CALA Wins Coveted Echoing Green 2015 Global Fellowship

Echoing Green Fellowship Will Help CALA Expand the Availability of Free Legal Services and Activism to Underserved Clients, Including Undocumented Immigrants, Sex Workers, and Day Laborers.

Global nonprofit Echoing Green announced last week that CALA has been awarded a highly competitive and prestigious Global Fellowship to help develop the Community Activism Law Alliance (CALA). The Fellowship will provide seed funding, mentoring and leadership opportunities as the organization unites lawyers, communities and activists to bring free legal services directly into the communities that need them the most.  

Ellen Craig, President of CALA’s Board of Directors, remarked, “CALA's staff, community partners and Board of Directors are very pleased that Echoing Green, an internationally-recognized nonprofit that is building a global community of emerging leaders in social change, has awarded one of its coveted Global Fellowships to Lam Ho, CALA's founder and Executive Director. We appreciate Echoing Green's generous support which will enable CALA to continue to provide our underserved communities access to justice and to pursue social change in collaboration with our community partners.” 

Of 3,629 applicants, 52—just over one percent—were selected to receive Fellowships. Through three Fellowship categories (Global, Climate and Black Male Achievement), Echoing Green has invested almost $40 million in seed-stage funding and strategic assistance to nearly 700 world-class leaders. Echoing Green also supports the Fellow community long after their initial funding period through ongoing programs and opportunities at critical points in their careers.

CALA will receive $80,000 in funding for two years, participate in leadership development events, receive mentoring from leading business professionals and, most importantly, become part of a global network of leaders. 

“We’re proud to be investing in tomorrow’s leaders, helping them go further, faster, as they realize their vision of a world changed for the better,” said Echoing Green President Dr. Cheryl Dorsey. “Many of the Fellows chosen are leading projects in the earliest stages, when it is hardest to find the necessary resources to get off the ground.”

Echoing Green’s Fellowship program is made possible through private contributions and the generous support of funders, including the Walton Family Foundation, the U.S. Global Development Lab of USAID, the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, The ZOOM Foundation, and the Campaign for Black Male Achievement, with support from the Open Society Foundations.  

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About the Community Activism Law Alliance: 

Community Activism Law Alliance (CALA) uses a model of community activism lawyering to unite lawyers and activists to collaboratively help underserved communities access justice and pursue social change. Through these partnerships, CALA creates activism-law clinics within and by Chicago communities with the highest rates of poverty and crime. They provide free legal services to undocumented immigrants, laborers, and sex workers, while supporting their partners’ grassroots activism for greater, empowered, and more durable impact than what lawyers, and the law, alone could achieve. CALA hopes to change how attorneys and activists nationwide work for and with communities. CALA currently operates 4 free community activism law clinics on the west and south sides of Chicago.

Learn More: www.calachicago.org

About Echoing Green:

Echoing Green’s mission is to unleash next generation talent to solve the world's biggest problems. Echoing Green was one of the first organizations to invest in early-stage social entrepreneurs through our Fellowship program almost 30 years ago. Today, the organization remains focused on building a global community of emerging leaders in social change. To date, the organization has supported almost 700 organizations led by the most extraordinary purpose-driven leaders of our time. Echoing Green Fellows include the founders of Teach For America, City Year, One Acre Fund, The Global Fund for Children and SKS Microfinance. Echoing Green’s accelerator programming and investments help these leaders to go further, faster. Echoing Green also runs a suite of innovative programs that cultivate and support promising leaders, including programming dedicated to purpose development, board leader preparation, and impact investing.

Learn More: echoinggreen.org



CALA-CTU Partnership Already Producing Big Results

Just in the month of May, CALA Worked with Centro de Trabajadores Unidos to Launch Its 4th Community Activism Law Clinic, Helped Immigrants Become Citizens at a Naturalization Workshop, and Attended CTU's Groundbreaking for Its New Community Center. 

CALA volunteer attorney, Renae Yoo, and CTU organizer, Raymundo Valdez welcoming clients to the CTU-CALA Citizenship Workshop.

CALA volunteer attorney, Renae Yoo, and CTU organizer, Raymundo Valdez welcoming clients to the CTU-CALA Citizenship Workshop.

