Our History
The vision that would become the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic was first expressed in a Palm Sunday sermon in 1992 at an Indianapolis church located in the distressed Mapleton Fall Creek neighborhood. The sermon noted the need for a legal clinic in this inner city neighborhood, and six Christian attorneys answered the call, contacting other pro bono clinics and the American Bar Association Office of Pro Bono to research the formation of a pro bono legal clinic. At that time, the ABA Office of Pro Bono knew of no other pro bono legal clinics that had been birthed from a church, so a new concept was formed, using the ABA pro bono guidelines and taking the best ideas from existing pro bono clinics formed to serve low income populations. The clinic's doors were opened in January 1994 as the Mapleton-Fall Creek Christian Legal Clinic, and it became a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation in 1995.
A number of important features distinguish us from other legal clinic programs that serve low income clients. First, we are faith based; the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic was birthed for the purpose of serving the poor as a means of demonstrating the love of Christ. The love of Christ motivates our service. We believe that this motivation leads us to go the extra mile for our clients and we seek to be known as a place of refuge and hope for those who are downtrodden and disadvantaged. Justice for the poor is a critical theme in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 82:3-4. We do not require any sort of faith statement or evangelistic exercise from our clients or volunteers; we welcome all clients and assistance from any attorney who wishes to serve low income families by rendering quality pro bono representation.
Second, the Clinic's accessible neighborhood locations and intentional partnership with other non-profit providers of service to low-income families distinguish it from other pro bono clinics. Low income families often have transportation issues and a downtown location can be not only inconvenient, but also intimidating. Moreover, neighborhood locations in multi-service settings with other non-profit providers, government, and churches render our service more holistic; we serve the same clients/patients and can refer and coordinate our services. Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic seeks extensive partnership in all aspects of our programs. Some of our primary partners include: Vida Nueva, Mexican Consulate, St. Vincent Hospital, Julian Center, United Way of Central Indiana, HUD, IRS, Breaking Free, Momentive Consumer Credit Counseling, Indiana Legal Services, and many more.
We seek to serve the felt needs of the low income communities in our vicinity . The Preventive Law Educational outreach program was added in 1997 when we recognized the critical need for “preventive” legal services: providing information that empowers families to make positive life choices and thereby avoiding or mitigating legal problems. Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic won the 2007 Indiana Bar Foundation Law Related Education Award for our Preventive Law Education program.
While we provide legal representation and preventive law education in a broad practice spectrum, we will continue to add specific programs that respond to the felt needs of our communities and clients. For example, the Clinic is a HUD certified Housing Counseling Agency and has responded to the foreclosure crisis facing Indiana homeowners by joining the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network and forming the foreclosure prevention program, Helping Hoosier Homeowners. Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic is also an IRS designated Low income Taxpayer Clinic, assisting low income families with tax controversies and English as a second language (ESL) tax education. Our area has experienced a rapid influx of new immigrant families joining our community. The Clinic responded quickly to assist these vulnerable communities by establishing an immigrant outreach program in 2001. The Clinic's staff and volunteers have expertise in immigration law and fluency in Spanish and other foreign languages and in 2004 the Clinic won the Indiana Achievement Award for Community Impact for our service to the immigrant community. Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic continues to reach out to this vulnerable community through the Immigrants in Crisis Project, which focuses resources to assist immigrant victims of domestic violence, violent crime, abused, neglected or abandoned children and those persecuted because of their religious or political beliefs, or because of their race, ethnicity or membership in a particular social group.
Given the tremendous need for pro bono legal services for low income families, it is not surprising that the Clinic has grown exponentially each year since its inception. For six years, we were an entirely volunteer organization, growing to thirty volunteer attorneys by 2000, when growth necessitated the hiring of paid staff. In 2000, grants from Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust and Trinity Episcopal Church permitted the Clinic to hire both an Executive Director and an office manager/receptionist. The year 2000 was pivotal in other respects as well. The Clinic grew out of its original office space at 401 E. 34 th St. and moved its business office to the Jubilee Center in the Citizens-King Park Neighborhood, maintaining the Mapleton-Fall Creek location as a weekly intake site. Because the Clinic now had intake offices in two inner city neighborhoods and had long served families beyond the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood, the Clinic name was changed to the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic.
Our Clinic is neighborhood based and continues to add intake sites in distressed neighborhoods in response to community need. In 2009, the Clinic officially opened a satellite office at the Community Resource Center for Refugees in Fort Wayne, Indiana, providing legal assistance and education to low income and immigrant families. The Clinic intends to replicate all the Indianapolis based programs in Fort Wayne, striving to meet the legal demands of our low income and immigrant Fort Wayne neighbors.
