Roots in Resistance

Equity Legal Services (ELS) is a non-profit organization committed to providing free legal assistance and free community resources to low-income individuals, underprivileged communities, and communities of color. Through advocacy work, our mission is to help empower and work alongside deliberately overlooked communities facing environmental crises and other institutional barriers. We are currently the only organization in our immediate area providing impact litigation at no cost while also allowing community/ individuals the option to request compensation for its losses from the courts. 

Impact litigation allows our organization to help provide the community with broader, long-lasting changes for a "relief for all" approach.

ELS neither takes attorneys’ fees nor requests fees from the courts that could potentially take away from what clients may receive in an award and to maintain the trust we have cultivated with the community. We are funded solely through grants and private donations. 

Our current work focuses primarily on residents located in Cahokia Heights, Illinois, and East St. Louis, Illinois. Additionally, other communities across the country facing similar environmental crises reach out to our team for assistance.

Residents in Centreville and Cahokia Heights, particularly those in areas known as "Old Centreville" and "North Centreville", have borne the brunt of malfunctioning, often inoperable, sanitary sewer, potable drinking water issues, and water drainage systems resulting in stormwater and sewage overflows overtaking their homes, yards and communities making these spaces uninhabitable. These critical infrastructural deficiencies have dire consequences, affecting public health, environmental well-being, and overall quality of life. 

Our organization recognizes the urgent need to address these challenges and has actively engaged with the community to bring about positive change through the legal system and community advocacy including:

• Bringing litigation in federal court against the cities of Centreville and Cahokia Heights resulting in the creation of consent decree and tens of millions of dollars pushed into the community for sewer repairs rehabilitation

• Co-managing a home repair program with Centreville Citizens for Change that provides home repairs for homes damaged by stormwater flooding and raw sewage overflows

• Addressing ongoing public health issues and community concerns through our science team at Washington University through their REACH Program

• Piloting a community drinking water program, Cahokia Heights, What's in Your Drinking Water, that resulted in the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issuing two drinking water compliance violations against the City of Cahokia Heights and Illinois American Water in August 2026 and much more.

We encourage you to donate to support our work and our upcoming conference on October 23, 2026, that will bring 10 communities experiencing environmental crises from across the country to access resources at our conference and from one another.