May was a very busy month for CALA, highlighted by the achievements made possible by our partnership with Centro de Trabajadores Unidos - Immigrant Workers Project (CTU). In less than a month, we completed our first citizenship workshop, launched our 4th community activism law clinic in South Chicago, and helped CTU celebrate its community center groundbreaking. 

On Saturday May 2nd, CALA collaborated with CTU to present its first citizenship workshop. Due to budgetary cuts, CTU did not have sufficient resources for and planned to cancel its previously scheduled workshop to help legal permanent residents become American citizens. CALA's staff and volunteers attorneys offered to oversee and provide the additional resources to make the workshop possible. As a result, CTU was able to proceed with its plans, and we were able to help approximately 20 families apply for naturalization. 

Then, on May 7, we extended our free community-based, activism-driven legal services to the far southside of Chicago, and surrounding suburbs. Operating every Thursday from 4pm-8pm, the clinic will focus on employment/labor, housing, immigration, and criminal records , but attorneys at the clinic will provide advice, consultation, and self-advocacy assistance in all areas of law. At our launch, the clinic was completely packed; at one point, our conference room, waiting area, and even the stairways was filled with clients waiting for intakes. By the end of the night, we had completed intakes for over 15 cases. 

Finally, on May 16th, CALA joined in the groundbreaking of CTU's community center. The community center will house CALA's legal clinic as well as a number of other programs serving the community, including organizing space and a pilot program for CTU entrepreneurs. The featured speeches from CTU staff and 10th Ward Alderman John A Pope. We wish CTU all the best luck going forward with their new space.







  

 

A LOVELY EVENING ON THE RIVER! CALA'S 1st FUNDRAISER

A GAZILLION THANKS TO ALL OF CALA'S SUPPORTERS WHO ATTENDED CALA'S 1ST FUNDRAISER

CALA would like to thank all of our supporters who attended and made our very first fundraising event a great, fun success! The event was hosted by board members Liz Tracy and Thomas Alaan on River's outdoor deck under lovely weather and views of Chicago. 

In addition to the money we raised--all of which will be used to directly serve communities on the west and south sides of Chicago with the least access to free legal services, the event also brought together our supporters to catch up with our board members and staff on CALA's work. We also met some new friends, who we hope will join our supporters in helping CALA serve the most disadvantaged by uniting lawyers, communities, and activists to pursue greater social change than they can achieve alone. 

Again: AN OVATION TO OUR SUPPORTERS, NEW FRIENDS, as well as LIZ TRACY, THOMAS ALAAN, and MARIANNA CHAPLEAU--who organized the fabulous event!

Check out pictures of the events below (photography by Thomas Alaan).

 

 

 

 

 

CALA LAUNCHING CTU COMMUNITY ACTIVISM LAW CLINIC FOR SOUTH CHICAGO AND SUBURBS

CALA TO OPEN 4TH CLINIC ON FAR SOUTHSIDE ON MAY 7, 2015

CALA will open its 4th community activism law clinic this week on May 7, 2015, extending its free community-based, activism-driven legal services to the far southside of Chicago, and surrounding suburbs. The clinic will be co-operated by Centro de Trabajadores Unidos: Immigrant Workers Project (CTU).

The clinic will operate every Thursday from 4pm-8pm. It will alternate between CTU's office at 3200 East 91st Street Chicago, Illinois 60617, and the Progress Center for Independent Living’s (PCIL) office at 12940 S. Western Ave., 3rd Fl, Blue Island, IL 60406, under the following schedule:

1st Thursday of Each Month (Walk-In Intakes): CTU, 3200 East 91st, Chicago

2nd Thursday of Each Month (Walk-In Intakes): PCIL, 3200 East 91st, 12940 S. Western Ave., 3rd Fl, Blue Island

3rd Thursday of Each Month (By Appointment Only): CTU, 3200 East 91st, Chicago

4th Thursday of Each Month (By Appointment Only): PCIL, 3200 East 91st, 12940 S. Western Ave., 3rd Fl, Blue Island

CALA's CTU Community Activism Law Clinic will be a free, full-service legal clinic for low-income individuals. It will provide a wide-range of services from advice, extended assistance, representation, to community legal education.  The clinic will provide free consultations, along with advice and self-advocacy assistance in nearly all areas of civil law. Additional services, including representation, will be available for housing, immigration, criminal records, and employment/labor cases. Legal services, including full representation, will be completely free of charge to clients. Additionally, the CTU Clinic will support CTU’s DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals)/DAPA (Deferred Action for Parental Accountability) and citizenship workshops. 

