Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice

We take our work wherever we believe we can do the most good, whether that’s in the courthouse, at the State House, in schools, or in the community.

Access to Justice
•Organize leaders across the legal community and collaborate with the Trial Court to create a comprehensive online legal help center that empowers unrepresented, low-income litigants to successfully navigate the civil justice system
•Improve court practices and processes in virtual hearings to ensure vulnerable litigants can fully participate in their hearings, achieve a fair outcome, and avoid exploitation
•Continue coalition-led efforts to advance legislation that would strengthen language access at state agencies across the Commonwealth and ban disparate impact discrimination committed by state agencies and other government entities
•Compel the federal government to enforce federally-mandated language access in the Massachusetts child welfare system, preventing the wrongful separation of immigrant and limited English proficient families

Educational Justice
•Promote youth-identified policy solutions to reduce disciplinary disparities between girls of color and their white counterparts, as well as raise awareness of the discriminatory discipline girls of color face and the traumatic effects it has on their well-being and academic success
•Educate policymakers about and advance legislation to combat the harmful effects of suspension, expulsion, and school-based arrest on students in pre-K through 3rd grade
•Disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline by effecting positive policy change that creates safe, welcoming, and supportive schools for all students

Youth Homelessness
•Continue to strengthen and conduct outreach and trainings on the Massachusetts Homeless Youth Handbook, our online know-your-rights guide for youth experiencing homelessness
•Assist in the creation of a stronger legal safety net that helps youth experiencing homelessness better navigate day-to-day and long-term problems on their journey towards safety and stability

MA Appleseed fights to expand equitable access to justice and opportunity for Massachusetts families and youth through multiple strategies, including policy analysis and research, coalition building, education and training, community organizing, and advocacy.

We research and identify the ways in which the justice system, schools, and government agencies are systematically failing our most vulnerable residents and collaborate with community partners to identify solutions and advocate for their implementation. Operating as a critical resource for peer organizations and policymakers, we work in partnership with communities to shape policy, convene stakeholders, and advance initiatives that move us closer to a Massachusetts that is just, equitable, and inclusive. Our mission is intentionally expansive, enabling us to remain dynamic, respond to emerging and enduring issues of injustice, and go where our communities need us most. We bring data collection and robust analysis, broad networks of partners, and pro bono legal support to our advocacy. Throughout our work, we are guided by our commitment to centering the lives and voices of people most affected.

With a dedicated staff, community partners invested in MA Appleseed's work, pro bono partners who expand our capacity, and effective relationships with policymakers at the statewide level, we are uniquely well-positioned to accomplish our goals. By leveraging partnerships within the legal and court systems and among service providers, we have continued to push past project milestones and enact substantial change for our communities.

For more than 25 years, MA Appleseed has successfully produced powerful solutions to our state’s most pervasive social justice problems. Examples of MA Appleseed’s impact and project milestones include the following:
•We investigated the harm cell phone bans at courthouses cause civil litigants who cannot afford an attorney, published our 2018 report, “Cell Phones in the Courthouse: An Access to Justice Perspective,” and successfully advocated for the elimination of these unjust bans.
•Our 2019 report, “Turning on the Lights: How the Massachusetts Trial Court Could Deploy a Virtual Court Service Center to Assist Self-Represented Litigants,” provides a roadmap for creating an online legal help center that would empower the thousands of people facing civil legal crises alone to successfully navigate the courts and achieve a fair outcome. This report has continued to serve as a go-to resource during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Trial Court has released plans to create a comprehensive online portal to provide legal help for unrepresented litigants that aligns with what is envisioned in our report.
•Our 2021 report, “Families Torn Apart: Language-Based Discrimination at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families,” exposed the Massachusetts child welfare system’s failure to provide language access to immigrant and limited English proficient families – a failure that denies parents their right to due process, increases the likelihood that they will be separated from their children, and leaves children traumatized.
•Policy recommendations from our 2012 report, “Keep Kids in Class: New Approaches to School Discipline,” were incorporated into state law.
•We successfully advanced provisions to decriminalize nonviolent incidents of student misconduct and clarify the roles of school resource officers to ensure their inclusion in the state’s landmark 2018 criminal justice reform law.
•We translated and reprinted our know-your-rights resource, “When My Child is Disciplined at School: A Guide for Massachusetts Families,” to make it accessible in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole, and distributed more than 450 copies to community partners, attorneys, and social service providers.
•In 2020, we published a collaborative report with fellow Appleseed Centers, “Protecting Girls of Color from the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” detailing the disproportionate discipline that unjustly pushes Black girls out of their classrooms. The Massachusetts Congressional Delegation issued letters to Governor Charlie Baker and then-U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, citing our report and urging action to address the disciplinary disparities impacting girls of color that it laid bare.
•With pro bono and community partners, we developed the Massachusetts Homeless Youth Handbook, an online know-your-rights guide with 20+ chapters to help youth experiencing homelessness overcome legal barriers and achieve safety, stability, and self-sufficiency.