Telesca Center for Justice gets $90,000 in state funding

The Telesca Center for Justice has received $90,000 in funding from New York state to support the nonprofit legal assistance agencies at the Center.

Founded in 2005, the Telesca Center for Justice includes four nonprofit legal assistance agencies: Empire Justice, JustCause, The Legal Aid Society of Rochester (LASROC), and Legal Assistance Western New York (LawNY).

These agencies provide civil legal services to low-income residents in Rochester, Monroe County and the broader Finger Lakes region. This year, the partners will celebrate their 20th anniversary.

The money will help pay for staffing, shared operations, collaborative planning, and programmatic efficiencies across each of the agencies.

“The Telesca Center for Justice is a unique model of shared civil legal services rooted in thoughtful collaboration in an easily accessible co-location. The partnership between these four agencies demonstrates the impact of a community-centered justice organization working to ensure the basic American principle that all people – regardless of income – deserve and should receive affordable, fair, and equal legal representation in both civil and defense matters,” said Assemblymember Harry B. Bronson.

“Navigating the legal system can be difficult and costly, often times deterring low-income people from accessing services, resources and justice to which they are otherwise entitled,” said Assemblymember Jen Lunsford.

“The Telesca Center addresses this challenge by coordinating four agencies to consolidate their resources and maximize their impact,” she said.

In 2026, Telesca Center partners services benefitted more than 48,000 community members. Collectively, this year, the Telesca partners handled more than more than 20,000 civil legal cases, and in 2025 served more than 50,000 community members.