As with all our CALA's community activist partnerships, CALA will provide legal support for CTU's organizing, advocacy, consciousness raising, community leadership development, and other activism efforts. 

TU is an activist work center founded by a group of immigrant workers "determined to create a stable resource to serve Chicago’s southeast side." Their mission "is to have a powerful immigrant run organization in the southeast side of Chicago that will educate workers on their rights, develop leadership within the immigrant community, support and organize all workers as they fight for their rights in the workplace and fight for changing policy that increases standards for immigrant workers. The long-term vision would also include a component that would offer career advancement so immigrant workers can advance from low-wage, low-skill jobs into the high-skill jobs of our new economy.”

Learn more about CTU 

 

CALA to offer free criminal defense services to activists and sex workers

New Staff Attorney, Timothy Myers, will expand the free legal services that CALA can offer to support our activist partners. 

          

           In response to requests by our community activist partners,  CALA will begin offering free criminal defense legal services, including representation. Starting on May 1, 2015, CALA's new staff attorney, Timothy Myers, will make his available his knowledge of and experience in criminal law to clients at our SWOP (Sex Workers Outreach Project) community activism law clinic, as well as to activists involved with our partner community organizations who are arrested for their organizing, and other activism, activities. 

Prior to joining CALA's team, Tim was a prosecutor for the City of Chicago; he had also worked at a private criminal defense firm. He is extremely excited to use the skills he developed as a prosecutor to support the underserved populations on which CALA focuses, and to empower our activists partners to pursue their grassroots social change. 

CALA's SWOP Community Activism Law Clinic is a free, full-service legal clinic for individuals involved in/affected by sex work, or have experienced sexual exploitation. The clinic is open for intakes of new cases, twice a month, with follow-up appointments as well as trainings and workshops occurring in between intakes sessions. It provides a wide-range of services from advice and community legal education to full representation. As always, all legal services, including full representation, are completely free of charge to clients.

The next SWOP clinics are May 17th (3-6pm) and May 18th (6-9pm) at 1700 S Loomis. If you are unable to attend, or would prefer to be screened for services in advance, you can use our online screening form at: HTTP://WWW.CALACHICAGO.ORG/SWOP-CLINIC-ONLINE-SCREENING.

SWOP Community Activism Law Clinic Brochure 

SWOP Community Activism Law Clinic Brochure 

SWOP Community Activism Law Clinic Brochure

SWOP Community Activism Law Clinic Brochure







INTRODUCING CALA'S NEW TEAM MEMBERS!

Meet Nebula Li & Timothy Myers, CALA's New Staff Attorneys

CALA is extremely fortunate to have two committed, talented attorneys join our staff:  Nebula Li & Timothy Myers. In addition to their work with CALA's "community activism law clinics," Nebula will coordinate CALA's free community legal education for activists and activist organizations, while Tim will oversee our internship and volunteer programs. 

Nebula Li, Staff Attorney & Coordinator of Community Legal Education                                                 &nb…

Nebula Li, Staff Attorney & Coordinator of Community Legal Education                                                                                                                                    Photography by Thomas Alaan

Nebula Li is an attorney and activist committed to engaging with the community to advance social change.   Before starting at CALA, Nebula practiced immigration, criminal defense, public benefits and civil rights law at AIDS Legal Council of Chicago, Shiller*Preyar Law Offices, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago and Justice for Our Neighbors.  At Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago, Nebula also worked as a community organizer, mobilizing over 4,000 immigrant voters across the Chicagoland area.  

Nebula graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 2011.    During law school, Nebula participated in the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic’s Criminal & Juvenile Justice Project where they defended juveniles in criminal court.  Nebula also interned at Immigration Equality and Harvard Immigrant & Refugee Clinic/Greater Boston Legal Services.  Nebula earned the University of Chicago President’s Volunteer Service Award in addition to being a Law School Leadership Fellow. Nebula was also a member of the 2012 class of the “20 under 40,” Just The Beginning Foundation’s recognition for 20 attorneys under the age of 40 across the country, who reach back and lift up their communities.  

