A partnership with a local nonprofit is allowing Sunnyvale to revive its free legal clinics.
After the pandemic derailed a previous partnership, city officials at the Columbia Neighborhood Center began sussing out interest in reviving a legacy program. A survey by the center last year identified the demise of the clinics as a gap in its service, so Angela Chan, youth and family resources manager at the Columbia Neighborhood Center, said bringing them back was a priority.
“We worked really hard to bring back that service,” she said. “We are really appreciative of these types of partnerships that bring these types of services to the community.”
As they discovered, the Asian Law Alliance (ALA) was willing to provide pro-bono legal services. ALA holds similar clinics in San Jose, Chan said, and the city was able to replicate that model in Sunnyvale.
ALA provides legal counsel on four pillar topics: immigration, family law, housing and securing welfare. If lawyers at the clinic cannot provide insight into another topic, they can refer attendees to the right type of lawyer.
Chan said the program is just getting off the ground, and this month is just the second clinic with the ALA. While the first, which was held over the internet, only had one attendee, Chan said the program has already grown in its second month. This month’s clinic is the first to be held in-person.
The clinics are set to take place the second Thursday of each month.
The next legal clinic will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 8 at the Columbia Neighborhood Center, 785 Morris Ave. in Sunnyvale.
Participants are required to register by noon, but Chan said, depending on the number of registrants, organizers will do their best to accommodate late-comers.
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