I was only going to stay two years. Yet here I am, twenty years later, wondering where the time went. My career at LAJC is now old enough to vote this November!
As Octavia Butler is famous for writing, “The only lasting truth is Change.” Oh my, has LAJC experienced a lot of change in twenty years! We’ve grown from a headcount of 23 in 2004 to more than 90 in 2024. We’ve added three new programs focusing on decriminalizing poverty, advancing health justice, and strengthening workers’ rights. And we have become more of a statewide presence. Once upon a time, you could fit the staff of our Richmond, Petersburg, and Falls Church offices into our Charlottesville headquarters. Today, we have just as big a presence in Richmond and northern Virginia as we do in Charlottesville; we have small but mighty teams working in Petersburg, Southwest Virginia, and the Eastern Shore; and we are actively working on expanding our services to Hampton Roads.
We’ve also doubled down on our commitment to racial equity. Although LAJC has a long tradition of working with and on behalf of communities of color, we had not made an organizational commitment to dismantling racial injustice and oppression. In our 2019 strategic plan, our Board explicitly embraced racial justice as an animating principle of our work. The composition of our staff and Board reflect that commitment. Once a mostly white organization, LAJC’s Board and staff are majority Black and brown, including many who have been directly impacted by poverty, discrimination, and systemic oppression.
It’s also a lasting truth that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Previous LAJC executive directors (including the ones I’ve known personally: Peter McIntosh, Brock Green, Ed Wayland, Alex Gulotta, Mary Bauer, Cynthia Neff) set a standard of excellence and ambition that has driven the mission from its founding in 1967 to 2024. They also embedded a culture of incorrigible troublemaking that endures today.
“All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
is Change.
God
is Change.”
― Octavia E. Butler
LAJC is still a place that puts its people first and where colleagues make lifelong friendships. And yet our staff remain among our largest donors. Although we’ve made great strides in compensation—doubling our starting salary from $32,000 in 2004 to $65,0000 in 2024—our salaries still don’t begin to match the value of the courage, brilliance, creativity, and grit our staff bring to the job every day.
We still punch above our weight. One of our supporters once told me, “You come to LAJC expecting to be treated to Double-A baseball, but you find yourself in the Major Leagues!” We’ve changed laws, sued presidents and cabinet members, been featured in national media, and won billions of dollars in benefits and judgments. On October 8, we appeared before the United States Supreme Court for at least the fourth time in LAJC history.
Most importantly, the Legal Aid Justice Center remains committed to the struggle. There are many organizations that provide high-quality legal services. There are many organizations that do impactful civil rights and anti-poverty work. And there are many organizations that do kickass organizing and movement lawyering. But there are not many that do all three, across multiple issue areas, in many communities, at the level of scope and sophistication that LAJC does—all while nurturing deep roots in local communities. It is a place where no day is a typical one, where (almost) no tools are off-limits, and no goal is too audacious or uncertain.
And that last quality is probably how two years became twenty in what seems like a blink. I have been forever changed by the people, places, and projects I’ve come to know over these last twenty years. I’ve learned that there is a difference between charity and justice; that poverty is a policy choice and that we have the collective power to make different choices; that our clients are the experts on the changes they need to see; and that—even when there is conflict and disagreement among allies—there is beauty, power, and wisdom in the struggle.
Thank you for striving with me for lasting change these past twenty years. Forever in the fight,
Angela Ciolfi
Executive Director
Effective + Committed + Accountable = LAJC
We are committed to the fight for racial, social, and economic justice. We partner with communities and clients to dismantle the systems that create and perpetuate poverty.
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