Name of Organization: Encircle
Website of Organization: TBA – Under Construction
Organization’s Mandate: Parents who are caught in the child welfare system lack integrated, holistic support to help them address the issues that led to child welfare involvement and to position them to parent their children without state intervention. Encircle aims to provide child welfare involved parents with legal representation, support navigating social services, and peer support from parents who have gone through the system.
Project Name: Information Sessions
Project Type: Public Legal Education (presentations, workshops, podcasts, brochures, blogs, etc.)
Project Delivery: Hybrid. Students would be expected to show up for the in-person presentations
Description of Project: Information sessions are to be developed and held for parents involved in the child welfare system. The information sessions will feature presentations from a judge, a lawyer, and a community advocate, with initial scripts and presentations already developed by Encircle with an opportunity for students to provide feedback on them.
Role of Student Volunteers: The student will play a role in conducting legal research to refine the content of the information sessions, assisting the several pilot groups in helping conduct the session, gathering and analyzing feedback from pilot group participants, and researching the most effective information to support parents in the child welfare system. The student will also assist with the creation of an information session for other professionals/staff in the field (i.e., social workers, legal professionals, child care workers, etc.), following a train-the-trainer model in order to give them plain legal language of the system.
The student will have the opportunity to participate in the sessions when possible and under the direct supervision of the lawyer supervisor. The administrative work of this project will not exceed 10% of the student volunteer’s time.
Role of Supervising Lawyer(s): Provide guidance and mentorship to the students in addition to reviewing the student’s work and giving timely feedback. Review the students final deliverables before use by the organization.
Type of Law: Family law, child welfare law.
Main Project Deliverable: Presenting public legal education (e.g. in-person or virtual presentations, workshops, training sessions, etc.)
Number of Student Placements: 1 student
Hours per week the student volunteer(s) will be expected to work: 3-5 hours/week
Regular shifts or a flexible schedule: Students would be expected to show up for the in-person presentations but the remainder of the schedule may remain flexible
Is there a workspace provided for the student at the Organization: No
Devices and technologies the students will be required to have: Computer, Internet access, telephone, Zoom
Is there an expectation for the student(s) to be bilingual: No
Law School Pre-Requisites: N/A
Other Requirements or Expectations: N/A