News and Press Releases

Boston Law Firms Rally for Community Challenge: Association of Legal Administrators Selects the Committee to End Elder Homelessness, Inc. to Benefit from First Coordinated Service Effort

January 9, 2001

BOSTON, MA - The Massachusetts chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) has recently awarded over $23,000 and numerous in-kind donations to the Committee to End Elder Homelessness, Inc. (CEEH), as the results of their Community Challenge this past fall. Lynn Russo, Executive Director at Epstein, Becker & Green, P.C. and chairperson of the ALA Community Challenge Committee, says that "This is the first time law firms have unified with a specific goal to benefit the community." Checks are still arriving at the Committee, a non-profit organization which provides permanent housing and integrated services to homeless elderly women and men in the Greater Boston area.

Observing that the journey out of homelessness can be a strenuous effort, especially if you are elderly, the ALA decided to call upon the resources of the Boston area law firms to specifically help the homeless in Boston. What encourages Russo, "is that my firm has been very supportive. In fact, very few firms are not participating in some way, either by giving a monetary donation, or by collecting goods that the Committee can use at one of their four sites, or for their hundreds of outreach clients." Susan Pravda, Co-Managing Partner at EBG's Boston office, says "We see our firm and the ALA as providing the investment that will enable the Committee and its clients to escape homelessness."

Russo was first involved with the Committee to End Elder Homelessness during its modest beginnings less than ten years ago, coordinating volunteers to work with the nine women tenants at their first site on Bishop Street in Jamaica Plain. The Committee has grown significantly since then, and currently provides permanent housing for 70 elders, and helps place hundreds more into permanent housing around the Greater Boston area. Unfortunately, the need has also grown significantly. Massachusetts has seen a 17% increase in homelessness among elders since 1997.

"Together as a group [of law firms], we needed to ask ourselves how can we bring some benefit to a community that is under-served," says Russo, " and assisting homeless elders within the community seemed like a tremendously worthwhile goal".