Connecticut Legal Services (CLS) is Connecticut’s largest not-for-profit law firm. Its mission is to provide access to justice and protect the critical civil legal rights of low-income individuals and families through representation, systemic advocacy, advice, collaboration, and education. CLS serves low-income families in 122 of the 169 Connecticut communities (sister agencies serve areas of greater Hartford and greater New Haven). The service area includes hundreds of thousands of families eligible for its services.
CLS protects and secures critical civil legal rights for its clients and advances access to justice for all Connecticut residents. The organization produces optimal individual and community results, continuously striving to increase the impact and efficiency of its work. The staff are CLS’s greatest asset, supported by a positive work environment and enriched by the individual and collective difference they make.
Over the last decade, the Jeffrey P. Ossen Family Foundation has played a critical role in assisting Connecticut Legal Services (CLS) provide its services to more than 800 low-income Windham County individuals and families in crisis. By supporting its successful initiatives such as—CLS’ School Based Legal Project, CLS’ Lead Poisoning Legal Project, and CLS’ Pandemic/Pandemic Recovery Legal Project—the Foundation has had a direct positive effect on the lives of hundreds of families who needed CLS’ assistance to address often devastating legal emergencies. Foundation funding also allowed CLS to provide hundreds of community outreach and legal education events and to work with local community partners to ensure that those individuals and families could access Foundation-funded CLS services. The Ossen Family Foundation helped CLS make a significant difference for numerous Windham County individuals and families including—domestic violence survivors, those facing homelessness or job loss, those not able to access health care or health care coverage, elders who were victims of abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation, and many others with urgent legal problems. The Ossen Family Foundation has been an extraordinary partner whose generosity continues to make a difference for hundreds of low-income Windham County individuals and families to whom CLS has provided services.
