Racial Justice Fellowship

The Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation has created a Racial Justice Fellowship to expand the reach of legal services in communities that have difficulty accessing the justice system due to linguistic or cultural barriers.  The goals of the Fellowship include using systemic advocacy and other strategies to address pervasive problems of racial injustice.  Given the disproportionately high rate of poverty among communities of color (an estimated 43% of all individuals in poverty in Massachusetts) and the unmet legal needs of these communities, MLAC believes the Fellowship will help address this growing need. The Racial Justice Fellowship will last for two years and will be available to MLAC-funded and Legal Services Corporation-funded programs in Massachusetts. 

The Racial Justice Fellowship for FY07 was awarded to Greater Boston Legal Services for a pilot project to work with battered immigrant Latinas in Waltham.  The project will use a three-pronged approach of individual representation, systemic advocacy on barriers Latinas face in accessing their legal rights and the creation of a group of Latina lay advocates to teach them about and help them access their legal rights. 

Mithra Merryman will staff the position.  A graduate of Harvard Law School (1992), Merryman has represented victims of domestic violence in primarily family law and immigration matters.  She is both bilingual (Spanish and English) and bicultural (Cuban-American) and has worked for Greater Boston Legal Services for more than eight years.  In addition, she has served as a Visiting Clinical Professor at the Civil Litigation Clinic at Boston College Law School and as a Clinical Instructor at Harvard Legal Aid Bureau.  While working at the Boston College Legal Aid Bureau in Waltham from May 2005 to May 2006 she noticed the unmet need of Latina women in Waltham.  She began to establish collaborative projects with the victim/witness advocate at the Waltham District Court and the domestic violence advocate at the battered women’s shelter.  Recently, she trained local community providers on immigration and domestic violence at the first meeting of the Waltham/Newton Domestic Violence Roundtable.  Her connection with the Boston College Law School will allow her to leverage her work by bringing in law student volunteers.

For more information on the Racial Justice Fellowship, contact Pat Swansey at pswansey@mlac.org.

For proposal requirements, click the PDF below.

Proposal-Requirements-for-FY07.pdf