Nebula currently serves as a board member for National Lawyers Guild Chicago, a progressive organization for law students, lawyers, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers. They are also an active member of community organizations Invisible 2 Invincible: Asian/Pacific Islander Pride of Chicago (i2i) and National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF). 

Nebula can speak Spanish proficiently, and basic Cantonese.

Timothy Myers, Staff Attorney & Volunteer/Intern Coordinator                                                     &n…

Timothy Myers, Staff Attorney & Volunteer/Intern Coordinator                                                                                                                                                      Photography by Thomas Alaan

Timothy Myers is motivated by the opportunity to make a difference in the community, and he sees his law degree as a tool to do so. Tim’s interest in activism and serving the public interested started early. During college, Tim was active advocating for immigrant rights in Voces de la Frontera, a grassroots political organization supporting Milwaukee’s immigrant community. After college, Tim worked at University Hospital in Cincinnati, advocating for the hospital’s uninsured patients in their Medicaid and Social Security cases.

During his time in law school, Tim developed an interest in immigration law, serving as the President of the Immigration Law Society. Tim also gained experience in the practice of immigration law while clerking for Community Refugee and Immigration Services and while helping set up DACA workshops for Vineyard Community Church. Tim was also active in the law school’s civil clinic, using the FOIA process to request records from Customs and Border Protection to support litigation seeking to prove discriminatory enforcement policies by CBP targeting the Latino community. 

This interest in immigration law is coupled with an interest in criminal law, which Tim cultivated during his time clerking with criminal defense attorney Priya Tamilarasan. Upon graduating law school, Tim worked as a prosecutor for the City of Chicago Department of Law.

Presently, Tim is active in Chicago Bar Association Young Lawyers Section, serving as a mentor to high school students interested in legal careers. Tim is a proud alumnus of Marquette University and The Ohio State Moritz College of Law.

Tim is fluent in Spanish. 

Harvard Law at CALA

HARVARD LAW STUDENTS HELP OVER 80 FAMILIES DURING THEIR PRO BONO SPRING TRIP AT CALA

 

Read the Harvard Law Today feature (with pictures): http://today.law.harvard.edu/2015-spring-break-clinical-pro-bono/

CALA recently hosted a group of Harvard Law students as part of HLS' Pro Bono Spring Break Trips 2015 Instead of sipping cocktails on a tropical beach, the student came to windy Chicago and prepared, conducted outreach for, and provided legal services at three workshops in Little Village and South Chicago. The students helped undocumented students complete initial and renewal applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applications, and parents determine eligibility and prepare documentation for Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) applications. In a single week, which included working on Friday night and Saturday, the students helped over 80 families!

The law students learned about CALA's community activism lawyering model, as they collaborated with community activist organizations, including Enlace-Chicago and Centro de Trabajadores Unidos-Immigrant Workers Project. In addition, they were also able to observe and explore community activism lawyering in action at CALA's clinics and at other community organizing activities, including presenting a Spanish-language training for Knowledge Hook-Up. 

Sponsored by the law school's Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs, the HLS Pro Bono Spring Break trips provided opportunities for students to use their spring breaks to do important pro bono work in Chicago, Alabama, the Mississippi Delta, and South Texas. The trips ran from March 14-22, 2015.

Some reflections from the participants, excerpted from the article written by one of the students, Isabel Broer. To read the full article, click here 

"Naomi Campbell writes: “This past week was completely reenergizing. CALA and the community organizations in Little Village and South Chicago are wonderful examples of community-led activism and it was great to see such a strong partnership between lawyers and organizers. I really valued putting names and faces to policies and ideas and learning more about the barriers undocumented people face on a daily basis. Their drive to advocate for themselves and for their families was inspiring. Thank you to Lam, Raymundo at CTU, and Lulu at Enlace Chicago for hosting and teaching us so much.”

Dami Animashaum echoes Naomi’s sentiments: “I am very grateful to have spent spring break working with Lam, CALA, Enlace, Knowledge Hookup, and CTU. These organizations and the many individuals, from dedicated staff members to community volunteers that keep them afloat are a blessing to the communities they serve and a model for other legal services organizations to aspire to. These organizations are directly situated in communities where access to legal and other social services are most needed, and through collaboration and coalition, they are making great strides to satisfying that need. A testament to the communal nature of these organizations is how seamlessly we were able to fit in; every single person was incredibly welcoming and made us feel like valued members of the team. The three DACA and DAPA workshop we staffed were extremely successful, we assisted over 80 people in completing or renewing their DACA application and preparing to apply for DAPA. I am sure this experience will inform the legal work I do in future.”

