Community Engagement - Legal Action Chicago

We do not work alone. In addition to seeking advice from Legal Aid Chicago’s advocates and clients, we consult with our community partners to identify issues that we should work on. Then, in collaboration with these partners and other advocacy groups, we develop comprehensive solutions to the most pressing problems our partners have identified.

Legal Action participates in a number of coalitions, including Housing Action Illinois, Financial Inclusion for All Illinois, the Affordable Utilities Table, the Water Justice Coalition, the Chicago Area Fair Housing Alliance, the Transit Table, and the Responsible Budget Coalition.

Our attorneys also contribute to ad hoc working groups focused on particular policy issues, such as reducing the unnecessary and harmful separation of families caught in the child welfare system.

Accomplishments in Collaboration with Our Community Partners

Since the fall of 2021, we have supported the Transit Table’s longstanding efforts to reduce regressive fines and fees in the city of Chicago. You can learn more about the Transit Table and the coalition’s work on fines and fees here.

Additionally, when the federal government issued proposed regulations that would codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Legal Action consulted with community partners, lawyers, and immigration advocates to identify the most important issues to include in comments on the proposed regulations. Then, in partnership with Legal Aid Chicago, The Resurrection Project, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, and more than a dozen additional community partners, we drafted and submitted comments that expressed strong support for the proposed regulations while offering practical suggestions for improving the DACA program.

Recently, Legal Action Chicago partnered with our sister agency Legal Aid Chicago, along with the Shriver Center on Poverty Law and Arise Chicago, to comment on – and largely voice praise for – proposed rules issued by the U.S. State Department that would implement long-needed reforms to the J-1 visa program, popularly known as the “Au Pair” program. The comments also offered several suggestions for further improving the State Department’s proposed changes.
Legal Action has supported community organizations’ efforts through amicus briefs. In June 2022, Legal Action and First Defense Legal Aid drafted and filed an amicus brief with the Chicago Torture Justice Center, the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, and the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (among others) to support Wayne Washington’s appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. Mr. Washington was wrongfully convicted of murder, but Illinois courts refused to grant him a “Certificate of Innocence” despite overwhelming evidence. These certificates are critical to ensuring those who leave prison after a wrongful conviction are not hindered in their ability to find employment and stable housing. You can read the brief here.
Since its founding, Legal Action has partnered with and supported the Healthy Illinois Campaign, a coalition of several organizations that came together with the goal of making quality, affordable healthcare coverage accessible to all Illinoisans, regardless of immigration status. We have supported Healthy IL in legislation efforts, which resulted in two great victories for low-income immigrants in Illinois: the passage of Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors (HBIS) in 2020 and Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults (HBIA) in 2021.

We continue to monitor applicants so that all immigrants who qualify for these programs are able to access their benefits, while also continuing support in legislation and community education so that Healthy IL can accomplish its goal of passing legislation that covers the rest of the immigrants not covered in HBIS and HBIA.

You can learn more about Healthy IL and their accomplishments here.
In 2023, Legal Action Chicago partnered with Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) – represented by the National Consumer Law Center – in a successful effort to obtain groundbreaking low-income discount rates for millions of people served by Illinois’ gas utilities. The Illinois Commerce Commission ultimately adopted Legal Action/COFI’s proposals for Peoples Gas, Nicor Gas, and North Shore Gas in November 2023, and the substantial discounts are set to be made available starting on October 1, 2024. The discounts will be available to those at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Line, and the poorest customers may receive a discount as high as 83% if they qualify. Initial projects by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity indicate that these discounts will provide well over $1 billion in benefits to low-income gas consumers over the next decade.

Read more about the ICC’s decision adopting the discount rates here and here.
Since 2022, Legal Action Chicago has offered a “Know Your Rights”-style training on debt collection-related issues around Chicago, including an explanation of various consumer protection laws and how debt collection cases move through the courts. We have educated hundreds of Chicagoans and partnered with a variety of local organizations to host these trainings, including the Kindness Campaign, the Resurrection Project, the Heartland Alliance, Working Credit, LIFT, Inc., and more.

If you are interested in hosting a “Know Your Debtor Rights” training led by Supervisory Attorney Daniel J. Schneider, please contact him at dschneider@legalactionchicago.org.