History

Providing a Voice For Our Most Vulnerable Children

CLCM founders Tom Schiavoni, Harvey Lowell and Tony DeMarco celebrating the CLCM’s 40th anniversary.

CLCM founders Tom Schiavoni, Harvey Lowell and Tony DeMarco celebrating the CLCM’s 40th anniversary.

Founded in 1977 as the North Shore Children's Law Project, the CLCM was created by advocates who were intent on replicating a growing national movement which recognized that children, the poor in particular, had a right to due process.  The project was the first in the state to focus legal services exclusively on indigent children and youth.

Those services were originally dedicated to children "stuck" in state facilities and human service bureaucracies. Thereafter, legal assistance was expanded to assist those improperly denied education services and those who were abused and neglected. In later years, the organization developed juvenile justice and, more recently, immigration advocacy components.

For a more detailed history of CLCM, please click here.