Finally, Andréa R. Lavourinha, an attorney from Brazil, reflects on her experiences: “Community lawyers play an essential role in addressing the kinds of structural problems low-income communities face. The trip is over, but the life lesson remains. Among workshops, clinics and sightseeing, the spring break clinic at CALA was an amazing opportunity to get in touch with the wonderful work developed by Lam Ho and his team. Also, we became aware of the various skills a community lawyer must develop in order to address the immigration and legal problems these communities face. Not only applications were filled up. Lam Ho, together with Nebula Li, and incredible community leaders – as Raymundo Valdez – help inform community members. They bring awareness of individuals’ rights. Weekly, they change the lives of a vast group of community members. It was an unforgettable experience to take part in this change during a week.”

 

Meet CALA's Newest Board Member: Serafina Ha

WELCOME SERAFINA HA, CALA'S NEWEST BOARD MEMBER

CALA is extremely pleased to welcome Serafina Ye Jin Ha to our Board of Directors. Serafina is a tax associate in the Chicago office of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), working with the Industry Services Group doing compliance and provision work for non-finance industry clients. Currently, she is working to fulfill all her requirements to become a Certified Public Accountant.

Serafina graduated from University of Illinois at Chicago magna cum laude with a B.S. in Accounting. While there, she was VP of Operations of the Accounting Club, and an executive member of the Business Student Advisory Board. She co-founded the Business Learning Center, which opened in the fall of 2014 to provide a space for students to come together for resources in tutoring, socializing, and other areas in academic and career development.

Prior to PwC, Serafina volunteered with the Korean-American Resource and Cultural Center, a local non-profit that serves to empower the Korean American community through education, social service, organizing/advocacy and culture. Through her extended involvement, she gained appreciation and passion for social justice and humanitarian work

CALA at RebLaw Conference

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CALA PRESENTS AT REBLAW: "Beyond Boundaries: How Lawyers, Activists, and Communities Can Effectively Create Social Change Together" 

CALA was honored to organize and present at the Rebellious Lawyering Conference last month at Yale Law School, even more so as we were able to do it with one of our community activist partners, Lulu Martinez of Enlace.  RebLaw is the nation's largest student-run public interest conference. Every year the conference brings together practitioners, law students, and community activists from around the country to discuss innovative, progressive approaches to law and social change. Read more about the conference here.

Our panel, "Beyond Boundaries: How Lawyers, Activists, and Communities Can Effectively Create Social Change Together, also featured Melissa Sontag Broudo and Kate D'Adamo from the Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center (the first legal clinic in the country dedicated to serving sex workers). It focused on the strategies, benefits, and challenges of lawyer-activist collaborations, with perspectives from both sides of these partnerships.

You can watch a video of our presentation at:

https://capturecast.yale.edu:8443/ess/echo/presentation/4981b5ab-d272-4b2b-aaac-d5302ed29dc1?ec=true

 

CALA's Sex Workers Activism Law Clinic Offering Online Screening

CALA's Sex Workers Activism Law Clinic, operated with SWOP-Chicago (Sex Workers Rights Project) will immediately start offering online screening for clients. 

In order to offer an effective, convenient method for sex workers to access free legal services, individuals can obtain, or be referred for, consultations about their legal issues, and follow-up appointments, by completing CALA-SWOP's online screening form: 

http://www.calachicago.org/swop-clinic-online-screening

A CALA attorney will respond to the form submission and offer information and advice, and/or arrange an in-person appointment at CALA's SWOP Activism Law Clinic, when additional services may be provided, including free representation. 

CALA's SWOP Community Activism Law Clinic is a free, full-service legal clinic for individuals involved in/affected by sex work, or have experienced sexual exploitation. The clinic is open for intakes of new cases, twice a month, with follow-up appointments as well as trainings and workshops occurring in between intakes sessions. It provides a wide-range of services from advice and community legal education to full representation. As always, all legal services, including full representation, are completely free of charge to clients.

The next clinics are March 15th (3-6pm) and March 16th (6-9pm) at 1700 S Loomis. 

http://www.calachicago.org/swop-clinic-online-screening