Community Legal Aid (CLA) is the civil legal services organization serving Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire Counties. They provide legal assistance with a broad range of civil legal issues including (but not limited to) family law matters for survivors of domestic violence, housing (eviction defense and housing discrimination), public benefits, elder law, employment law, education law, veterans legal issues, immigration (in the subsidiary, Central West Justice Center), and criminal records and reentry legal issues.

Annie Connor is an Attorney for the CORI/Reentry unit. This unit provides legal assistance to individuals seeking to seal and/or expunge criminal records and people facing public and subsidized housing denials and terminations due to criminal records issues. Further, the unit provides assistance with criminal record-related employment denials, denials of educational and job training opportunities, as well as some other types of civil consequences of the criminal court system. She is going to talk about these legal issues, options for addressing them, and the connections between criminal records issues and both race and disability discrimination. She will also inform you about how to access legal assistance through Community Legal Aid.