Narrator: For more than 50 years.

Advocates for basic legal Equality Inc or Able has been providing free legal assistance and civil matters to help people living in poverty in Northwest Ohio and beyond achieve self-reliance, equal justice and economic opportunity.

This is the story of their history.

The impact the organization has had so far and those working tirelessly in the pursuit of justice.

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Announcer: Thank you.

(Music) Joe Tafelski: We ask people to obey and respect the law and our democracy in exchange for that, if someone has been wronged, we give them an opportunity to right that wrong through the legal process.

Janet Hales: Abel is a nonprofit law firm that provides legal assistance to people living in poverty.

Joe Tafelski: Able has been an advocate for low income people to try to right those wrongs and to maybe expand their rights.

Janet Hales: We are representing someone and realize that there's a pattern here.

This is not just happening to one person.

It's happening to three, five, ten.

And then we find out it's it's an actual policy that is affecting people.

Narrator: Throughout the years one thing has stayed ABLE always looks for the underlying causes of poverty and works with clients to affect change through the legal process whether in the courthouse or in other places of power.

We organize our legal work in practice, groups that focus on agricultural worker and immigrant rights, housing and community economic development, health care and public benefits.

Meaningful and appropriate education.

And we also have projects like the Medical Legal Partnership for Children and Neighborhood based projects that focus on certain communities So all of our work impacts populations as well as substantive legal needs that people living in poverty have.

Founders and executives recall the early days of the firm and some of the landmark cases that shaped legal aid today.

Joe Tafelski: Abel was formed in 1969.

(Music) In 1969.

The Civil Rights Act had just passed.

The War on Poverty was in the forefront.

Even federal legislators saw the power of law as part of the war on poverty.

Joe Tafelski: There was a Toledo Legal Aid Society in town.

It handled individual cases in the practice of law for poverty or for disadvantaged people.

There's a theory called law reform that rather than just handle individual cases take a case and change society or change it for the better for low and moderate income individuals.

I give a lot of credit to Tom Welding, who was a law professor at the University of Toledo College of Law, and Jerry Lackey, who was a civil rights and labor leader And they basically came together and came up with the idea of forming a legal services program like Able And I think one of the best decisions they ever made was when they hired Mike Frank.

They hired me to basically create the physical entity and run the organization He brought a different tone to tranquil Toledo This was and still can be a very controversial issue and that there are fair housing regulations that talk about affirmative obligations to promote fair housing, which also means that you don't continue to build public housing in minority neighborhoods.

You give people opportunity to live outside of those neighborhoods.

But the city continued to select sites that were in the central city And so we challenged many of those cases.

The first case that Able brought was Davis versus City of Toledo We filed a lawsuit because they were segregating the residents in neighborhoods that basically were minority and non-minority and forced the public housing authority to integrate its facilities.

It had a major impact on how the city looked at some of its actions and the racial impact that it was having The city now knows that someone's looking over their shoulder.

It's not like business as usual We also were involved in cases like dealing with race discrimination in the police and the fire departments in the city of Toledo.

They had a long track record of not hiring minority police and firefighters out of 400 or so firefighters.

Michael Frank: They had ten black firefighters and they were all segregated in one fire station.

Well, we brought a lawsuit, and over a number of years we were able to make some substantial inroads into integrating the Toledo police and fire departments We filed a lawsuit against Lucas County in which Judge Don Young declared the Lucas County Jail a place of cruel and unusual punishment.

I mean, it was just amazing.

Joe Tafelski: It's hard to describe some of these institutions like the famous state hospital, because if you go in them, it's the combination of the stench, the unsanitary conditions, lack of ventilation, the noise, all of that Michael Frank: One of the things the jail had was a hole in the ground.

It was called the hole and if you were bad, they put you in the hole They had cells in the old Lucas County Jail that were meant for one, maybe two people.

They sometimes had four people in the same cell.

They had cots and then they strong hammocks between the cots.

It was so overcrowded that Judge Young heard the case and decided that the Lucas County Jail was a place of cruel and unusual punishment and basically forced the county to build a new jail.

Narrator: They won the case and consent decree continues today ABLE continues its pursuit for justice in matters of racial equality in the areas of education, housing, community development, healthcare and public benefits, and immigrant and agricultural worker rights.

Through the years ABLEs legal staff have dedicated their time to upholding the legal rights of those who are often ignored and unheard in the community.

Heather Hall: Able impacts the community by representing low income people and organizations and promoting systemic change that promotes racial justice and opportunities for families and individuals living in poverty.

Eugenio Mollo: We do our best using the law as a tool to advance the rights of our client communities.

Fix the wrongs that these systems have created.

In an effort to restore power in our clients hands.

janet Hales: What we see every day is not just people who are in crisis, but we see resilience.

