Center For Public Representation

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T he Center for Public Representation is dedicated to promoting change in the quality of lives of individuals with disabilities in Massachusetts and to pursuing systemic reform and enforcement of legal rights on a statewide and national basis. The Center's primary purpose is to serve people with disabilities, and particularly those who are institutionalized, discriminated against, or otherwise denied fundamental human rights. The Center is committed to fostering equality, diversity, and social justice in all of its activities. Goals and Objectives: The Center for Public Representation should be dedicated and organized to fulfill the following goals: 1. T o be a state and national center for leadership in legal advocacy for persons with disabilities, through the development, testing, and refinement of creative system reform strategies, exemplary individual representation, and innovative methods of service delivery. 2. To generate and disseminate new knowledge about legal advocacy, system reform strategies, and service delivery models through training, technical assistance, support, and publications. 3.To promote systemic change in the rules, enforcement mechanisms, and disability service systems which impact the lives and rights of persons with disabilities. 4. To provide legal representation and advocacy for individuals with severe disabilities through the creation and operation of legal rights projects which serve as national service delivery models. 5. To maintain a stable and supportive organization which values and supports diversity, which encourages long term commitments from experienced, qualified staff persons, and which encourages and rewards excellence. The Center for Public Representation is a public interest law firm which has been assisting people with disabilities, both in the community and in institutional settings, for over thirty years. Its staff of ten attorneys and two paralegals work in its Northampton and Newton offices, although much of the Center's activities occur throughout Massachusetts and in other jurisdictions. Through its systemic advocacy over the past two and half decades, the Center has been a major force in promoting improvements in services for citizens with mental disabilities throughout the country. With funding from the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation, the Center is a statewide backup center and provides statewide technical assistance and support to public and private attorneys who represent people with disabilities in Massachusetts. It provides support to legal services programs throughout the state on mental disability issues, co-counsels system reform cases with legal services and other public interest organizations to enforce the rights of persons with disabilities. The Center is also a national support center, providing training, and technical assistance to protection and advocacy programs ( P&As ) in each of the fifty states and territories under a contract with National Disability Rights Network ( NDRN ). It serves as the national technical assistance and support center on all institutional and community issues involving persons confined in psychiatric hospitals, mental retardation centers, nursing homes, jails, prisons, forensic institutions, juvenile justice facilities, and all types of community programs. The Center lacks the resources and specific knowledge of individual states' laws to respond effectively to individual inquiries or requests for assistance, but help is available from your state's protection and advocacy system. since we seldom can provide representation in individual cases, you can contact your P&A through the link above or the NDRN link below. Directory of Lawyers Practicing Disability Law: A free online resource from the Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law