I will be providing legal assistance to low-income clients affected by the recession and who are facing foreclosure or bankruptcy.  .  

Jaynie Leung works with the Children’s Law Center of Minnesota (CLC) in St.  Paul.  CLC provides legal representation and uses policy advocacy to advance the rights and interests of Minnesota’s children in the foster care and state ward systems.  

In collaboration with the Legal Center for People with Disabilities and Older People, this project will eliminate the use of restraint and seclusion practices used against school children with disabilities.  We will train school staff, conduct investigations, issue public reports, and educate policy makers so that legislative change can be made accordingly.  .  

Amy Levine works with Protection & Advocacy, Inc.  (PAI) in Oakland, California, and collaborates with the Alameda County Court Appointed Special Advocate Program.  Her project addresses the overwhelmingly high yet unmet special education and mental health needs of Alameda County’s foster children.  

The first five years of children’s lives have a profound impact on their education and future.  These years present a significant opportunity to detect developmental delays and provide intervention and education to redress disparities.  My project provides direct representation, outreach and education, and policy advocacy to improve access to early intervention and education services in New York City for low-income children ages 0-6 who have a higher risk of having academic difficulties.  

The purpose of my project is to keep New York livable for current and future low-income immigrants by building multiracial alliances to push the federal, state and local government on affordable housing issues.  The project will address the housing needs of low-income Asian immigrants through multiracial coalition building and organizing, direct services and policy work.  The project aims to empower Asian immigrants to form coalitions across racial lines to advocate for equitable development that makes affordable housing a priority.  

Jennifer Lichstein worked at Legal Aid of East Tennessee in Johnson City.  Her fellowship focused on expanding the Network of Advocates for Promising Practices in Education (NAPPE).  NAPPE was an organization comprised of parents of children with disabilities and the professionals that work with them.  

Evi Licona is a fellow with the Southern New Mexico Legal Services (SNMLS) office in Las Cruces.  Her office works mainly with indigent clients throughout the southern half of New Mexico, focusing heavily on family and poverty law issues.  Under the guidance of the SNMLS staff, Evi is developing a program of support for the workers' compensation needs of agricultural workers who have been excluded from the benefits of the Worker's Compensation Act in New Mexico.  

Michelle focused on school discipline policies and practices in this age of zero tolerance.  In the initial stages of her project Michelle invested a great deal of time simply acting as a diligent fact-finder.  She talked with parents and principals, students and security guards, custodians and counselors, attorneys and academics, teachers and tutors, lunchroom staff and local advocacy groups.  

Esther Limb works on the Domestic Violence Project for the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center (APALRC) in Washington, D.  C.  The APALRC is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring equal access to justice for Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) in the Washington, D.  

Diana Lin’s project is designed to combat the increased violence and discrimination faced by Arab, Muslim and South Asian Americans in the wake of the September 11th tragedies.  Many of these residents are immigrants who are unaware of the legal remedies available to them when they are attacked, criminally profiled, fired or evicted due to their religion, ethnicity or race.  Through educational outreach and litigation, Diana’s objective is to: (1) increase the reporting and prosecution rate of hate crimes against these groups; (2) ensure that civil penalties are secured against the perpetrators of these crimes; (3) challenge incidents of housing and employment discrimination; and (4) reduce government use of racial, ethnic and religious profiling in anti-terrorism and other law enforcement efforts.  

My project is centered on the T.  Don Hutto Family Residential Center in Taylor, Texas.  This is a former medium-security prison converted to house immigrant families as they await their immigration hearings.  

Nicole Lindemyer integrated her experience in issues of violence against women within the context of fair housing.  Her fellowship project focused on sexual harassment in housing, in which predatory housing providers attempt to extort sex from their tenants under threat of eviction.  This practice overwhelmingly impacts low-income women of color and battered women fleeing abusive partners.  

Through a variety of educational programs, including walk-in clinics and workshops, I will help my clients understand the social services and legal issues they are facing before they have need for actual legal representation.  I will work with community leaders to target the specific needs of the community through GIS mapping and discussion.  I will develop a weekly youth program to educate youth on their rights as well as provide a safe, nurturing after-school environment.  

Jackie Linn worked with her host organization’s Hope Street Project in South Dallas.  The goal of the Project was to develop a comprehensive, neighborhood-based community that delivers a stable environment and provides ongoing opportunity and growth for each resident.  Jackie identifies personally with people who are homeless or who are struggling to make ends meet.  

