Dear CVLC Supporter,

Connecticut Veterans Legal Center has come a long way over the years. Fifteen years ago, a volunteer–Howard Udell–was helping out at the then-fledgling Errera Center at the West Haven VA. When Veterans found out this nice older man was a lawyer, he became inundated with requests from Veterans who desperately needed help and were at the end of their rope dealing with bureaucracy.

With the partnership of a young lawyer–the one-and-only Margaret Middleton–Howard founded CVLC as the first Medical-Legal Partnership embedded in a VA Healthcare setting in the country.

We remain strong believers in the value of the Medical-Legal Partnership model with the VA, working closely with clinicians and social workers across the state, but we are now able to help additional Veterans outside the VA system and before they reach crisis thanks to important programs such as Right to Counsel.

So, on an early January morning, members of our Board of Directors and staff joined together as part of our Strategic Planning process to take inventory of who we are as an organization and to dream big about what kind of world we want to live in–for Veterans and for us all.

Together we drafted the following new mission and vision statements to lead us into our next era of serving Veterans:

CVLC MISSION

Connecticut Veterans Legal Center’s mission is to empower, support, and improve the lives of Connecticut Veterans by providing free legal assistance to help them overcome legal barriers to housing, healthcare, income, and recovery.

CVLC VISION

Connecticut Veterans Legal Center’s vision is for all Connecticut Veterans to thrive and contribute to their communities with a sense of self-worth and dignity.

The changes are not drastic, and they speak to the core of what continues to be important to our work: empowerment, justice, support, and a life of self-worth and dignity for all who have served.

Thank you for joining us in this incredible work. Together, we have accomplished life-changing outcomes for thousands of Veterans in our communities. And we are just getting started.

Respectfully,

Alison Weir
Executive Director