Today, thousands of families in Washington, DC, as a penalty for failure to work, receive only a portion of their proper welfare amount.  The current legal service response to this widespread loss of income is woefully inadequate.  The goals of Becky O’Brien’s fellowship included educating welfare recipients about their legal rights and their access to legal remedies; training other attorneys to help meet the need for legal assistance and representation; and improving the overall responsiveness of the District of Columbia's welfare reform efforts to the needs of those whom the welfare system is mandated to serve.  

Candace O'Brien's work at the Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO) focuses on women in the state of Louisiana who have been wrongfully convicted.  Candace's project extends the work of IPNO to encompass the more than nine hundred women incarcerated at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, and more specifically, those sentenced to life in prison.  She provides legal representation to women with provable innocence claims, which entails reinvestigating each case and filing the necessary appeals.  

This project focuses on Somali youth in Minnesota, many of whom have experienced the trauma of war and who face a cultural divide between their Somali heritage and American society.  Additionally, some Somali youth find their immigration status in jeopardy due to criminal convictions while others were brought to the U.  S.  

As an AmeriCorps Legal Fellow I will be working with attorneys throughout Washington State to identify and respond to issues confronting low-income individuals facing foreclosure.  The project will include ensuring that lenders comply with regulations regarding loan modification programs, working with housing counselors to spot legal issues that may require a client be referred to an attorney, responding to foreclosure rescue scams, and ultimately helping more people stay in their homes.  .  

The foreclosure crisis disproportionately affects low-income and minority communities, nationally and in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.  Immigrants face a higher occurrence of victimization for abusive practices due to language and cultural differences.  The Foreclosure Prevention for Immigrants project will provide direct services to immigrants in these counties, identifying violations of housing and consumer protections and advocating for loan modification to keep clients in their homes.  

Lauren Onkeles’s project at the Children’s Law Center (CLC) allows her to work with medical staff at a local community health care clinic, La Clinica del Pueblo, to assist low-income, mono-lingual families in addressing non-medical barriers to children’s health.  The CLC has built a reputation for helping at-risk children in D.  C.  

Melanie Orhant is working with her host organization, Ayuda, Inc.  , to develop the Program to Assist Trafficked Individuals’ Rights and Needs.  Ayuda’s mission is to advocate for and defend the legal and human rights of low-income Latino and other immigrant communities in Washington, DC.  

Through LAMMP, I will provide dependent and delinquent teen mothers with holistic direct representation, systemic relief through litigation and education.  I will represent teen moms on issues such as dependency hearings, family law and child support, domestic violence injunctions, and more.  Systemically, I will provide relief to teen moms aging out of foster care and advocate for dependency placements that effectively meet the needs of the teen mother and child.  

Anita Ortiz is a fellow with the Children and Family Justice Center (CFJC).  Her project focuses on litigation under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) Act to assist victims of torture, with an emphasis on those individuals who are seeking refuge in the United States after fleeing gender-based harm in their home countries.  Anita represents victims of torture who are traditionally marginalized under U.  

Warren Ortland is working as the Legislative Research & Policy Coordinator for the Minnesota AIDS Project.  In this position, Warren’s duties are split between two areas.  First, Warren performs research and provides advocacy in support of a legislative agenda supporting the HIV/AIDS community in Minnesota.  

Erin Oshiro works on language access issues at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice in New York City.  The National Center for Law and Economic Justice is a national organization that uses legal representation, policy advocacy, and support for organizations to advance the cause of economic justice for low-income families and individuals across the country.  Her project addresses the needs of limited English proficient (LEP) individuals and families accessing public benefits and works to ensure that government agencies provide people with necessary language assistance, including interpretation and translation services.