Why Support LAJC?
- Every year, we defend thousands of people in and out of court from eviction, financial exploitation, deportation, denial of affirmative rights to education and public benefits, and more.
- Together with community and coalition partners, our impact campaigns have won new rights, such as the right to drive legally regardless of immigration status.
- We have enforced existing rights, such as forcing the state to release over one billion dollars in illegally withheld unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
- We have ended abusive or unconstitutional policies, such as the repeated incarceration of unhoused alcoholics and local zoning laws originating in Jim Crow.
- And we have protected or secured new investments in our collective well-being, such as expanding preschool and winning millions of dollars in equitable education funding.
If justice is your goal, we are a great return on investment.
There are no quick wins when it comes to fighting systemic racism and poverty. For example:
- It took six years to repeal Virginia’s most sinister form of debtor’s prison, which automatically suspended 300,000 to 400,000 driver’s licenses each year for inability to pay court debt.
- The effort with and on behalf of public housing residents to avoid demolition of their homes and achieve one-for-one replacement of public housing units in Charlottesville spanned decades.
- And we have multiple big cases that have been pending for more than five years.
Achieving structural change takes time, persistence, sustained resources, and the ability to adapt strategy and tactics to complex and ever-changing circumstances.
To create long-term, sustainable, and community-driven change, LAJC advocates:
- Build meaningful, ongoing, and accountable relationships of trust with communities directly impacted by systemic injustice.
- Support those communities in wielding their own power against the systems that create and perpetuate poverty.
- Combine direct services and systemic advocacy in ways that allows us to build long-term power to shape our future while simultaneously responding to a community’s most urgent needs.
Effective + Committed + Accountable = LAJC
Our work is community-driven, but our ability to do the work is driven by your financial support. We count on your support because—unlike government or foundation funding—every dollar you give to LAJC is unencumbered by rules against lobbying, organizing, or filing lawsuits.
Your support helps us to center the voices of directly affected community members in directing resources where they will have the most impact.
So please join us and the individuals and communities we serve in the fight for the structural change needed to end poverty. Please give to the Legal Aid Justice Center.