We see people who have been knoc They live in neighborhoods that were affected by redlining and have never recovered They've had different educational opportunities than many of us have had because of all of those things.

And our staff works with them and believes in them and helps them see that they can achieve justice.

That, in turn, helps restore faith in the system that it can work.

If people have the legal help that they need.

(Music) Michael Frank: Able filed a number of farmworker cases protecting farmworkers in their living conditions.

And working conditions in throughout northwest Ohio.

Patricia Hernandez: We had this big case against plastic.

Those are the people who make the pickles and we were alleging that they hadn't been paying our clients fairly, and they were contending that that had nothing to do with them.

That was more of the growers.

There were all these council from Manhattan and Detroit and Philadelphia and then there is me, Patti Thomas from Toledo, representing the clients flat.

Six contention throughout the case was that they really had no involvement in this dispute, that it was really between our clients and the grower.

The line of questioning was related to my client, not really knowing who was involved, and so the attorney was asking my client, OK, so you didn't even get a name.

You have no way of knowing who who was there.

You don't know that that was anyone from Vlasic.

And I remember my client just kind of swelling up and saying, Well, I didn't get a name, but the guy was wearing a Vlasic hat and he had a Vlasic jacket and he was using a Vlasic clipboard.

I've always said we have the best clients, we have the best cases, and that one was no different.

We ended up getting a really nice settlement.

(Music) Jesus Salas: In 1994.

The first case that I got was the Armendariz case.

Mr. Murderess has had been waiting at at the welfare department for days and hours because there were no translations to find out about her SNAP or food stamp benefits at the time, or because the demographics have changed so much that now you have Arabic speaker.

They don't speak English, you have Spanish speakers that don't speak English and we're getting another group of Afghanistan refugees and we might be getting Ukranian refugees in here.

Transparency and accessibility, something that you and I would take for granted.

But this country and our communities is made up of a lot of people, and the systems are for everybody.

We file civil rights complaints against public transportation systems here.

Same issue, leaving people because or not even answering because they could not answer the questions in different languages.

Sometimes it is from the most unexpected places like family law intake came in that she had you know, she had been trying under domestic violence.

She had been trying to get a divorce and had called 911911.

Did not have access translation system The abuser basically was following her with a knife.

This is the intake that we got and had to run into the police station to save herself because the people did not want one.

Kept hanging up on her system that are normal for English speakers.

It has to be usable to everybody, regardless of race, color, creed, language doesn't matter.

Gender doesn't matter.

Heather Hall: In the area of immigrant rights.

In 2018 Abel filed two class action lawsuits on behalf of some client groups.

The Community Refugee Immigration Services Organization and in our Community Justice and Peace Center, challenging Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles policies that denied driver's licenses to refugees and otherwise eligible minor children.

The court found that the DMV policy of not allowing undocumented parents to cosign their minor children's driver's license applications violated the Equal Protection Clause and that the DMV policy to not allow refugees to use I-94 documents that were more than two years old as proof of lawful status violated the supremacy clause.

Eugenio Mollo: Thousands of community members were impacted, right?

This US citizens whose parents are undocumented refugees is this is a real document that they are able to get now through the DMV, a driver's license or a state ID card, specifically because of this successful federal litigation Narrator: Through a combination of litigation and policy advocac ABLE elevates the voices of the community by working alongside clients and groups to fight for justice in individual cases and community issues.

Abel is very involved in many community efforts in an effort to make a broader impact on the community as a whole.

Raina Dawson: There's so much power in advocacy and there's so much power in listening to the members of the community.

Edgar Santamaria: I didn't realize about my status to like I was around 15 or 16 when I asked my mother for my birth certificate so I could get my driver's permit.

And that's what my mother had told me.

Estela Melendez: In 2017 We first met Edgar at a Mexican mobile consulate, and he approaches looking for information about immigration services.

Edgar Santamaria: A real close friend of mine that I consider my brother and I finally opened up to him about it, and he was the one that was like, look in to see where I can pretty much get help from.

I guess they had like a seminar or something like that over here at the building.

And I came up here and I signed my name and I was just trying to figure out like, you know, who could help me?

There was like a whole bunch of people lined up, you know, with different categories, I guess, on where you would fall.

And then it just all have and Eugenio from Able was actually there.

He was like, Well, what's going on?

And I explained to him.

So we went over there and talked and we schedule a meeting to meet that following week.

Estela Melendez: So when we met Edgar, we found out that he had consulted with another attorney, and that attorney was going to charge him $7,000.

We explained the services we provided Abel, and we were able to assist him with his immigration services for free.

Edgar Santamaria: Ever since then, my life has changed dramatically and like a lot, and I'm really happy I don't have to live in fear anymore.