Tim currently works with the Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA) on the Self-Help Law Project.  The project's goal is to develop a statewide program providing legal education, advice and self-help materials necessary to empower low-income individuals and communities with the option of resolving their own legal problems.  MLSA is celebrating its 40th anniversary of providing, protecting and enhancing Montanans' access to justice.  

In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform on the national level, North Carolina has seen a dramatic increase in immigrant detentions and deportations, especially through local enforcement programs.  As a result, immigrant communities live in fear, and families are at risk of being torn apart.  My project aims to equip immigrant communities to assert their rights and respond to these frightening situations, as well as to provide direct representation to immigrant detainees.  

All of this free expression activity and potential that has so inspired me is dependent upon the network remaining free of censorship and regulated with the goal of protecting free speech rights.  The project seeks to expand the capacity of free speech advocates to resist the growing state and federal threats to online speech, in particular to the access of young people to social networks and other online fora.  The project will use advocacy, education, and, if needed, litigation to prevent unconstitutional restrictions on lawful speech online.  

Kim Lloyd developed a system of legal response for low-income domestic violence survivors in rural Island County, Washington.  The goals of her fellowship were twofold.  First, Kim attempted to represent as many domestic violence survivors in family law cases as possible.  

I assist homeowners facing the loss of their homes and handle a caseload of foreclosure, bankruptcy and quiet title actions.  To help preserve homes, I work with lenders to negotiate loan modifications and litigate cases when negotiation is not an option.  To help prevent foreclosure, I conduct community legal education and collaborate with housing counseling agencies and other community partners to promote homeownership preservation.  

At the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund, I will assist and represent low and moderate income Kentuckians facing home foreclosure (often as a result of imprudent and/or unfair lending practices).  Additionally, I will be attempting to set up a mediation program in one or more judicial circuits that may allow more families to modify their loans and stay in their homes.  .  

Jenna Lopes directs the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid’s Prisoner Reentry Program, a program that addresses the needs of those returning to the community after incarceration.  The project has three distinct areas: direct legal services, including assistance with Social Security benefit application, family law issues, and public benefits; community education about the problems facing ex-offenders; and resource development including faith-based, municipal, state, business, and civic.  Every year over 20,000 prisoners are released in Florida, over 9,000 of those are released into the 17 county area serviced by Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.  

Victoria López represented indigent immigrant men and women detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Florence, Arizona.  Victoria used her role as an attorney and immigrant rights advocate to challenge the power of the state to detain immigrants and to help ensure the rights of long term lawful permanent residents, asylum seekers and migrant communities from all over the world.  The detention of immigrants by the INS continues to expand into private, state and county prison facilities.  

Lorraine works with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago (LAF).  LAF is a nonprofit corporation and is the principal provider of free civil legal services to low-income individuals throughout Cook County in Illinois.  Lorraine works at LAF’s northwest office situated in a predominantly Latino neighborhood, to address the needs of Latino Section 8 voucher holders.  

Immigrant families increasingly face the chilling prospect of detention or deportation of a loved one.  ICE raids have destroyed the lives of many immigrants who have lived in the U.  S.  

Carrie Ann Lucas works with the Center for People with Disabilities project at the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition in Denver.  The Center for Rights of Parents with Disabilities project provides legal service to parents with disabilities who are victims of discrimination or who are in custody battles due to their disabilities.  The project also advocates changes in how parents with disabilities are served during child welfare cases, as well as legislative change to remove the statutory bias against parents with disabilities.  

Legal Advocates for Children and Youth's mission is to give children and teens a voice when they need it most.  My project extends that voice to homeless youth in order to empower them and aid them in overcoming adversity.  I will be conducting legal clinics at homeless shelters and on the streets, providing direct legal representation and collaborating with homeless youth advocates to make effective policy reform.  

Nick Lundgren provided comprehensive transactional legal services to promote economic development at a grassroots level in Upper Manhattan.  This work, which covered corporate, tax, real estate, project finance, intellectual property and environmental law matters, was premised on the belief that by assisting entrepreneurial individuals and community-based organizations to develop appropriate for-profit and non-profit ventures, low-income community residents are able to build income and equity, and resist the displacement effects of gentrification.  \n\n\n\nDuring the first nine months of his fellowship, Nick saw his caseload grow from seven to 30 clients, including economic development corporations, social service providers, religious organizations, advocates for better schools and housing, arts organizations, limited equity housing cooperatives and a wide range of small businesses.  

My project will provide legal services and outreach to immigrant victims of employment-related crimes who are eligible for immigration relief through the U visa.  The project goals are to educate workers about their labor rights, expand the use of the U visa to work-related crimes, and as a result, further the enforcement of state and federal labor laws, protection of workers, and prosecution of abusive employers.  .