To answer God's call to seek justice and mercy by providing free legal services.

Cabrini Green Legal Aid’s (CGLA’s) purpose is to answer God’s call to seek justice and mercy for those living in poverty by providing free legal services that strength lives, families, and communities.

Our vision is for our clients to leave us stronger than they came. We accomplish this by providing high quality legal services enhanced by a professional social worker. CGLA provides free legal services in four areas of the law: housing, family, criminal records, and criminal defense. We integrate social work into our services to extend our impact beyond the legal crisis.

For example, when we fight an eviction, we also help our client to address the issues that led to the eviction in the first place. We measure not only cases accepted but long term impact such as access to affordable housing, family stability, employment, and recidivism.

CGLA was founded in 1973 by LaSalle Street Church to serve the residents of the Cabrini Green neighborhood, but expanded to serve clients throughout the city of Chicago in 1995. We base our acceptance decisions on the degree to which we can have a long-term impact on each client’s life. In-house, we focus on difficult litigation cases, accepting nearly 700 clients each year.

We also operate our Expungement Help Desk at the Daley Center where over 4,000 clients per year receive end services related to legally clearing their criminal records so they can find employment.

CGLA recently received the 2008 Alford-Axelson Award for Non-Profit Managerial Excellence and moved into a new facility at 740 N. Milwaukee.

For more information about CGLA and pro bono opportunities, please visit www.cgla.net.