My project will solve legal issues affecting the health of low-income children and their families through a dynamic medical-legal partnership.  I am joining the Child Health Law Partnership launched in 2008 by the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.  My project will elevate the ability to respond to housing conditions cases referred to Child HeLP through specialized advocacy.  

Anne Tamar-Mattis is establishing Advocates for Informed Choice (AIC) as an independent project.  AIC is the first organization in the country to create a legal strategy focused on advancing the goals of the intersex community.  It is estimated that one in 2,000 children is born with internal and/or external sex organs that are not easily labeled as male or female, due to a variety of conditions sometimes grouped under the term "intersex.  

Discrimination against workers with family care giving responsibilities is a growing and poorly understood problem.  Workplace inflexibility and hostility to family needs are particularly tough on low-income workers and single mothers.  My project seeks to raise awareness among these workers – and among legal advocates in New York City – about Family Responsibilities Discrimination.  

Ben Taylor works on the Home Care Rights Project in the special litigation unit at New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG).  His project seeks to assist the thousands of elderly and disabled low-income New Yorkers who rely on Medicaid-funded home attendants and home health aides to assist them with their activities of daily living.  Without home care many of these individuals would be forced out of their homes and into nursing homes.  

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Derek Teaney works for the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, providing legal services to grassroots organizations in West Virginia that are seeking to protect their communities from the toxic pollution attendant to coal mining, processing and consumption.  Derek's project employs two main strategies to force the coal industry to internalize the costs of its toxic pollution: (1) litigation and regulatory advocacy under the Clean Water Act to reduce the amount of toxic metals discharged into West Virginia's waters under pollution permits and (2) strategic programmatic litigation to force fundamental changes in the way that mountaintop removal coal mine operators use West Virginia's waters for waste treatment and disposal.  Derek began his work with Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment as a volunteer in 2002.  

Anna María Tejada worked for enforcement of the comprehensive reforms and programs ordered by the New Jersey Supreme Court in its landmark ruling of Abbott v.  Burke, which guaranteed students’ constitutional rights of receiving a "thorough and efficient" education.  Anna María’s fellowship addressed the failures and problems with the implementation of the Abbott decision and its progeny, while at the same time addressing the educational needs of students with disabilities, limited English proficiency and any other special needs through the Abbott reforms and programs.  

My focus is on public and subsidized housing.  Most of my time is spent helping tenants facing eviction or termination, both at the administrative stage and in court.  Another focus is to catch at-risk tenants before problems become hearings or evictions.  

The goal of my project is to enforce the right to effective communication for deaf and hard of hearing people within Minnesota’s criminal justice system.  Many deaf Minnesotans communicate primarily in American Sign Language.  For these individuals, written and oral communication is not effective to convey critical information during police encounters or while incarcerated.  

I provide legal support to low-income communities in the East Bay Area as they work to secure community benefits from new development.  Such benefits include affordable housing, good local jobs, and environmental health protections.  Even in the current housing crisis, the East Bay remains ripe for growth.  

Prior to law school, Naomi Terr attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she obtained a bachelor of social work and a master of science in social work.  She worked as a social worker for approximately seven years.  Naomi's project combined her training in social work and the law.  

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The focus of this project is to advance the rights of adults with mental impairments in Harris County, TX by providing direct representation to people who have suffered housing or employment discrimination because of their mental disability; who are languishing on waiting lists; or who are denied access to health care services and supports.  Through this project, education and training workshops are provided to private attorneys seeking pro bono opportunities and to adults with mental impairments and their families regarding their legal rights.  .  

Miessha N.  Thomas worked on African-American rural land retention issues at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund based in Atlanta, GA.  Miessha worked with the Land Assistance Fund.  

Natacha Thomas works with the Employment Unit at the Greater Boston Legal Services.  Her project focuses on the employment needs of the underserved Haitian community in the Greater Boston area.  The project consists of three parts: 1.  

Hongvilay Thongsamouth works with the Asian Pacific Islander (API) Legal Outreach in Oakland, California.  With offices in Oakland and San Francisco, API Legal Outreach provides culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate legal representation to the most marginalized segments of the API community in the areas of domestic violence/family, immigration, human trafficking, public benefits and elder law.  Honglivay’s project will focus on community development and empowerment of the Laotian community in the San Francisco-Greater Bay Area through outreach, education, technical assistance, youth mentoring, and direct legal representation.  

Robin Thorner advocated on behalf of underprivileged children with disabilities.  Beginning in college and continuing through law school, Robin dedicated herself to helping underrepresented individuals, including recent immigrants, the homeless, and survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.  Her experience working with different groups in need led her to legal services, where she assisted individuals from all walks of life.  

Rebecca Thornton worked on a special initiative of the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights in New York.  This new initiative, formed in response to the tragic events of 9/11, was focused on the indefinite detention by the United States of non-US citizens and the government’s move toward using the immigration enforcement system as a surrogate for the criminal justice system.  Rebecca’s work focused on the impact of new laws and regulations, made in the name of national security, upon non-citizens and immigrants.  

