Christopher Jackson has been blessed with the opportunity to serve as an advocate in pursuit of rehabilitation for children who waver at the edge of the precipice of the juvenile justice system in Marion County, Florida.  The Children's Advocacy Project was dedicated to the development of a process for saving, instead of incarcerating, children with emotional, mental or physical disabilities.  Christopher acted as legal advocate for children across a broad range of forums including public schools, social services, mental health services, and probate, family, and juvenile dependency courts.  

As an Equal Justice Works Fellow, Kimi Jackson traveled to the rural agricultural areas of Colorado to talk with and educate migrant farm workers about occupational exposure to pesticides and the ways workers can minimize their exposure and protect their rights.  Kimi's project was inspired by the death of a young farm worker who died after being sprayed by pesticides twice in one week.  Having received no training in pesticide safety, the worker thought he had been sprayed with water and did not wash his body or clothes.  

Bob Jacobs is working on a project he developed to provide educational advocacy for children in the dependency or delinquency systems.  Working many years as a child psychologist and therapist, Bob observed public schools responding to the needs of those children with the strongest advocacy, usually from their parents.  Children without advocacy frequently are not appropriately served, and often have difficult experiences at school.  

The federal Court of Indian Offenses at the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation currently provides no public defender or civil defense legal services to indigent persons.  As a result, innocent persons are convicted and sentenced and guilty persons can evade punishment.  I will set up the Ute Mountain Ute Legal Services Office to provide basic services to indigent defendants on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation.  

George-Marie Jasmin works with The Medical Legal Partnership for Children (MLPC), a program of the Boston Medical Center’s Pediatrics Department.  Located in Boston, Massachusetts, MLPC is a medical-legal collaborative designed to improve the health, welfare and basic needs of low-income children and their families.  This mission is achieved through legal assistance to families, education and training of health care staff and the communities they serve, and collaborative systemic advocacy.  

Ingrid Jean-Baptiste works as an advocate to immigrant children in the dependency system in the Philadelphia area.  Her project addresses the needs of hundreds of children who are not afforded the same opportunities and rights as United States citizens and legal permanent residents (LPR) because of their immigration status.  These needs include (1) applying and representing children in Special Immigration Juvenile Status (SIJS) matters in immigration courts;(2) representing and advocating for abused and neglected immigrant children in Family Court; and (3) educating the legal community on basic immigration and dependency laws, as well as building a comprehensive network between city agencies and nonprofit organizations involved in both areas of the law.  

Through collaboration with Ohio Northeast Health Systems clinic located in Youngstown, we targeted low-income children and their families to provide legal representation aimed at improving children's medical outcomes.  All too frequently, low-income children's health situations have underlying legal issues that prevent them from reaching ideal health situations.  Through this proactive approach, physicians may refer children and their families for legal services aimed at correcting specific detrimental medical situations.  

My project, entitled the Mental Health Legal Services Project (MHLSP), will provide direct legal services to mentally ill, indigent residents of West Contra Costa County.  I will collaborate with County Mental Health programs in West Contra Costa County and work closely with mental health providers to ensure project services both respond to clients’ legal needs and contribute to their mental health recovery.  .  

Donna Johnson works with childcare providers as part of an initiative of the Community Economic Development Unit of Community Legal Services, Inc.  The Unit provides legal representation to group clients, such as community faith-based and non-profit organizations, that serve Philadelphia’s low-income residents.  Donna's project is extending these services to a growing number of childcare providers in the city’s low-income neighborhoods.  

My project focuses on recruiting, training and placing law students in a variety of unpaid legal internships serving the poor in Louisiana.  .  

This Bay Area region-wide project employs a combination of community outreach and direct services representation with a focus on affirmative litigation in the area of consumer law as it intersects with BayLegal's domestic violence survivor client population.  The project complements BayLegal's housing law and family law substantive practice areas with a focus on remedying fraudulent consumer lending transactions that result from financial abuse and separating community property debt at the time our clients separate from an abuser.  .  

Natasha’s project is designed to represent African immigrant victims of domestic violence in family court, immigration, matrimonial, public benefits and any other ancillary matters that arise during the course of representation.  In addition, a major component of her project is based on outreach and education within the African community to make African women aware of their rights, even those who are undocumented immigrants, and how to access these rights.  Currently, Natasha is setting up discussion sessions at African community-based organizations and braiding salons throughout New York and creating educational pamphlets in commonly spoken African languages.  

Andrea Jolliffe contributes to the work of the Mental Health and Disability Law Project at her host organization, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.  Since its inception in 1989, the Mental Health and Disability Law Project has advocated on behalf of low-income persons with disabilities, targeting developmentally and physically disabled persons who are institutionalized.  The Project has developed and supported systemic efforts to enforce the Supreme Court decision of Olmstead v.  

Shannon Jones works with Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) in Chicago, Illinois.  CSH is committed to helping communities create permanent housing with services to prevent and end homelessness.  CSH advances its mission to provide high-quality advice and development expertise by making loans and grants to supportive housing sponsors, strengthening the supportive housing industry and reforming public policy to make it easier to create and operate supportive housing.  

Carolyn is serving her second year as an Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Attorney at Three River Legal Services Inc.  (TRLS) in Jacksonville, Florida.  Along with the other AmeriCorps Attorneys, she manages a legal helpline which is run with the help of law student volunteers from Florida Coastal School of Law.  

I am developing a pilot program with the DC Child and Family Services Agency to identify children in the foster care system who may be eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS).  I will be screening foster children for SIJS eligibility and training CFSA staff members to assess SIJS eligibility themselves.  I will be directly representing some of the eligible children in family and immigration court proceedings, and establishing and training attorneys willing to represent such children on a pro bono basis.