What is GRAP, you ask?  We volunteer in County Social Services Offices, advocating on behalf of aid recipients to help them obtain government assistance.

Come to the training and then you can join us for volunteer afternoons on Fridays throughout the year.  Tentatively, the volunteer days for this semester will be 9/30, 10/28, and 11/4.

If you plan to attend please email Molly Ford, GRAP Coordinator at patricia.ford@lls.edu

September 15, 2011
11:45 am – 1:00 pm
Robinson Courtroom

Juvenile Rights Project Trainees at local high school

The Juvenile Rights Project, a new program from the Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) of Loyola Law School, launched this past Monday and was a huge success. Several Loyola Law students volunteered, including PILF co-chair Kyle Tracy, and received training before the official outing. The volunteers visited Culver City High School in Culver City, California, where volutneers gave classroom presentations to high school students on the subject of civil rights in police encounters.

The focus of the presentation primarily involved what the police can and cannot do and how best to deal with the police in certain encounters. Volunteers also emphasized what the students’ rights are, including how much of a right they have to refuse searches of different kinds, how to assert their rights, and even how best to address the officers to defuse the situation in the first place. In order to keep things engaging, the presentations incorporated various role playing activities.

Carlos Valverde, a Culver City High School Teacher, had this to say about the Project:

“Based on the feedback from students today, they loved it! Students shared [that] they enjoyed the skits as important to convey the message; they were grateful for the cards they were give[n] and most of all, they were grateful for the information. They truly seemed empowered! One student said that the presentation was perhaps the most useful thing she’s learned throughout all of high school!”

The Juvenile Rights Project began in 2010 with the help of PILF. Loyola students receive training from the well-known Los Angeles based civil rights attorney, Colleen Flynn, and the Youth Justice Coalition. Once trained, these students will be sent in teams of two or more to present to classes in participating high schools.

If you would like to volunteer, or would like more information, please contact us.

Sterling Franklin '75, Cynthia Panuco '10, first recipient, and Ami Silverman '87

Scholarship applications for 2010 are now available and will be accepted until March 26, 2010. Apply now, or check out our Grants & Scholarships page.

As summer approaches, students interested in public interest law might want to consider applying to the Ami Silverman Endowment PILF Fund.

The Ami Silverman Endowment Fund of the Loyola Law School Public Interest Law Foundation provides summer stipends of up to $1,500 to public interest law students. The fund was established to provide annual summer stipends for law students in the Loyola Law School Public Interest Law Foundation (Loyola PILF) program. The fund was made possible through the generosity of Sterling Franklin ’75, who gave the initial donation of $15,000 in 2007 (and seed funding from Loyola Law School for $10,000). Sterling has agreed to match, dollar for dollar, all donations up to $12,500 in order to increase the endowment to $50,000.

Last year, Cindy Panuco, ’09, was the first student to receive an award from the Fund. Panuco’s work in public interest has included helping domestic violence victims at the Immigration Center for Women and Children, and working on civil rights litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

For more information on the Ami Silverman Endowment Fund, please contact us.

Want to earn pro bono hours and help actual clients with a minimal time commitment? Join us as we travel to the Department of Social Services to advocate for applicants to receive the assistance to which they are legally entitled. Under the supervision of a licensed attorney, advocates will also assist clients by providing them with referrals to organizations and service providers who can help with the clients’ other legal, medical, and social service needs.

Our next GRAP Service Days are announced on our GRAP page.

For more information, please RSVP to Daniel Ediger.

Photo Source: Homeless Tales