Center for Elder Law & Justice, Inc.
Center for Elder Law & Justice is working to improve long-term health outcomes and increase the wellbeing of children and families by strengthening the relationships between medical, legal and social service providers through its medical-legal partnership, the MedLaw Partnership of Western New York. MedLaw is enhancing their existing social services by hiring a social services navigator to provide warm referrals, to connect all clients with wraparound services, to enhance existing community networks, and to embed social work partnership at all health care facilities. The MLP is also hiring a staff attorney to increase capacity on public benefits, SSI, SSDI, kinship care, housing instability and housing code violation cases. Finally, the Partnership is increasing the number of trainings they provide to partners and the community to increase education. Together these will address the complex social problems and health disparities in the community.
Highlight: hired both navigator & attorney ; 18 new cases opened with MLP funds between 9/30/23 — 3/29/24
Montana Legal Services Association
The Montana Legal Services Association’s work on the plans to strengthen the partnership’s legal capacity and ability to connect families with wraparound services to achieve better health and social outcomes for low-income, vulnerable patients and their families. MHJP’s project is increasing capacity by hiring an additional attorney and an intake navigator to improve screenings of social needs and fully integrate social services into the program. This includes creating a robust referral process, as well as providing legal consults for healthcare providers. The project is working to build more partnerships (particularly around childcare, eviction, and domestic violence), increasing the screening rate of healthcare partners, increasing social work outreach and participation in county and regional task forces, and increasing the number of American Indian patients served by expanding the partnership to include the Montana Consortium for Urban Indian Health.
Highlight: hired both navigator & attorney and finalized MOU with Montana Consortium for Urban Indian Health; renewed the partnership agreements with eight healthcare centers and one hospital for 2024; 82 new cases opened with MLP funds between 9/30/23 — 3/29/24
Yale New Haven Health Services Corporation
The Connecticut Medical-Legal Partnership Project (“CTMLPP”), plans to expand its current services to vulnerable children, youth and their families provided by the Center for Children’s Advocacy Yale New Haven Health Medical Legal Partnership by both increasing staff and educating clinicians, including Community Health Workers, to identify and address legal needs that impact health. By integrating legal expertise into healthcare settings, CTMLPP tackles issues like housing, education, and disability rights. With both the addition of more staff and a new curriculum to teach current clinicians to issue spot and connect to legal resources, CTMLPP will expand its program to help more children and their families. The program provides legal services, educates medical providers and community organizations, and advocates for systemic policy changes to improve children’s health. Innovatively, the CTMLPP will incorporate a Community Health Worker (“CHW”) to extend its reach, connecting clients with essential resources and coordinating care, and will create a curriculum for CHWS in other parts of the Yale New Haven Health System to enable them to broaden their reach. The CTMLPP also includes supervision and training of clinical law students working hand-in-hand with the care team on behalf of patients. These efforts will strengthen community connections and improve overall health outcomes.
Highlight: — from September 30, 2023 to March 29, 2024 the CTMLPP handled over 180 new referrals and cases along with its current caseload. That number includes advice, referrals, and direct representation to patients and their families as well as legal information given directly to providers to assist their patients. Thanks to this extra support from this grant, the CTMLPP was able to handle this caseload while also hiring and training a new attorney, a part-time CHW, and 5 law students as well as starting to write the CHW curriculum.
Community Legal Aid Services, Inc
The goal of the Health Education Advocacy and Law Project (HEAL) MLP+ program is to expand capacity to provide comprehensive legal and wraparound social services to low-income families with children in the greater Akron, Ohio region. HEAL is doing so by creating a new case management process to ensure that all referred patients are connected to a social services staff member and are successfully connected to wraparound services. The program is also expanding the legal focus from housing and education to include family law, income stability, and cases involving immigrants, refugees and families with limited English proficiency. This will include increased outreach to immigrant families, and intentional strengthening of existing social service partnerships.
