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Law Student Division

2007-2008 Work-A-Day Community Service

Law Students Fighting Homelessness:
Project H.E.L.P. (Homeless Experience Legal Protection)

This year the theme for Work-A-Day is “Law Students Fighting Homelessness: Project H.E.L.P. (Homeless Experience Legal Protection).”  The Law Student Division is very excited about this year’s theme and we are eager to help law schools implement programs accordingly. 

Together, we can address the legal issues of vulnerable individuals and families through education, assistance, and prevention.  Work-A-Day is an event that encourages law students to get involved in their community and give back to the community in which they live.  We selected homelessness this year because it involves issues that affect every community.

We have created a tool-kit to jump-start the development of your Work-A-Day programming.  In the tool-kit you will find resources, statistics and sample program ideas to help you implement a program that fits your community’s needs.

If you have any questions or you would like to get more involved, please contact your circuit governor or any of the public interest committee members.

Tell us about your Work-A-Day Activities >>>

Project H.E.L.P. Tool Kit

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

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