Legal Aid

Beyond Legal Aid: Beyond Legal Aid unites lawyers and activists in collaborative pursuit by leveraging legal services to benefit the most marginalized communities and individuals. They work with underserved communities through the process of building locally-owned legal aid programs. [Website] [IG]

Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness: CCH builds community power and advances racial equity through organizing, advocacy, legal assistance, and education to prevent and end homelessness because housing is a human right. [Website] [IG]

Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights: Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights mobilizes hundreds of volunteer attorneys each year to provide thousands of hours of legal assistance to our clients facing issues with housing, education, voting rights, and more. [Website] [IG]

Chicago People’s Rights Collaborative: CPRC is a volunteer-run, multi-institutional clinic with a mission to provide a breadth of pro bono medical-legal services for individuals seeking asylum, and detained or incarcerated individuals. They work in community with clinicians, trainees, attorneys, and community members, to provide forensic clinical evaluations for survivors of injustice. [Website] [IG]

Citizens Utility Board: CUB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog group that fights for the rights of customers of investor-owned electric, gas and telecom utilities across Illinois. They operate a free consumer advocacy hotline, run free education and outreach events, challenge rate hikes and advocate for clean, renewable energy. [Website] [IG]

First Defense Legal Aid: First Defense Legal Aid mobilizes lawyers and over-policed community members to fill gaps in public defense and create, protect, and engage replicable alternatives to the criminal system starting with its entry points. [Website] [IG]

National Lawyers Guild Chicago: The National Lawyers Guild is a non-profit federation of lawyers, legal workers, and law students. Since 1937, Guild members have been using the law to advance social justice and support progressive social movements. [Website] [IG]

Pushing Envelopes: Grounded in prison abolition, Pushing Envelopes Chicago builds LGBTQ+ community across bars through penpal relationships, legal aid, and re-entry support. Pushing Envelopes Chicago is a collectively-run volunteer organization consisting of currently incarcerated, formerly-incarcerated, system-impacted, and allied individuals with a shared commitment to building community at the intersection of incarceration and LGBTQ+ identities. [Website] [IG]

Sex Worker Outreach Project (SWOP): Sex Workers Outreach Project Chicago is a Black-led, grassroots organization dedicated to providing direct aid and advocacy for anyone working in the sex industry. SWOP Chicago members are current and former sex workers and sex trafficking survivors working together to promote the autonomy and rights of people in the industry. NOTE: SWOP is on hiatus until early 2025. [Website] [IG]

Social Change: Established in 2011, Social Change is a non-profit organization committed to empowering communities through direct action, policy changes, and the sharing of real stories via the annual film festival Changefest. Active in several states, including IL, CA, GA, IN, MO, NC, NY, and WI, they have positively impacted over 100,000 families nationwide, distributing nearly a million pounds of food through 100 events. With at least five legal pop-ups yearly, they have provided crucial aid and contributed to the passage of over 30 laws, showcasing our dedication to creating lasting social change. [Website] [IG]

Transformative Justice Law Project: Rooted in beliefs of abolition and gender self-determination, TJLP provides free, zealous, life & gender affirming legal services. They are known particularly for their name change mobilizations—free, in-person support for those seeking to change their name or gender marker on legal documents. [Website] [IG]

Uptown People’s Law Center: UPLC advocates for prisoners, tenants, and disabled people denied public benefits. [Website] [IG]Westside Justice Center: The Westside Justice Center is a community-centered organization that promotes a holistic approach to justice by: 1) Facilitating legal literacy to reduce recidivism; 2) Providing legal and quasi-legal assistance to individuals; and 3) Establishing and nurturing community trust through participatory deliberations and restorative justice practices, to collaboratively mitigate the consequences of incarceration on criminalized communities. [Website] [IG]