Renita Thukral spent her first year developing the Community Justice Institute, a project geared to providing in-depth technical assistance to defender organizations involved in implementing community projects.  Renita educated public defenders about community-oriented defense, a model for public defense that emphasizes the importance of building strong relationships between public defender organizations and community organizations.  By working with chief defenders and their staffs from states across the country, Renita and her host organization assembled a national network of community defenders.  

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In addition to representing clients concerning a variety of domestic issues, I conduct clinics on various issues including wills, intestate succession, advance directives and guardianships.  As legal needs change, clinics are tailored to meet the needs of the targeted communities.  An equally important aspect of my role is to recruit attorneys and law students to the capacity of the organization.  

As an AmeriCorps Legal Fellow, I am involved in a number of activities aimed at eliminating the justice gap.  Through direct representation regarding a variety of matters, such as adoption and divorce, and clinical activities, underserved populations receive vital services.  An equally important component of my work is recruiting attorneys and law students to provide services for low-income Mississippians.  

During law school, Tamar Todd, a native of Berkeley, California, worked to help those caught up in the criminal justice system.  She volunteered teaching street law classes to incarcerated juveniles, interned at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and participated in a Criminal Justice Clinic, representing indigent defendants charged with misdemeanor offenses.  As an Equal Justice Works Fellow, Tamar helped trial lawyers in Georgia and Alabama develop and present mitigation evidence at the penalty phase of capital trials.  

Stephen Tollafield works on the Do No Harm Project at Disability Rights Advocates in Oakland.  As public schools experience increased pressure to improve performance and accountability, many states now require that students pass standardized "high stakes" tests to determine high school graduation, class placement and school district funding.  Unfortunately, states frequently develop these standardized tests without considering the rights or needs of disabled children.  

I am working in Milwaukee's Metcalfe Park neighborhood to mitigate the harm from foreclosures on the community.  Metcalfe Park is one of the poorest areas of Milwaukee and also one of the areas most impacted by foreclosures.  When we began the project, I anticipated litigating foreclosure defenses, but it has become clear that most Metcalfe homeowners have already lost their houses.  

Sara Simon Tompkins' fellowship at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty incorporates education, legislative and litigation strategies to address the barriers that homeless people face to receiving food stamps.  Most homeless people are eligible for food stamps, but relatively few receive them, Sara reports.  Sara first developed an interest in food stamp issues while in an internship in the Government Entitlements Unit of Lone Star Legal Aid.  

I organize and run law student volunteer clinics and handle a case load generated by the clinics.  Our clinics cover a wide variety of issues including housing, divorce and sealing of criminal records.  I also conduct "HIV/AIDS Legal Checkups" for individuals living with HIV in our community.  

My project provides individual representation for teenagers in the foster care system who need more support at school.  At the same time, I am working to create a pool of "educational surrogate parents" who can advocate for children who don't have biological or foster parents able to make educational decisions on their behalf.  .  

Laura Townsend coordinates the Juvenile Mental Health Court Project at the National Center for Youth Law.  This initiative trains civil advocates to represent mentally ill youth in a variety of important areas.  Laura works closely with several court systems to help them develop and implement sustainable civil advocacy programs.  

At APALC I will work to provide the Asian Pacific Islander American (API) community in Orange County with multilingual, culturally sensitive legal services.  I will be providing direct legal services in immigration, family and housing law cases, to clients through intakes, clinics and other client contact.  I will also recruit, train and manage interns, volunteers and pro bono attorneys to increase public legal services available in Orange County.  

LawHelp/NY provides legal information and referrals for low-income New Yorkers.  I'll be helping to launch LiveHelp, an online chat service that will help users find the right resources to address their legal needs.  .  

The thousands of people released from Florida's prisons every year are stripped of numerous legal rights, which cannot be restored until all of their legal fines and fees are paid.  Of course, many ex-prisoners cannot afford to make these payments, and are effectively deprived of these rights because they are poor.  This project aims to legally challenge some of the financial obstacles to civil rights restoration as well as produce manuals for ex-prisoners and practitioners on how to navigate the post-release system.  

Jennifer Troia is working to improve the lives of the nearly 14,000 foster youth who are placed in group homes in California, through her project at the Youth Law Center(YLC) in San Francisco.  The Youth Law Center acts to protect abused and at-risk children, focusing particularly on the problems facing youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.  YLC investigates reports of abuse, provides legal consultation, conducts litigation and monitors compliance with the laws.  

My project focuses on preserving homeownership in southwest Ohio by defending low-income homeowners in foreclosure litigation and influencing public policy to change the lending industry.  I work with homeowners who were either targeted by predatory lenders and given bad loan products that were destined to fail, and with homeowners who have suffered temporary losses of income due to job loss or serious illness.  My goal is to maintain healthy communities by keeping families in their own homes.  

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Lori Turner works with the Children's Initiative of the Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU of Illinois to assure that children in foster care have access to an adequate and stable education and receive appropriate mental health care services.  Leveraging existing agreements, Lori plans to work with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to design and implement mechanisms of communication and oversight to improve the educational outcomes of children in state care.  The American Civil Liberties Union is a non-partisan member organization dedicated to protecting and extending liberty and equality to all in the United States.