Highlight: created new workflow to refer patients from healthcare providers to lawyers and social service providers; 59 new cases opened with MLP funds between 9/30/23 — 3/29/24
Le Bonheur Community Health and Well-Being
Memphis CHILD provides free legal advocacy and representation, and social service agency linkages to patients of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and clients of Methodist Le Bonheur Community Outreach. The Memphis CHILD program will maintain their current level of legal and social support in the areas of income support, family law, education, civil rights, and racial equity while expanding into the areas of housing stability and environmental health. To do so, the program is expanding the role of the MLP’s social worker to include program management, subcontracting to add a housing attorney, onboarding social work interns, partnering with local housing organizations, strengthening their collaboration with the University of Memphis law clinic, and participating in advocacy efforts around housing issues and lead hazards. This will allow Memphis CHILD to improve housing outcomes for families through increased capacity to provide legal counsel and representation in negotiations with landlords, code violations in rental housing, and eviction proceedings by also working on advocacy to change underlying policy.
Highlight: promoted social worker to program manager and hired social worker and intake coordinator; finalized subcontract and began working with housing attorney; finalized university contract to onboard social work interns; 23 new cases opened with MLP funds between 9/30/23 — 3/29/24
View Success Stories for Le Bonheur
National Nursing Centers Consortium
The FAIR+ Project in Philadelphia is expanding its support for pregnant and parenting families with low incomes by enhancing legal services and social support to promote social and health equity. The project will add two full-time Staff Attorneys to address critical legal needs in areas like housing stability and income stability, while also creating a Social Services Navigator role to assist with non-legal issues such as accessing critical benefits, vital documents, services, and community-based resources. Additionally, the project will strengthen partnerships with social services providers, offer training to improve capacity in addressing complex issues, and utilize a Family Support Fund to provide direct financial assistance to prevent emergencies. Through these efforts, the project aims to create a more integrated and effective support system for vulnerable families.
Highlight: hired two full-time Staff Attorneys, hired a Family Resources Manager and hired a Social Services Navigator; developed screening and referral processes; 59 new cases opened with MLP funds between 9/30/23 — 3/29/24
View Success Stories for the National Nursing Centers Consortium
University of Hawai'i
The Medical-Legal Partnership for Children in Hawaiʻi (MLPC-HI) at Kōkua Kalihi Valley (KKV) addresses social determinants of health by integrating legal care with pediatric care to provide wraparound services for vulnerable families. Since its inception in 2009, MLPC-HI has focused on preventive law, building trust and working alongside Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and immigrant communities to tackle issues like eviction, caregiving, and domestic violence before they escalate. The program's three-pronged approach—direct legal services, professional education, and systemic advocacy—has expanded to include a new site at Kapiʻolani Medical Center, offering specialized support for children with disabilities. MLPC-HI is recognized as a vital legal resource for low-income families in Hawaiʻi, advocating for equity and providing essential, comprehensive care.
Highlight: created new management role (crucial in being able to support opening of new MLP site); formed new partnerships with disability and immigrant focused organizations
Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Inc.
Our new pilot program within the Medical-Legal Partnership at OU Pediatrics is designed to make a real difference for low-income families by expanding civil legal services. We're enhancing support at the state's busiest low-income Pediatric Clinic by increasing staffing and specialized training.
Key Focus Areas:
- Housing Stability: Helping families’ secure safe and stable homes.
- Income Support: Ensuring families have access to essential financial resources.
- Rights: Protecting the rights of our most vulnerable populations.
Social Service Navigators will be at the forefront, using screening tools to identify legal needs that are integrated directly into patient records. We're also building strong partnerships with community organizations and coordinating care through a cloud-based platform.
Equity is our Priority: We're focusing resources on those who need them most, with special attention to marginalized groups.
Impact Highlight:
- We’ve hired a dedicated paralegal and attorney.
- 8 new cases opened with MLP funds between 9/30/23 — 3/29/24