Cultivating Stability
At La Colaborativa, we serve as a central resource for individuals, families, and the community in times of crisis, offering pathways to stability and long-term solutions. By addressing the root causes of instability, we provide tailored support that fosters lasting change and helps prevent future challenges.
Creating Lasting Impact
By identifying underlying conditions and potential barriers to your success, we strive to prevent future challenges and empower you to thrive. Whether it’s addressing immediate needs or implementing preventive measures, La Colaborativa prioritizes your journey toward lasting positive change.
Triage
La Colaborativa’s continuum of anti-displacement and housing security programming begins with an in-person, virtual, or mobile triage appointment completed using a standardized intake tool. Based on this intake and follow-up meetings, staff work with participants to develop a personalized action plan that outlines services, referrals, and strategies to meet their goals. Ongoing case management assesses evolving household needs and connects participants to relevant support, including childcare, rapid reemployment, transportation, and public benefits assistance. These services help remove barriers to long-term housing stability.
Case Management
We offer tailored services and courses that empower individuals, fostering independence and agency to build sustainable incomes, and pursue economically mobile careers after addressing immediate risk factors.
Wrap Around Services
Be it counseling for a domestic violence incident, clothing, food, and toiletries due to a house fire, or a catalyzing success for a recently arrived family unaware of how to navigate a foreign economic system; our Triage and Health Equity team is the front lines for response to crises both immediate and chronic. During times of crisis, our team approaches mental health challenges with empathy, compassion, and respect, ensuring every community member feels heard and valued. We provide practical, sustainable resources aimed at stabilizing the current situation and empowering individuals to overcome adversity and thrive.
Emergency Response
In times of urgent crises such as building/house fires, sudden shifts in immigration policies, or heightened community needs, La Colaborativa stands ready to assist and stabilize affected members while also implementing long-term solutions and policy changes to prevent recurring crises that disproportionately impact the community. Our proactive measures include establishing the first vaccination site in Chelsea during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing extensive aid to hundreds of families affected by fires in our service areas, establishing emergency housing facilities during migrant influxes to the Commonwealth, and developing programs to combat increasing instances of fraud, disease, or violence within our communities.
Mental Health
At La Colaborativa, our team comprises licensed social workers who expertly recognize mental health indicators during the stabilization process. They provide stability and facilitate referrals to specialists, often collaborating with our trusted partners at North Suffolk Mental Health.
Consumer Protection
Advocating for the rights of consumers is at the heart of La Colaborativa’s long-term work to combat unfair, deceptive, and predatory business practices—particularly those that exploit vulnerable populations such as seniors, immigrants, veterans, and low-income residents.
In collaboration with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, La Colaborativa is part of a network of Local Consumer Programs (LCP) across the Commonwealth. Our Consumer Protection Specialists are trained to provide high-quality consumer advocacy. The program addresses issues related to:
- Defective products
- New and used car sales and financing
- Debt collection
- Rental and landlord disputes
- Security deposits
- Utility bill disputes
- And many others
All services provided under the program are free of charge.
If you are a consumer in need of assistance, you can file a complaint directly with the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) at mass.gov/how-to/file-a-consumer-complaint, visit our office in person at 63 Sixth St., Chelsea, MA, or call us at (617) 889-6080 for support filing a complaint.
Once a complaint has been received by the AGO, it will be referred to an LCP. If it involves a consumer or business in our service area, La Colaborativa may receive the case. Upon receiving a complaint, our office will contact the consumer and begin the intake process.
