In September 2011, attorney and long-time community organizer Amy Laura Cahn joined the Law Center to launch the Garden Justice Legal Initiative, an effort to provide pro bono legal support, advocacy, and policy research to community gardens and urban farmers in Philadelphia’s communities of color, immigrant and refugee communities, and historically disinvested neighborhoods. The initiative is supported by a Skadden Fellowship.

Amy Laura will provide pro bono legal guidance and representation to community groups and individuals seeking to negotiate various legal challenges, including support for small business and nonprofit development; zoning and land use concerns; and title, tax, and other land-acquisition issues.

Amy Laura will engage with communities, develop partnerships with nonprofit and community-based organizations, and foster beneficial relationships between community gardeners and municipal authorities in order to help build a movement in Philadelphia that can provide reliable access to healthy food for all Philadelphians, and give communities greater control over the future of their neighborhoods as they work to transform them.