November 16, 2023
A new grant from the state Attorney General’s Office will bring legal aid to Berkshire County immigrants
BY The Berkshire Eagle
PITTSFIELD — Two organizations working to help immigrants in Berkshire County will get a welcome boost from a new grant program from the state Attorney General’s Office.
The Berkshire Immigrant Center and Community Legal Aid are among 13 nonprofit legal service organizations throughout the state to receive a total of $780,000 to support their work helping immigrants navigate the legal system. The announcement was made Wednesday by Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell.
Community Legal Aid in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester counties will direct its share — a little more than $80,000 — to the Central West Justice Center. That organization provides immigration assistance to people who are survivors of domestic violence and other crimes, unaccompanied children and refugees fleeing violence.
Central West Justice Center plans to use the new money to hire a paralegal who will take over the planning and logistics of legal clinics for new arrivals in central and Western Massachusetts.
Berkshire Immigrant Center has something similar in the works, and is planning to host six legal clinics. Executive Director Melissa Canavan said the grant represents a long-needed helping hand.
“We’re just at capacity and we’re trying to do as much as we can,” Canavan said. “The point of this money was to be able to expand capacity in whatever lens that looks like.”
Last fiscal year, the Berkshire Immigrant Center helped 856 people with two staff caseworkers and one volunteer caseworker. The money the center will receive this month will allow it to pick up where casework leaves off.
Over the next year, the center will host six clinics with immigration attorneys to give their clients an opportunity to talk through green cards, work authorizations or their other unique legal situations.
The $70,000 from the grant will cover the cost of finding and staffing the clinics with an attorney or two, the travel costs of the attorneys to the county and the cost of hiring the attorneys to take on individual cases. The goal is to make what can often be yearslong legal processes more accessible for immigrants trying to start fresh in Berkshire County.
Canavan said there’s still planning to be done on the center’s part, but the hope is to make the clinics a kind of one stop-shop for services — with an inaugural clinic in February or March.
If it all goes to plan, then immigrants will be able to meet with an attorney, as well as representatives of local organizations focused on providing housing, health care, education and employment opportunities.
A portion of the funds will be used to remove some of the traditional barriers of entry like child care concerns and distance. Grant money will cover child care during the clinic, and organizers plan to host clinics around the county so that transportation — or lack thereof — doesn’t become a problem.
Canavan said that the center is “fortunate that we were able to help that many people, but we also know that in general this county has so much need for the support that we’re offering.” That’s why the center plans to call on its partners at Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires to help reduce the number of new residents that fall through the gap.
VIM will identify new arrivals to the county through its patient network and connect them with Berkshire Immigrant Center and its clinics, Canavan said.
She said she hopes the clinics can bring “the sense of relief to know that some of the costs are going to be covered or the relief to know that their case is going to be taken on.
“I wish we’d be able to promise all these things to everybody and say you’re going to see someone, you’re going to see someone and we’re going to be able to cover everything,” Canavan said. “But something is something.”