Project Ideas for Your Campus

The Public Interest Committee is pleased to provide you with some suggestions and quick ideas for student leaders at law schools to organize on their campus.  These ideas are by no means all inclusive. If you or the students at your school have other thoughts for this theme we welcome you to share them with us.

• Work with local attorneys or law enforcement to sponsor talks on the legal system and how it effects homeless individuals
• Collect stuffed animals and other items to be given to comfort children arriving at homeless shelters
• Raise money or do a volunteer drive for a community assistance group or program
• Distribute informational materials to schools on legal issues and how to contact local programs
• Team up with a local legal aid center and ask how law students can contribute
• Hold a symposium on the unmet legal needs indigent defendants face by inviting local counsel specializing in low income legal matters
• Organize an auction for donated items and give proceeds to a legal aid organization, shelter or soup kitchen
• Plan a benefit party with all proceeds going to a welfare agency
• Hold a symposium on issues of indigent defendants in the legal system
• Conduct a skills building course on effective communication with economically challenged clients
• Invite a speaker to talk about domestic violence issues and how it effects families with regard to homelessness and poverty among women and children
• Contact your local bar association and assist in creating and organizing a CLE program on lawyers and students against homelessness
• Assist a local organization in recruiting professionals to serve as mentors to homeless children
• Begin a tutoring program with a local school for homeless children
• Create a public awareness campaign on concerns surrounding the homeless
• Author an article for your school newsletter on the concerns the poor in the legal system face
• Display articles written by faculty and students highlighting issues of homelessness and poverty in America
• Hold a writing contest on issues facing homeless children in the legal system
• Create and sponsor an award given to local attorneys striving to address the plight of the homeless and displaced
• Present a PowerPoint on legal issues involving homelessness and poverty to students of all ages
• Conduct a renters/conviction clinic for education and relief from convictions
• Assist the elderly at a high risk of being the victims of financial predators due to diminished capacity and slum lords
• Join forces with a bar association or other organization to find out how law students can assist in taking the law to the streets, the courts to shelters and bring the homeless back to society
• Work with local shelters in your community to create a procedure to be applied if a person does not have a certified copy of identification on file in the shelter and then help implement those ideas
• Provide legal consultation (if your state allows it) and notary services to the homeless

• Project H.E.L.P. Flyer
• Project H.E.L.P. Toolkit

Resources from the American Bar Association

• ABA Commission on Homelessness and Poverty
• The Homeless Court Project: Taking the Courts to the Streets (Report)
• Homeless Court Program (HCP)
• Lawyers Working to End Homelessness
• ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants
• ABA Center for Children and the Law
• ABA Commission on Domestic Violence
• ABA Commission on the Legal Needs of the Elderly

Other Resources

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• National Coalition for Homelessness  – NCH Fact Sheet
• National Alliance to End Homelessness
• United Way
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Disaster Preparedness
• Just Neighbors
• Stand Up for Kids
• National Center for Homeless Education
• National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (Lawyers Working to End Homelessness)
• RESULTS
• Homeless Persons Representation Project, Inc. (HPRP)

Existing Programs and Models

• Street Youth Legal Advocates of Washington (SYLAW)
• H.E.L.P. (Homeless Experience Legal Protection) – Contact Judge Zainey to receive a copy of the HELP manual.
• Seattle Housing and Resource Effort and the Women’s Housing, Equality and Enhancement League (SHARE/WHEEL)
• El Centro de la Raza
• National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY)

Note:  The organizations and websites listed above are not endorsed by the ABA Law Student Division, but merely provided as a resource for students planning Work-A-Day activities. Please refer to the Work-A-Day Toolkit for short narrative descriptions of the above organizations.

Looking for funding for your Work-a-Day project this year?

In addition to your law school and affiliated organizations, there are sources within the ABA that can provide funding for your program or a fellowship dealing with homelessness.

ABA Law Student Division Grant Program
The ABA Law Student Division, through its Grant Program, provides financial and program support to student organizations of ABA-approved law schools to establish programs and other activities that emphasize diversity, ethics, professionalism training and public interest/service activities. (Refer to the Work-A-Day Toolkit for details)

ABA John J. Curtin, Jr. Fellowship Fund Fellowship Program
The John J. Curtin, Jr. Justice Fund provides stipends to law students working to help homeless and indigent people. (Refer to the Work-A-Day Toolkit for details)

The Law Student Division gratefully acknowledges the support of the ABA Commission on Homelessness and Poverty for its support of this year's Work-A-Day program as a co-sponsor of our community service efforts. The Commission also provided the Division with permission to use the "Lawyers Working to End Homelessness" photo for this year's theme.