A fun walk around Uptown Charlotte! (Week #4)

Hello all,

As I mentioned last week, Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy began in 1967 to help fight the War on Poverty. The Office of Economic Opportunity gave a grant to the Mecklenburg County Bar to establish a Legal Aid organization to provide civil legal assistance to low-income people. In the beginning, the organization only had three attorneys and two secretaries. Over the years, CCLA has expanded immensely not only in the number of employees, but also in the number of people who are being helped. The organization, specifically the Immigrant Justice Program, has seen a sharp increase in the number of clients because of the growing violence in Central America and the change made by the current administration. Some of the challenges surrounding this increase in clients is that there are not enough attorneys to meet the demand. With around 500 open cases, there are not enough resources to continue taking new cases. To solve this issue, clients are being referred to other organizations, so they can obtain the help they need. Furthermore, the immigration attorneys at CCLA often still provide guidance to clients even if they do not take their case.

With a growing staff, CCLA has had the challenge of having enough space for all employees and clients. The organization acquired a building down the road from the main office to accommodate all employees. However, space allocation is still an issue. We are currently looking into options of how we can solve this challenge. The highlight of my week was participating in a scavenger hunt with members of three other nonprofits in Charlotte. We went around uptown and ended up at a barcade for a mixer. I was able to make new connections from these other nonprofits while walking around uptown Charlotte! Even though our team did not win, the views during our walk were great!