Assist Immigrants Adjusting To The U.S.
Project SHINE (Students Helping in Naturalization and English) is a service-learning program through the Office of University-Community Partnerships which links Emory students with refugees and immigrants in Atlanta who are seeking to learn English and become U.S. citizens. Volunteers work as teacher's assistants and tutors in ESL classes, citizenship classes and after-school programs. We have 7 community organizations that partner with us, and volunteers can choose the site and time that works best for their schedule. It is a 2 hour per week commitment for one semester. Volunteers will assist a teacher in the classroom and get a chance to work with students from all over the world, including Myanmar, Iraq, and Sudan. If you're interested, check out the Project SHINE Web site at http://projectshineatlanta.wordpress.com or e-mail Lauren Henricksen at ltenhar(at)emory.edu. Sign up this week as the registration window closes soon.
Volunteer at a Rehabilitating Transitional Home for Women and Children
The Padgett House will be having 3 volunteer days this month on the 16,23,30 our goal is to let people in the community know that we are hear and how we could help. We will be handing out flyers in the community and we could use some volunteers to assist us. If you know of any volunteers that would like to help The Padgett House, Inc. Contact Sharon Lewis at blsharon(at)comcast.net if you’re interested. They are also looking for someone to PAY to assist in writing a grant. Contact Sharon Lewis at blsharon(at)comcast.net if you’re interested.
*Atlanta Volunteer Lawyer's Foundation Legal Research
AVLF Domestic Violence Project needs volunteers to do legal research for them (counts for pro bono credit). The subject areas needed are energy assistance in Fulton county for low-income families or domestic violence victims; landlord/tenant issues and information; employment and domestic violence issues; how to get public benefits and SSDI; how to sever joint bank accounts; repairing your credit; financially protecting yourself - put fraud alert on credit report, etc.; how to get copies of your birth certificate and social security card, driver's license, IDs when they have been lost or stolen. If you are interested in doing research on any of these subjects, please email stacy.tolos(at)gmail.com with your subject preferences and to get more details.
*Peachtree Homeless Shelter
Volunteers needed every Thursday from 3-5pm at Pine and Peachtree homeless shelter. This will be pro bono, legal volunteer work with people experiencing homelessness. You will be supervised by an attorney. You could go on a regular basis, but do not need to go every week. If you cannot participate in the clinic or would rather conduct research, there are lots of legal research needs that the homeless shelter has and needs help with. Email stacy.tolos(at)gmail.com if you are interested.
*NLG's Free Palestine Subcommittee Tax Project
The NLG's Free Palestine Subcommittee to challenge the tax-exempt status of American nonprofits that benefit Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Volunteers are needed to research and write complaints to file with the IRS. Contact Uri Strauss, the Tax Project Coordinator, at uristra(at)gmail.com or (216) 256-3213 for more information and to be connected to a local attorney supervisor (which would allow you to get pro bono hours credit).
Fugees Family, Inc. Soccer Team
Fugees Family, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to working with child survivors of war. We build upon the power of soccer to galvanize these kids by giving them the support and structure they need to realize their vast potential. Five years ago, Coach Luma Mufleh started a Fugees team to provide refugee boys with free access to organized soccer. Since then, our programming has grown to include year-round soccer for 86 boys aged 10-18, after-school tutoring, a private academy, and an academic enrichment camp. By conducting drills with various players grouped together and enforcing an English-only policy at all times, the kids learn to cooperate. Africans and Asians, Northern and Southern Sudanese, Muslims and Christians, Sunni and Shia Muslims - they all play on the same team, finding their commonalities instead of focusing on their differences. Their bonds make them more secure in their own identity and more capable of acclimating to the mainstream.
For more information, visit www.fugeesfamily.org. For an excerpt from a book about the team, click here.
Volunteers are needed to Tutor soccer players after school, Bring snacks/water to a game, organize a fundraiser, etc. If you or your organization is interested in volunteering with Fugees Family, please contact volunteer(at)fugeesfamily.org
Thank you to our advisory board member Judge Beasley for this opportunity.
*Heir Property Project
Learn more about Georgia Appleseed's Heir Property Project! Many of you met Sharon Hill, the Executive Director of Georgia Appleseed at the "Adventures in Pro Bono" event for Pro Bono Week. She's also an ELS alum and sits on the EPIC advisory board.
This counts for EPIC and Pro Bono Hours! For more information about the project, click here. For more on what you can do to help, click here.
Plant Watering at Oakland Cemetery
Oakland Cemetery is organizing volunteers to water plants that have been installed on the cemetery grounds this fall. Even though fall is the best time to plant in our Atlanta climate, there still is a need to keep our newly planted items watered if Mother Nature does not provide regular rainfall.
Please let us know if you might be able to help with this project. We are not yet certain exactly how the program will be organized; we have never put together a watering crew before at Oakland. However, it is a volunteer effort that has a high degree of flexibility insofar as when volunteers come to Oakland and how long they stay on the grounds. Volunteers will be working independently at times that their schedules permit. Our goal is to get each plant installed this fall watered weekly through the end of the year. Volunteers will be provided with maps of the plantings and spigots, water buckets and hoses.
