The Massachusetts Bar Foundation’s annual appeal is underway. While the MBF’s primary mission is funding legal aid programs across the state, they also work to promote an understanding of the law and educate young people about the possibilities of careers in the legal profession. Thanks to generous contributions from the legal community, the MBF has been a longtime supporter of the Supreme Judicial Court's Judicial Youth Corps and the Massachusetts Bar Association's Mock Trial Program, and just made its second grant to the Justice George Lewis Ruffin Society’s Long Road to Justice project.
Judicial Youth Corps
First established in 1991 by the SJC and coordinated in partnership with the Massachusetts Bar Association since 2007, the Judicial Youth Corps program gives high school students in Boston, Worcester, and Springfield an opportunity to experience the judicial system and learn about the law through educational sessions and hands-on, paid summer internships in the courts. The MBF has supported the Worcester program since 2007 and the Springfield program since 2017.
MBA Mock Trial
First organized in 1985, the MBA’s Mock Trial Program places high school teams from across the state in simulated courtroom situations where students assume the roles of lawyers, defendants and witnesses in hypothetical cases. The MBF has participated in this program since 2002 by providing a travel grant to the Massachusetts champions to allow them to compete in the national competition.
The Justice George Lewis Ruffin Society’s Long Road to Justice Projects
The MBF awarded a grant to the Justice George Lewis Ruffin Society in 2016 to support the permanent installation at the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse of the Long Road to Justice: The African American Experience in the Massachusetts Courts. This multi-media exhibition details the 300-year struggle of African Americans to obtain justice through the commonwealth’s court system.
In 2021, the MBF was pleased to support the Long Road to Justice Film Project, a documentary film adaption of the original exhibit, which will be distributed, along with a companion teaching guide, to middle and high schools across the commonwealth.
Please consider making a tax-deductible year-end gift to help support these youth-focused programs and other critical access to justice initiatives funded by the MBF. To donate, visit www.massbarfoundation.org/holidaygift.