Massachusetts Law Reform Institute

This legislation brought about the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the agency that administered the Administration's antipoverty programs. As part of the War on Poverty, the OEO developed a method of extending civil legal assistance to poor people. The OEO created a network of legal assistance programs, one in each locality, that could be used to represent low-income individuals in civil matters. The OEO also developed state "support centers" to provide leadership, support, and guidance to the legal service community on issues related to poverty law. The OEO hoped to provide a means to advocate on major issues that mattered to low-income persons and engage in systemic litigation. The statewide support centers were committed to specialist advocacy and are experts in emerging and new areas of poverty law. They would work in close collaboration with clients and anti-poverty groups to address the barriers and disparities that people living in poverty face. MLRI, a statewide policy and law support center for Massachusetts's poor, was created in 1968 as part of a national movement. MLRI utilized the model's collaborative relationships and its multi-forum advocacy. This requires a variety of strategies and tactics, including test case and class-action litigation, legislative advocacy, and administrative advocacy. It also involves educating policymakers and the public about low-income issues.