
Gillian Chadwick
Host: Women Empowered Against Violence
Sponsor: Arnold & Porter Foundation
Melissa provided direct representation and community education to low-income New Yorkers with arrest and conviction records to reduce barriers to employment and facilitate successful reentry.
Almost one-third of U.S. adults — approximately 70 million people — have arrest or conviction records. These individuals confront enormous barriers to obtaining employment, especially if they are poor. In New York City, a criminal record reduces the likelihood of getting a callback or job offer for low-wage work by nearly 50 percent. New York provides strong anti-discrimination protections to people with criminal records; however, there has been only limited enforcement of these protections to date. This project will break down barriers to employment by enforcing New York’s strong anti-discrimination laws and empowering New Yorkers with criminal records to defend their rights and obtain stable employment.
In the past two years, Melissa has:
Now that the Fellowship is complete, Melissa plans to:
Host: Women Empowered Against Violence
Sponsor: Arnold & Porter Foundation
Host: Prairie State Legal Services
Sponsor: Deere & Co., Lane & Waterman LLP, Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP
Current Fellow
Host: Resilience Force Justice Project
Sponsor: Equal Justice Works Text-to-Give
Current Fellow
Host: D.C. Employment Justice Center
Sponsor: Feder, Semo, Clark & Bard, P.C., Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, Stephen Murdoch, The Union Community Fund, AFL-CIO, UFCW International Union