Spott Law Helps Community Action Duluth

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In conjunction with their sponsorship of the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce's "Let's Do Lunch", the Spott Law Office offered to provide pro bono legal services for a local non profit for one year. After receiving several nominations Community Action Duluth was ultimately selected.  

Community Action started in Duluth in 1965 as a public agency operated through the City of Duluth. During its first years of operation, the agency emphasized direct services to people with low incomes. Among the programs administered were Head Start, remedial reading, child development centers, and Neighborhood Youth Corps.  In 1982, Duluth Community Action Program (DCAP) incorporated as a nonprofit and became independent from the City of Duluth. DCAP relocated to the Duluth Armory on London Road and began providing services like energy assistance, weatherization, and food assistance.  

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, DCAP formed strong bonds with several community-based organizations and was instrumental in:

  • The early development of affordable housing (with Center City Housing Corporation)
  • Grassroots organizing around energy conservation and rate hikes (with the Senior Coalition)
  • Neighborhood empowerment efforts (with West End Community Action and Broad-Based Organizing for a Newer Duluth-BOND)

Building on its rich history of providing for the needs of people with low incomes in Duluth, DCAP was reborn as Community Action Duluth (CAD) in 1999. The office was moved to its current location in Lincoln Park.  Today, Community Action Duluth's programs are designed to help people increase their income and assets, secure jobs, and develop social capital.  In 2010, CAD formed a subsidiary – Green Duluth LLC – that provides green jobs through urban agriculture, Watershed Conservation Corps, Energy Outreach Canvass, and an energy conservation partnership with Minnesota Power.