Description:

Racial and Disability Justice partners with the Integrated Community Collaborative (ICC), a grassroots organization helping low income Latinx families attain services for their children with disabilities. California’s Regional Centers, the organizations that coordinate providing services to people with disabilities, disproportionately deny services to Latinx families. These families often find themselves fighting an uphill battle to meet their children’s needs, without representation or guidance.

Racial and Disability Justice supports the ICC with a “movement lawyering” model. This means we center the experiences of families and follow their leadership. We attend Individualized Program Plan (IPP) meetings with families as part of their circle of support, create tools and resources to help families advocate for themselves, and support policy efforts for system-wide change.

Commitment Required of Members:

1 to 2 hours per week, each quarter of the year preferred. Time will be spent in semi-regular meetings with the pro bono group (no more than once every two weeks), attending 1-2 client-focused meetings/hearings per quarter at self scheduled times, and working on projects that support our client community (eg toolkits on how to navigate court hearings over service requests).

Open Membership Spots: 8

Adv. Degree Student Participation: Yes

Winter Start: Permitted, But Fall Start Preferred

Eligible for Meeting NYS Bar Pro Bono Requirement: Likely

Language Ability Preference: We do not have any language requirement to participate in the pro bono project, but Spanish is highly valuable to the project, and we would aim to have a few participants with proficient Spanish skills.

Project Leaders: Jonathan Artal, Carly Frieders, and Luke Norquist