Please let us know if you might be able to assist with this effort and whether your schedule would permit you to come on weekdays, weekends or either. If you cannot assist in person, but would like to support our efforts, financial or in-kind donations would be most welcome. We certainly will be needing to purchase additional hoses, nozzles, hose carts, etc.
Please contact Andrew Johnson at LandscapeOakland(at)gmail.com or wateroakland(at)gmail.com.
Atlanta Community Food Bank
One place that always needs lots of volunteers is the Atlanta Community Food Bank. They use about 1000 volunteers a month! See the website for volunteer activities. Especially suitable for law students would be the Product Rescue Center, where we examine and sort and pack the mounds of donated canned and packaged food that comes in daily. The shifts are 3 hours each, and an individual or a group can sign up. For more details, visit www.acfb.org or contact Niji Jain at njain6(at)emory.edu. Thanks to our Advisory Board Member Dorothy Beasley for this opportunity.
Clifton Sanctuary Ministries
Volunteer during dinner at 6 p.m. on each Wednesday for two hours. Located at 369 Connecticut Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307-2238, 404.373.3253. Contact Shawn B. McCullers, BLSA Community Service Chair, at Smccul2(at)emory.edu for more information or to volunteer.
www.cliftonsanctuary.com
Mason Mills Retirement Center
Jason Antin is coordinating volunteers for the Mason Mills Retirement Center which is five minutes from Emory. Please contact Jason at jason.antin(at)gmail.com with any questions.
*Latin American Association Immigration Services Dept.
The Latin American Association is seeking volunteers for the Immigration Services Department. The Latin American Association helps Latino families achieve their aspirations for academic, social and economic advancement. The Immigration Services Department does family-based immigration, as well as represent immigrant victims of domestic violence and other crimes. View the website or brochure or contact Jonathan Eoloff at eoloff_j(at)thelaa.org for more information or to apply. Students with immigration law knowledge and Spanish skills are especially encouraged to apply, but all volunteers are welcome.
Help Build the U.S. Public Service Academy
Three years ago, two Teach for America alums launched an effort to build the civilian counterpart to the military service academies: the U.S. Public Service Academy. Now they have bipartisan legislation pending in Congress, and you can help get it passed by volunteering to serve on the Academy’s National Youth Council (ages 16-22) or as a State Coordinator for the Council (ages 23+). As a Councilmember or State Coordinator, you will help mobilize support for the Academy, particularly among young people. For more information, visit uspublicserviceacademy.org/nyc/ or email Shawn Raymond at raymond(at)uspublicserviceacademy.org.
*Georgia Public Defender Standards Council Appellate Division School-Year Internship
This past summer, Ruth Ott interned at the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council- Appellate Division. One of the attorneys there asked if we knew anyone at Emory who would be interested in being a volunteer intern there this semester (and/or next semester). She wants someone for 10 or more hours a week. Here is a description of what they do:
The Appellate Advocacy and Legal Research Division provides direct representation to clients on appeal when the Circuit Public Defenders have a conflict. Additionally the Division has primary responsibility for appellate litigation, both adult and juvenile, and legal research throughout the state. We assist public defenders and conflict defenders in our circuits with all stages of litigation - from case planning to research to brief-writing - and serve as a reference source for defense counsel with substantive or procedural questions.
Basically, she read trial records, identified issues for appeal, drafted an appellate brief, and corresponded with the incarcerated clients through mail updating them on the status of their appeal. It was a really cool experience and she learned a ton. Please contact Ruth at ruth.ott(at)gmail.com if you are interested.
Albert T. Miller Enrichment Center
A nonprofit preschool and urban ministry serving pre-schoolers from Atlanta’s toughest neighborhoods. By giving pre-schoolers better academic skills, social skills and Christian grounding, the Center seeks to aid children in becoming better prepared to succeed in school and in society, and to avoid the hopelessness that leads to destructive behavior. In addition, they strive to empower parents and guardians to stimulate and safeguard early childhood development. Volunteers are always needed, for reading to the kids, throwing a holiday party for them or just loving on them. No training is required, but experienced classroom teachers, psychologists, counselors and Bible teachers are always welcome and often find the experience particularly rewarding. For more information, check www.atmills.org or talk to Derrick Mills who works at the copy center on the first floor of Gambrell Hall (Derrick is the Assistant Director and Project Coordinator at the Enrichment Center).
Be a Blogger for Change.org
Want to blog on an issue you are passionate about for an audience of over a million activists and nonprofit leaders? Change.org is expanding our team of freelance bloggers to help broaden our coverage of the most important causes of our time.
Each blogger will contribute to a daily blog covering news and offering commentary on a single social, political or environmental issue, convene leading nonprofits and activists working on the issue, and help people translate their passion into concrete action.
Previous blogging experience is encouraged but not necessary; strong writing skills are required. Change.org's blog network includes the following causes: Animal Rights, Criminal Justice, Education, Gay Rights, Global Warming, Homelessness, Human Trafficking, Humanitarian Relief, Immigration, Poverty in America, Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Food, Universal Health Care, Women's Rights, Conflict and Relief (forthcoming), Disabilities Rights (forthcoming), Environment (forthcoming), Global Poverty (forthcoming), Human Rights (forthcoming), Wildlife and Habitat (forthcoming).
To apply, please send a brief introductory email and your resume (or a link to your LinkedIn profile) as well as the issue(s) you like to write about to Judith at blogs(at)change.org.