I'm able to actually work, you know, real decent jobs that pay good money instead of working, you know, the basic construction jobs, roofing remodeling houses, getting paid a hundred bucks a day, working from before the sun came up, the sun down.

Estela Melendez: Edgar Our particular issue is one of many that we encounter in the office.

Very often.

We were able to help him with his immigration matter.

Edgar Santamaria: And they changed my life and my kids life.

To be honest with you.

I'm really happy and I'm excited that I'm actually doing this.

And I only got like one more step to do, and that's just to get my citizenship, which Able is also helping me with that as well.

(Music) Sheena Barnes: I had to utilize the services myself for my son.

I was struggling to get his voice heard as a student on the spectrum of autism in our school district, and I was feeling like I didn't have support.

So I reached out to Abel and they were able to help me to come in and not only get a successful IEP plan, but also make sure his voice was heard in that classroom and in school, in the school district.

And as I got to learn more about what Abel offers for services for our community, I knew it was a place for me to become an advocate and stand with them.

To make sure people's voices get hurt.

They hear that person.

They see that person not just as a client, but as a human first.

Raina Dawson: (Music) I'm an advocate in the Housing and Economic Development Practice Group.

here at Able, and I'm assigned specifically to the Junction neighborhood.

And my role is simply, quite simply, to hear the needs of the community members here, the needs of homeowners, renters, citizens in the community, and to connect them to the tools necessary to be successful.

One of my most significant and memorable requests was from the Junction neighborhood to for the city or someone, law enforcement, whoever to stop the congregation of people outside of a local corner store.

I didn't even realize how much that would take.

I took arguing in front of city council.

It took testifying in front of city council.

It's like having conversations with people.

It's like drafting documents and it took holding the store owner accountable and it took holding the city of Toledo accountable.

It took a lot of work and it let me know that there's so much power in advocacy and there's so much power and listening to the members of the community.

Narrator: Despite funding cuts, ABLE remains effective due to the resilience and resourcefulness of their staff and clients.

(Music) Patricia Hernandez: One thing I really love about my work that I feel really passionate about is how resilient our clients are.

Raina Dawson: The American dream that's been sold to folks, it doesn't it's not doesn't look the same for everyone.

Patricia Hernandez: That's why they come to us right there.

They're facing a number of barriers or they're having some difficulty, and they just need some help.

(Music) These cases were important not just for the individuals affected, but for the community.

Because the community now saw that they had a way to challenge injustices in the community that Able was going to be their partner.

Janet Hales: Whether it's a class action or a big policy change that makes a difference for thousands and thousands of people.

They're making a difference every single day.

(Music) very resilient organization.

And I think we learned this from our clients.

Heather Hall: Our clients face discrimination and marginalization and barriers every day.

They're creative, they're resilient, they're bold.

Some of the best ideas for how to solve problems and what our communities should look like come from our clients.

And I think that we're better advocates by learning from them, and it allows me to be more resilient in my own life.

Janet Hales: Over the years, we've had different things come up, and a lot of times our funding will go up, our funding will go down, but our commitment has never wavered, despite going sometimes years with no or very little increases in in pay, our staff continues to provide excellent professional and enthusiastic representation of our clients.

(Music) Narrator: With a successful history and a thriving team of ambitious professionals in legal aid, ABLE looks forward to another 50+ years of making a difference for people in need.

Jesus Salas:I think the future of Able is is very bright.

Janet Hales: It's very exciting looking to the future because I see a bridge from the past with new passion, new skill and reaching into the future, making even more of a difference in our community.

The future of Able is the new young attorneys that are very, very smart very smart, very tech savvy.

And to some extent I think they're looking for what is the guiding light.

How how do I get there?

How do I make the change in systemic and trying to address positive issues in society?

Eugenio Mollo: They are creative, brilliant advocates who will work endlessly to serve their clients and advance the rights of our client communities.

And I have faith in our legal system.

I have to, as a lawyer, that the law is one important tool in order to advance equal justice in this country.

Heather Hall: The legacy of Abel's work in leading law reform, in making systemic change and communities on behalf of people living in poverty is long held and one that I'm proud to be a part of.

I look forward to seeing what creative bold strategies the next generation of attorneys will bring to this advocacy to be able to effectuate change.

Jesus Salas:I have seen attorneys say the new attorneys are here to change the world my clients.

Eugenio Mollo: My coworkers and my faith and our legal system give me hope.

I am reminded every day working with my clients how fortunate I am.

I learned so much from them.

I am reminded that most people who walk this planet are good, wholesome, generous individuals.

When I come to the office and work with my clients, I am reminded of that important message.

And that gives me passion and it motivates me to work hard every day.

Narrator: Everyone from the attorneys and advocates to administrative assistants, intake professionals and people working in grants, administration in finance, development, human resources and communications are a vital part of achieving Ab in the pursuit of justice.

(Music)