The Boston Bar Foundation (BBF) announced grants totaling $1.1 million to 25 Massachusetts community organizations providing a wide variety of core legal services - from domestic violence and immigration to housing and homelessness. The $1.1 million represents an almost $50,000 increase in core legal services grants, compared with fiscal year 2010.
The 37 percent of funds used to disburse the grants will come from the BBF John & Abigail Adams Benefit held earlier this year, and also from BBF reserves. The remainder will come from Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts, a traditional source of funding for legal aid nationally.
The BBF received applications requesting a total of $1,668,669 from forty organizations.
The lawyers serving on the BBF Grants Committee have an in-depth understanding of the community as well as the credibility, capability and capacity of grant applicants. "We have an obligation to ensure that money granted by the BBF is put to work prudently," said Mr. Sherman.
The following organizations are among those that received BBF grants ranging from $5,000 to $385,000: Boston Medical Center Corporation; Children's Law Center Of Massachusetts, Inc.; Urban Revival, Inc. d/b/a City Life/Vida Urbana; Community Legal Services and Counseling Center, Inc.; East Boston Ecumenical Community Council, Inc. (EBECC); Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS); Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC); and Women's Bar Foundation (WBF).