4811, or contact your advocate directly (we have a dial-by-name directory on the phone). Our fax number is 203-498-9271. You can also email info@nhlegal.org. 

A partir del 16 de marzo de 2020, el personal de Asistencia Legal de New Haven está trabajando pero nuestro espacio físico en la oficina no está abierto al público. Estamos respondiendo al correo electrónico, correo de voz y fax. No estamos aceptando visitas sin cita previa, pero aún aceptaremos nuevos clientes por entrevista telefónica. Para comunicarse con nosotros, llame al 203-946-4811 o comuníquese con su defensor directamente (tenemos un directorio por nombre en el teléfono). Nuestro número de fax es 203-498-9271. También puede enviar un correo electrónico a info@nhlegal.org.

 

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Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut

Call 800-453-3320 or 860-344-0380 from Hartford and Middletown.

Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut staff is a dedicated and experienced group of people working to provide assistance to eligible people seeking help with legal problems affecting their most fundamental rights.

Our Volunteers: there have been hundreds of people who have donated their time and expertise to help us and other legal aid organizations across the state assist low-income people with legal problems in Connecticut over the past year.

This web site, funded by the Connecticut Bar Foundation and the Legal Services Corporation, seeks to further our goal of equal access to justice by providing information and self-help materials on a variety of legal issues.

How to Get Assistance: You can use our Legal Help Finder to see what help is available.

Generally, applicants should call Statewide Legal Services first to find out if they qualify for services. Call-In hours are 9 a.m. to Noon and from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

To Apply for Our Help:  Please call Statewide Legal Services (SLS) to determine if you qualify for free legal services. SLS staff will ask you some questions and may give you legal advice. If you have the kind of case GHLA handles, SLS will refer your case to us. GHLA will then review your application and decide if we will take your case.  All calls and applications are private and confidential.

SLS call-in hours are:

Monday – Friday
9 am to 12 noon and 1 to 2 pm
Toll-free: 1-800-453-3320
From Hartford: 1-860-344-038

 

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The Center for Children's Advocacy

Call 860-570-5327 ext 261 or 203-335-0719 ext 201

The Center for Children’s Advocacy (CCA) was founded in 1997 by long-time civil rights attorney Martha Stone. Attorney Stone wanted to create a nonprofit law firm that specialized in children’s legal issues, and envisioned an organization that would bring legal resources from the law office to community sites easily accessible by children and youth; be a one-stop shop providing holistic legal services to meet all of a child’s legal needs, including education, abuse and neglect, and access to health care; depend on very little state money, enabling zealous legal advocacy for child clients even in cases involving the state; have an interdisciplinary focus, partnering with medical and education professionals to bring expertise from those fields to children’s cases.

CCA combines three advocacy strategies – individual legal representation; legal rights training for youth, parents and professionals; and advocacy for system reforms. Training and systemic advocacy maximize the reach of CCA’s staff. Trainings increase and improve legal advocacy for children, and systemic reforms benefit thousands of children beyond individual legal representation.

Center for Children’s Advocacy is open, providing legal representation for at-risk children and youth. Do you need help with:  Education, special education, distance learning, access to healthcare, public benefits, utilities, housing, DCF, immigration, teen homelessness, rights of children with disabilities, conditions of confinement, reentry from detention or incarceration?